Critical Literacy Issues in Deaf Education in the United States.
Carol J. LaSasso

Current issues related to reading achievement of deaf students in the United States relate to whether signed or traditionally-spoken language should be the deaf child’s first language, how traditionally-spoken 1 languages should be conveyed, the role of phonics in the reading curriculum, and the role of tests in reading instruction. These issues cannot be resolved until parents and educators have shared understanding of reading and reading comprehension. This paper presents a particular view of reading comprehension, describes the different positions on the issues, and discusses positions on those issues which can be defended with this view of reading.

1 English, Spanish, French, etc; are referred to here as “traditionally” spoken languages because speech is not requirement when Cued Speech is used (Beaupre, 1986 ; Cornett, 1973 ; Fleetwood, 1994 ; Fleetwood & Metzger, 1998)