Research Methods in Studying Reading and Literacy Development in Deaf Children Who Sign

This chapter discusses research concerning deaf individual’s reading and spelling development, with a focus on collecting literacy data from deaf children and adolescents. I will begin by presenting an overview of what we know about reading development in deaf individuals covering topics such as: What are the reading achievements of deaf children? How do deaf children learn to read? Do they learn to read in a similar way to hearing children? This will be followed by a more detailed discussion of the different types of methodologies that have been used to conduct literacy research with deaf children, highlighting important findings. Lastly I will describe some of the issues involved with researching literacy development in deaf children who sign and potential ways of dealing with these issues