Originally Posted by deafbajagal

BINGO! What a lot of people fail to realize...it is so possible for kids to learn how to read, say, sign individual words perfectly - and yet still not grasp the meaning. Shel (and other teachers), how many times have you seen this as a teacher? I know I've seen it time again and again.

This is an actual real-life example of a boy who was reading in my classroom. He has a lot of hearing and can speak pretty well. He was in 6th grade. We were reading the book "Holes" by Louis Sacher. He read the passage out loud, in perfect speech. He said every word. So I took him aside for my one-on-one comprehension activity. Come to find out, he had no idea of what he just read. The word "shovel" - he could say it. But he didn't know what it was. The word "ground." He could say it...but didn't know what it meant. His language skills - zippo. His speech skills - superior. LIke a lot of hearing kids with SLD (specified learning disability), deaf kids can learn words (sign and/or say the words upon request...but not necessarily can read them when they are tied into sentences and passages. Or not necessarily know what the words mean. THAT's the part where exposure to actual ongoing, accessible visual language including (NOT representation of the language such as cueing or MCE) is crucial to filling this gap.