Deafness and dyslexia

Until recently, the dearth of normative literacy data for deaf children and adults has made it difficult to know what was typical for this group, and therefore it has been challenging to determine whether a deaf individual’s profile of skills was uneven or discrepant. In this chapter, we present an in-depth case study of a deaf child referred with suspected dyslexia. An approach to assessment is outlined and test findings are presented, comparing the child’s test scores with the profile of dyslexia reported for hearing children. The deaf child’s pattern of performance is then placed in the context of findings from a large sample of deaf children who were part of a recently completed UK research study investigating reading and dyslexia in deaf children