Amy R. Lederberg|Lee Branum?Martin|Mi Young Webb|Brenda Schick|Shirin D. Antia|Susan R. Easterbrooks|Carol McDonald Connor
Modality and Interrelations Among Language, Reading, Spoken Phonological Awareness, and Fingerspelling
Georgia State University|Georgia State University|Georgia State University|University of Colorado Boulder|University of Colorado System|University of Arizona|Georgia State University|University of California, Irvine
abstract better understanding mechanisms underlying early reading skills lead improved interventions hence purpose study examine multivariate associations among reading language spoken phonological awareness fingerspelling abilities three groups deaf hardofhearing dhh beginning readers acquiring spoken english n 101 visual learners acquiring sign n 131 acquiring n 104 children enrolled kindergarten first second grade withingroup betweengroup confirmatory factor analysis showed similarities differences abilities underlie reading three groups groups reading abilities related language ability manipulate sublexical features words however groups differed whether constructs based visual spoken language results suggest alternative means learning read whereas dhh children learning read rely fundamental abilities language phonological processing modality levels relations among abilities differ