Children who are deaf or hard of hearing need to have opportunities to select and enjoy books through the ages. There are so many benefits to reading popular children’s literature, including improved vocabulary, fluency and an improvement in overall background knowledge. However, how do you track comprehension as an itinerant teacher of the deaf responsible for implementing reading comprehension IEP goals? With so many free quizzes, this site may be the answer. 

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Parents, caregivers and professionals should read to children with hearing loss early and often. Reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for literacy development and eventual reading success (National Commission on Reading, 1985). In the case of children with hearing loss, parents who reported their child at average to above average grade levels also reported having read with their children on as close to a daily basis as they could manage (Robertson & Flexer, 1993). Reading enhances audition, speech, language, reading and writing skills and creates meaningful conversation (Rosenzweig, 2010). These tips will help engage children in the shared reading process. 

How to choose the right book:

• Does it have clear, uncluttered text that is easy to follow? 
• Is it engaging? Silly books or books about a subject they love work best. 
• To practice inferring meaning, does it have pictures that enhance the story? 
• To practice phonological awareness, does it have rhymes or alliteration?