This study focuses on the involvement of parents in the reading development of their deaf children and gathers evidence on parental experiences of reading with their child at home. Of particular interest is the relationship between teachers and parents working as partners in establishing a literacy environment for deaf children. It is concluded that uncertainty in professional practice about methods of developing literacy in deaf children could be one of the reasons why confident support is not always offered to parents. Questionnaire data suggest that only a minority of parents in the study received advice from teachers on reading interaction strategies or on appropriate materials for home reading with their children. Although most of the parents in the study enjoyed reading with their children at home, there remained a large group of parents who expressed concern over obstacles encountered in the reading process and who were unclear about the most effective way to enable their deaf child to become literate. These problems are in fact similar to some of the difficulties experienced by teachers of the deaf during reading sessions. Some deaf children may be doubly disadvantaged by reading environments at home and at school which are less than facilitative. Some implications are drawn for both teacher training and research, for effective parent–teacher partnerships that lead to consistency and joint problem‐solving, whilst reference is made to previous studies which have highlighted the need for evidence‐based practice in promoting reading development in deaf children. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

The issue of deaf children's difficulties in acquiring literacy is reframed as a problem faced by most hearing teachers in knowing how best to construct conversational interactions around text. Adults vary markedly in their ability to engage with children reading. Comparisons are made between hearing teachers from different school settings and deaf adults in their strategies for sustaining deaf children's active remakings of text. It is concluded that hearing teachers build discourse frames which are high in management and control, whilst literate deaf adults are more responsive to the child's attention focus, gestures and communicative intentions. The study yields information on the nature of the language input as children read with contrasting partners and how the quality of interaction impacts on children's meaning-making.Supporting reading: hearing versus deaf adults

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This study focuses on the involvement of parents in the reading