From Sign to Print: A Case Study of Picture Book “Reading” between Mother and Child

Early introduction (e.g. reading aloud and sharing a book as focus of attention) greatly aids the acquisition of literacy but for hearing parents of a deaf child these ploys do not come easily We have looked carefully at the practice of one hard- of-hearing mother with her three and one-half year old son and have identified fourteen strategies, in four large categories, that she uses. These seem likely to promote his future reading success, and some of them may also be useful for hearing parents with deaf children.