MacSweeney, M.
Speechreading (lipreading) is the ability to understand speech in the absence of sound. For most deaf people, speechreading is the primary route to access spoken language. Longitudinal studies have provided evidence for the importance of speechreading (lipreading) as a predictor of variance in reading outcomes in deaf children (Kyle and Harris, 2010; 2011). On the basis of our previous behavioural and neuroimaging research we propose that speechreading provides deaf children with visual information about the sublexical structure of spoken English and that this information helps deaf children to establish amodal phonological representations of speech which they can bring to the task of learning to read.
In this talk I will present background neuroimaging and behavioural data to support this model. I will also present results from a randomised controlled trial in which we tested the efficacy of a computerised speechreading training programme on speechreading and reading proficiency in young deaf children. I will also present concurrent and intervention data examining this relationship in young hearing children. These data suggest that, even in hearing children, visual speech information contributes to phonological representations.