# Literacy Development for Preschoolers with Hearing Loss

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $480,852

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Only 56% of children with hearing loss (HL) in elementary school and only 44% in high school are reading at
grade-level (Geers et al., 2008). The literacy gap between children with HL and children with normal hearing
(NH) is observable early: preschoolers and kindergarteners with HL score significantly lower on early literacy
measures than children with NH (Easterbrooks et al., 2008; Nittrouer et al., 2012). Identifying the mechanisms
underlying emergent literacy in the preschool years for children with HL is therefore crucial to begin to close
the outcome gap. The long-term goal of this research program is to validate effective interventions for
preschool children with HL that close the early literacy gap between preschoolers with HL and NH. Initially, we
will identify the literacy acquisition mechanisms for children with HL and then build and validate interventions
that address the identified mechanisms. Toward this goal, the aims of the proposed research are to determine
the developmental influences between 1) phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge, 2) phonological
awareness and receptive vocabulary, and 3) expressive morphology and receptive vocabulary for preschoolers
with HL. Children's emergent literacy skills will be assessed as they develop during preschool (Lonigan et al.,
2000). The obtained longitudinal data will be analyzed using latent change score modeling, useful for
identifying the developmental influences among co-developing constructs (McArdle, 2009). Latent change
score modeling in conjunction with longitudinal data will enable us to identify the developmental influences
among phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, receptive vocabulary, and expressive morphology for
children with HL. Identifying the unique developmental influences for children with HL relative to children with
NH will lead to an improvement of theoretical models of emergent literacy to account for the unique literacy
mechanisms of children with HL. Improved theoretical models will allow us to infer the malleable factors in
emergent literacy development for children with HL, leading to hypothesis-driven intervention creation and
improved clinical outcomes for this population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10246516
- **Project number:** 5R01DC017984-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** TINA M GRIECO-CALUB
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $480,852
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10246516

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10246516, Literacy Development for Preschoolers with Hearing Loss (5R01DC017984-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10246516. Licensed CC0.

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