Literacy Instruction for Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (2nd Edition)

Most students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) struggle with acquiring literacy skills, some as a direct result of their hearing loss, some because they are receiving insufficient modifications to access the general education curriculum, and some because they have additional learning challenges necessitating significant program modifications.

This second edition of Literacy Instruction for Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing updates previous findings and describes current, evidence-based practices in teaching literacy to DHH learners. Beal, Dostal, and Easterbrooks provide educators and parents with a process for determining which literacy and language assessments are appropriate for individual DHH learners and whether an instructional practice is supported by evidence or causal factors. They describe the literacy process with an overview of related learning theories, language and literacy assessments, and evidence-based instructional strategies across the National Reading Panel’s five areas of literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

The volume includes evidence-based writing strategies and case vignettes that highlight application of assessments and instructional strategies within each of these literacy areas. Crucially, it reviews the remaining challenges related to literacy instruction for DHH learners. Educators and parents who provide literacy instruction to DHH learners will benefit from the breadth and depth of literacy content provided in this concise literacy textbook.

Jennifer S. Beal, Professor, Deaf Education, College of Education and Human Services Valdosta State University, Hannah M. Dostal, Professor of Literacy Studies, University of Connecticut, Susan R Easterbrooks, Professor Emerita, Georgia State University

Jennifer S. Beal is a Professor in the Teacher Education Department at Valdosta State University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Deaf Education and American Sign Language (ASL)-English Interpreting programs. She researches how deaf children, deaf adults, and university ASL learners acquire and use ASL, how assessment data are used to guide instruction, and how evidence-based instructional strategies increase deaf and hard of hearing students’ academic skills.

Hannah M. Dostal is a Professor of literacy education at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on writing instruction for deaf and hard of hearing students and teacher professional development in literacy. In addition, she investigates the role of genre and literacy instruction in the development of disciplinary knowledge and discipline-specific communication patterns. Hannah currently serves as the Editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

Susan Easterbrooks is an Emerita Professor of Deaf Education with Georgia State University in Atlanta, and was Co-Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Center on Literacy and Deafness. She has been in the field of deaf education for 50 years as a teacher/lecturer, clinician, school administrator, school psychologist, researcher, and author. She has written over 60 articles, chapters, and textbooks on learning in DHH students. She is an Emerita Editor of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.