A Longitudinal Investigation of Code-Related Emergent Literacy Skills in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Across the Preschool Years

Purpose: The purpose of this longitudinal investigation was to compare the developmental trajectories of code-related emergent literacy skills of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) who use amplification and spoken lan-guage across the preschool years. Method: Thirty children who are DHH and 31 children with typical hearing com-pleted a language and emergent literacy assessment at 6-month intervals from age 4 through 6 years. Growth curve analysis was used to compare develop-mental trajectories between groups of the code-related skills of phonological awareness, phonological memory, phonological recoding, alphabet knowledge, and conceptual print knowledge. Results: Growth across the preschool years was observed on all code-related emergent literacy skills across groups. Children who are DHH scored consis-tently lower than children with typical hearing on phonological awareness, pho-nological memory, and conceptual print knowledge; no group differences were observed for phonological recoding or alphabet knowledge. No interactions of time and group were significant. Conclusions: Children who are DHH exhibit consistent deficits in phonological awareness, phonological memory, and conceptual print knowledge across the preschool years and begin formal literacy instruction with a weaker foundation in emergent literacy skills. Future work should focus on optimizing emergent lit-eracy interventions for children who are DHH during the preschool years.