Issues in comparing the speechreading abilities of hearing-impaired and hearing 15 to 16 year-old pupils

The speechreading skills of 57 hearing-impaired 15 to 16-year-olds were compared with a sample of 30 hearing pupils in the same school year. Previous comparative studies have included a complete population of hearing-impaired pupils or have been confined to those who are severely-profoundly deaf. In the present study only pupils who had sufficient verbal memory to be able to repeat up to six words in a sentence were included. The test stimuli consisted of two word lists, one from the AB isophonemic word lists and the other from the New Manchester Picture Test together with a sentence list from the Manchester Speechreading (Lipreading) Test. The hearing-impaired pupils were placed full time in mainstream units for the hearing impaired and special schools for the hearing impaired. The sample also contained a small group of five who were placed in schools for children with moderate learning difficulties. The hearing-impaired group scored significantly better than the hearing group in all of the lists. Intelligence factors assessed by the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices were not a major influence except for the MLD group. The superiority of the hearing-impaired sample is attributed to a greater need for speechreading and the practice derived from it. Evidence from this study supports the view that sufficient development in memory for spoken language needs to occur for a child to maximise speechreading skills.