# How do deaf kids learn to read?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 28, 1999, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189 "1999-07-28T02:28:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189/1 "1999-07-28T02:28:00Z")

</div>

Is it as difficult as I think it must be?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189/2 "1999-07-28T02:49:00Z")

</div>

Well, learning to read isn’t “easy” for any kid, but it’s no harder for deaf kids than for hearing kids, because in most modern American public schools, hearing kids learn to read the same way deaf kids do: through the so-called “look-say” method. That is, both deaf and hearing kids learn to recognize combinations of letters as words.

Now, there are still some who insist that phonics is the only proper way to teach kids reading (it’s how I was taught to read, way back in the old Catholic school days), and obviously, deaf kids can’t learn reading THAT way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189/3 "1999-07-28T12:33:00Z")

</div>

I’m given to understand that in Deaf culture there’s a precept called “total communication”. This holds that Deaf students should be taught all means of communication available to them - reading, writing, lip reading, and sign language. Actually, I read that illiteracy rates among Deaf people are quite high, for the same reason that most French people cannot read or write in English - they simply haven’t learned much of the language, having learned sign language instead.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189/4 "1999-07-28T12:34:00Z")

</div>

(sorry, I should clarify) These rates, of course, are the result of NOT having been taught total communication.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-deaf-kids-learn-to-read/2189/5 "1999-07-28T16:33:00Z")

</div>

\<grumbling\>  
By using what’s betwixt their ears.