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125 5 Research on Children With Language/ Literacy Difficulties As reiterated throughout this book, literacy is a language-based skill, and thus difficulties in language development can negatively affect literacy achievement. Numerous studies have supported the correlation between language difficulties and literacy difficulties (e.g., Bishop & Adams, 1990; Catts, 1993; Catts, Fey, Tomblin, & Zhang, 2002; Hall & Tomblin, 1978; Silva, McGee, & Williams, 1987; Tomblin et al., 1997). It should also be emphasized that literacy, particularly reading, is not a simple derivative of through-the-air language (spoken or signed). Accordingly, reading abilities cannot be easily predicted by language skills alone. Learning to read involves learning to identify printed words and making sense of how they are combined in a particular context to convey an author’s intent. Perhaps the most basic assumption about learning to read is that first and foremost it requires familiarity with the language to be read. Without knowledge of the language and all that entails, one cannot learn to read. Beyond knowing the language, a potential reader must then learn how that language is represented in print. Almost all humans are reared in environments in which through-the-air language is the primary means of communication. Within a language-rich environment, most people learn through-the-air language effortlessly because we are biologically endowed to learn language and socialized to use language to communicate. However, it is almost impossible to expect a child to be able to read and writing automatically, simply by surrounding the child with a literacy-rich environment without any explicit and direct instruction. It is like taking a child to the local public library every day and expecting the child to be able to read on her or his own without any guidance. In many cases, this discussion pertains strongly to children who possess language and literacy difficulties, the topic of this chapter. We examine the following questions: Who are children with language/literacy difficulties? What does theory and research say about the development of English language and literacy in these children? How can these issues be applied (i.e., for comparison purposes) to children who are 126 Chapter 5 d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh)? In addressing these questions, we reiterate several of the major constructs and findings of studies discussed previously in this book. By providing additional details and perspectives, our goal is to emphasize that the main tenets of the qualitative similarity hypothesis (QSH) also apply to children with language /learning difficulties (indeed, to all children who are labeled as struggling readers and writers). We begin by discussing some background and brief descriptions of the constructs of reading difficulty and reading disability. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION As discussed in Chapter 1 of this book, reading difficulty and garden-variety poor readers (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Stanovich, 1988) are typically used as generic terms to describe any individual or group who is below the reading (or writing) achievement level of typical chronological peers. Reading disability, sometimes interchangeable with dyslexia, is generally reserved for individuals or groups whose reading difficulties are related to biological, psychological, or neuropsychological conditions. In this chapter, language/literacy difficulty is used as an even broader term for individuals or groups whose language and literacy skills (e.g., spoken, written, or signing) are not commensurate with those of typical chronological peers. Like the analogy used by Ellis (1985) and Stanovich (1988), language/literacy difficulty is not a discrete entity but a continuum; it is not like measles but is like obesity. Instead of a discontinuous hump near the bottom of the distribution for a discrete pathology, as suggested by Rutter and Yule (1975), language/literacy difficulty is a graded, uninterrupted continuum where it is operationally defined in an arbitrary way. Consider the following passage as an example (Ellis, 1985): For people of any given age and height there will be an uninterrupted continuum from painfully thin to inordinately fat. It is entirely arbitrary where we draw the line between “normal” and “obese”, but that does not prevent obesity being a real and worrying condition, nor does it prevent research into the causes and cures of obesity being both valuable and necessary. (p. 172) The severity of language/literacy difficulty that leads to reading difficulty or disability depends on the state, school district, and school community in which individuals live. Historically, reading disability is defined as a psychometric construct emphasizing norm-referenced discrepancy. That is, it reflects the discrepancy between, one, one-and-a-half, or two standard deviations from...

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