Vocabulary acquisition and literacy in deaf and hard-of-hearing learners

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) posits that reading comprehension is the product of two components: decoding and linguistic comprehension. A component of linguistic comprehension is vocabulary knowledge. This chapter discusses the contribution of children’s environments to vocabulary acquisition, including reasons why many deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children experience moderate-to-severe vocabulary delays. We summarize the research on DHH students’ vocabulary acquisition. The section on vocabulary instruction includes methods of assessing DHH students’ vocabulary knowledge, selection of vocabulary to be taught, and the components of effective vocabulary instruction. The chapter ends with a description of the evidence-based vocabulary instruction conducted with DHH students.