Teaching Reading to the Deaf: An Examination of Teacher Preparedness and Practices

A nationwide questionnaire was sent to all residential schools for the deaf in order to obtain information about (a) the extent of teacher training with respect to reading instruction, (b) the current methodology employed in teaching reading to deaf children, and (c) the teachers' self-assessment of how well prepared they were to use a variety of methods to teach reading. The data revealed that teachers have relatively little formal training in reading instruction and continue overwhelmingly to use the basal reader for a large percentage of the instructional time spent teaching reading.