Improving the Spelling Performance of Students Who Are Deaf and Exhibit Characteristics Consistent with Learning Disabilities

According to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) and the subsequent reauthorizations of this law, an individual’s learning disability is partially determined by a discrepancy between an individual’s potential and academic achievement in the areas of oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading comprehension, and mathematical abilities (Mercer, 1997; Stewart & Kluwin, 2001). This criterion for the determination of a learning disability is more difficult to apply to individuals who are deaf since hearing loss predisposes the individual to difficulties in the acquisition of language and the academic progress of students (Stewart & Kluwin, 2001). However, students who are deaf should follow typical patterns of growth and achievement (Pollack, 1997). In addition, deafness is usually not accompanied by indicators of the processing problems that are characteristics of learning disabilities such as visual-perceptual problems, attention deficits, perceptual-motor difficulties, severe inability to learn vocabulary and English structures, consistent retention and memory problems, or consistent distractive behaviors or emotive factors (Berent, Samar, Parasnis, 2000; Elliot, Powers, & Funderberg, 1988; Pollack, 1997; Samar, 1999; Samar, Berent, Parasnis, 1998; Stewart, 2001).