To cite this article: Ferrer, A., Gómez-Merino, N., Figueroa, M., & Fajardo, I. (2026). Lectura en jóvenes adultos con sordera. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia, 16(2), e105954. https://doi.org/10.5209/rlog.105954
Study context
Understanding what we read is essential for education, employment, access to reliable information, and independent living. However, considerably less is known about reading in deaf adults than about reading during childhood.
Advances in early detection, speech and language therapy, and hearing technology have increased access to language. Their effects, however, are not the same for everyone. We therefore need studies that assess the comprehension of complete academic texts, rather than focusing only on word recognition or isolated sentences.
What we investigated
We examined the reading profiles of young adults with severe or profound bilateral prelingual deafness and compared them with those of hearing young adults of a similar age.
We also explored which abilities were associated with better comprehension of expository texts: word recognition, vocabulary, understanding of grammatical structures, and verbal working memory. Within the deaf group, we additionally examined possible relationships with degree of hearing loss, type of hearing device, knowledge of sign language, gender, and educational level.
How we did it
We recruited 32 participants: 16 young adults with deafness and 16 with typical hearing. Everyone had completed compulsory education, and the two groups had a similar mean age.
During a session lasting approximately 45 minutes, we administered standardised tests of word and pseudoword recognition, vocabulary depth, grammatical judgements, comprehension of syntactic structures, expository text comprehension, and verbal working memory. Instructions were provided both in writing and orally.
What we found
We found substantial diversity in reading profiles. The two groups performed similarly in deep vocabulary knowledge, pseudoword reading, and verbal working memory, although the hearing group correctly recognised more words.
On average, the deaf group obtained lower scores in the comprehension of complex grammatical structures and expository texts. This average, however, does not tell the whole story: half of the deaf participants achieved levels of expository comprehension considered typical.
Within the deaf group, grammatical proficiency was the ability most closely associated with text comprehension. Put simply, recognising the words was not always enough; readers also needed to understand how those words were connected within sentences. In the hearing group, comprehension was mainly associated with the recognition of infrequent words.
We also observed that less severe hearing loss, the use of hearing aids or bimodal stimulation, some knowledge of sign language, and female gender were more frequent among the deaf participants who understood the text well. These findings are descriptive only. Because the sample was small, they do not show that any of these factors caused better reading comprehension.
Why it matters
The study shows that there is no single reading profile associated with deafness. Some deaf young adults understand texts well despite having different linguistic, educational, and audiological histories. A strengths-based approach should therefore complement research focused on difficulties by identifying the resources and protective factors found among skilled deaf readers.
For psychology, the findings support individualised assessments that consider language, cognition, communication history, and academic demands together. They may also inform support during transitions to higher education and employment.
For education, the results suggest that reading support should not end once fluent reading has been achieved. Secondary schools, vocational programmes, and universities should explicitly address complex sentences, specialised vocabulary, and strategies for integrating information across a text. Adaptations to teaching materials, assessments, and university entrance procedures may also be appropriate.
For speech and language therapy, the findings highlight the value of continuing intervention through adolescence and adulthood. Useful activities may include visually separating sentences into subjects, verbs, objects, and clauses; using colours or shapes to represent relationships; identifying complex structures in authentic texts; and combining academic material with accessible or easy-to-read versions.
Future directions
These findings need to be replicated with larger and more diverse samples. Spanish-language reading tests with adult-specific norms are also required.
Future research should directly assess sign-language proficiency and age of acquisition, the amount and quality of language exposure, the history of hearing-device use, and cognitive abilities such as attentional control. Longitudinal and intervention studies could establish which forms of support lead to genuine improvements.
Most importantly, research should continue to investigate what characterises skilled deaf readers. Understanding their strategies and developmental pathways may provide more useful guidance than focusing exclusively on differences from hearing readers.
