The Deaf Child and Solving Problems of Arithmetic: The Importance of Comprehensive Reading

The present investigation is informed by two major considerations. First, the need for teachers to know more about the difficulties experienced by the deaf child when presented with written mathematical problems. Second, the idea of the relationship between linguistic competence in deaf subjects and their difficulties in the comprehension of verbal messages. In particular, the present article analizes the influence of reading comprehension level on the solution of verbally expressed problems of arithmetic. The results indicate that reading comprehension level is clearly related to the problem-solving level of deaf subjects. In general, if the deaf are unable to understand the verbally presented problem, they will not be able to solve it correctly.