the present study sought to document the word reading and comprehension levels attained by children who were implanted by 5 yr of age. It was hypothesized that the improved speech perception abilities acquired with cochlear implantation would promote phonological coding skills and facilitate the acquisition of beginning reading skills.
Design: Three subtests from diagnostic reading assessment batteries standardized on hearing children were administered to 181 children between 8 yr 0 mo and 9 yr 11 mo of age who had 4 to 6 yr of implant experience. In addition, a battery of processing measures was administered including a lexical decision task, a rhyme task and the digit span subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.×
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