The reading ability of deaf school-leavers.

Summary. Almost every child aged 15–16 1/2 years being educated in schools for the deaf and partially hearing in England and Wales, was given Brimer's Wide-Span Reading Test which assesses prose comprehension. After excluding certain categories of children, results were available for 355 children. With degree of hearing loss as the main independent variable, results are presented in terms of mean and median reading age, and in reading age percentile form. Reading is significantly affected by degree of deafness and by non-verbal intelligence. Though the presented reading ages are with reference to hearing norms, other criteria for assessing the reading performance of deaf children are discussed.