Literacy Achievement in an Age of Technology: Deaf Readers and Writers With Cochlear Implants

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Literacy Practices and New Technologies in and out of School

Abstract

The focus of this study is to describe the literacy performance of a cohort of school-aged deaf learners (n=64) who use cochlear implants to establish whether, as a group, their achievement approaches that of their hearing age peers. As growing numbers of deaf children are receiving cochlear implants (often bilaterally and before the age of 12 months), studies of reading and writing development in this group of learners will be essential in establishing the evidence base necessary for informing educational policy and pedagogical practice – and ensuring that this unique technology is providing the enhanced opportunities for literacy learning that have been predicted.

Authors

• Connie C. Mayer, York University

• Pam Millett, York University