Think-Aloud: Effect on Adolescent Deaf Students' Use of Reading Comprehension Strategies

Area of Science:

• Education
• Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Reading comprehension is crucial for academic success.
• Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) adolescents face unique challenges in reading.
• Explicit instruction and strategy modeling are potential interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies on DHH students.
• To evaluate changes in strategy use and reading comprehension performance.
• To explore the efficacy of think-alouds in this population.

Main Methods:

• Four DHH students participated in an intervention study.
• Explicit instruction included strategy discussion and think-aloud modeling.
• Pre- and post-intervention assessments measured strategy use and comprehension.

Main Results:

• Increased variety and frequency of strategy use post-intervention.
• Improved reading comprehension scores for two students.
• Persistent metacognitive challenges and inconsistent strategy efficacy observed.

Conclusions:

• Explicit strategy instruction can enhance reading skills in DHH adolescents.
• Ongoing assessment and individualized instruction are necessary for deep strategy understanding.
• Further research on metacognitive development in DHH readers is warranted.