Hearing-impaired student's reading skills in exceptional and ordinary schools

Reading skills, a complicated process, should be learnt and solely is not depend on sounds conforming with the written symbols on a page. Readers will be able to understand and perceive the deeper meaning of the text based on their experiences and knowledge obtained through reading. This research aimed to compare hearing-impaired student's reading literacy in exceptional and ordinary schools in Iran.

This cross-sectional study was done on 28 hearing-impaired students of the 4th year of primary exceptional and ordinary schools of Shahr-e-Ray and Shahryar cities, Iran, using the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006) booklets. Comparative statistical analysis was performed using Student's t-test.

The hearing-impaired students in ordinary schools had significantly (p<0.05) higher scores [mean (SD)] in reading literacy [3.67 (1.74)], comprehension of informational contents [4.21 (2.48)], and comprehension of literary contents [3.14(1.23)] than hearing-impaired students in exceptional schools [1.78 (1.06), 1.92 (1.49), and 1.64 (1.62), respectively].

Hearing-impaired students in ordinary schools meaningfully had higher performance of reading skills in comparison with hearing-impaired students in exceptional schools. It seems that an appropriate cultural bed should be provided in order to conduct these students and accept them in ordinary schools.