Background and Aim: Reading skill is one of the most important necessities of students&apos learning in everyday life. This skill is referred to the ability of comprehension, comment and conclusion from texts and receiving the meaning of the massage which is composed. Educational development in any student has a direct relation with the ability of the comprehension. This study is designed to investigate the effects of hearing loss on reading comprehension in hearing-impaired students compared to normal-hearing ones.
Methods: Seventeen hearing-impaired students in 4^th year of primary exceptional schools in Karaj, Robatkarim and Shahriyar, Iran, were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Seventeen normal-hearing students were randomly selected from ordinary schools next to exceptional ones as control group. They were compared for different levels of reading comprehension using the international standard booklet (PIRLS 2001).
Results: There was a significant difference in performance between hearing-impaired and normal- hearing students in different levels of reading comprehension (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Hearing loss has negative effects on different levels of reading comprehension, so in exceptional centers, reconsideration in educational planning in order to direct education from memorizing to comprehension and deeper layers of learning seems necessary.

Background and Aim: Hearing-impaired students have some delays in learning language skills such as reading because of hearing loss. To study the effect of promoting educational level on the development of reading comprehension, the students of the 4^th grade of elementary and last year guidance school were compared based on international test of reading literacy.
Methods: The project was cross-sectional and the tool used was the international standard booklet of PIRLS 2001. Thirty-six students selected with moderately severe and severe hearing loss from the 4^th grade of elementary and last year guidance school from Shahriar, Robatkarim, Karaj and Hashtgerd, Iran, exceptional schools. Comparative statistical analysis was performed using t-test.
Results: The first level (focus on and retrieve explicity information) showed a meaningful difference between the last year guidance school and the 4^th grade of elementary students (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences in other levels, make straightforward information-interpret and integrate ideas-examine and evaluate content, (p> 0.05).
Conclusion: Hearing-impaired students have difficulties in understanding in deep levels of reading despite promoting educational level. Thus, in making policies for special trainings, continuing the rehabilitation in guidance and high school levels to promote the complex levels of comprehension should be taken more into consideration.

Background and Aim: In different language approaches, reading is considered as a major skill. Language skills comprising listening, speaking, reading and writing are completely interlinked with each other. Thus, providing active application of listening and speaking skills, children will learn reading and writing skills easily. The aim of this research was to compare reading skills of hearing-loss students studying at exceptional schools with normal students of different degrees.
Methods: The research was conducted post-traumatically using standardized 2006 PIRLS test. 80 students in fifth grade of exceptional primary schools, and first and fourth grade of exceptional high schools in Tehran City who had severe and or profound hearing loss were randomly selected along with 80 normal students in ordinary schools who were selected using available sampling method.
Results: There were significant differences between reading comprehension of hearing-loss and normal students of all three grades (p<0.001). Reading comprehension in female students was significantly higher than the male ones (p<0.001). There were not any significant differences in mean reading comprehension scores of hearing-loss students in different grades which demonstrate that their reading skills had not developed in tandem with their age and school educations.
Conclusion: This study shows that one of the significant concerns regarding hearing-loss students is their reading comprehension ability. Considering reading ability as one of the most important acquisitive abilities which students learn at school, evaluation of reading skills of hearing loss students as well as recognition of their strengths and weaknesses in this field is indispensable.

Background and Aim: Reading is the most important human need for learning. In normal-hearing people working memory is a predictor of reading comprehension. In this study the relationship between working memory and reading comprehension skills was studied in hearing-impaired children, and then compared with the normal-hearing group.
Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study. The working memory and reading comprehension skills of 18 (8 male, 10 female) sever hearing-impaired children in year five of exceptional schools were compared by means of a reading test with 18 hearing children as control group. The subjects in the control group were of the same gender and educational level of the sample group.
Results: The children with hearing loss performed similarly to the normal-hearing children in tasks related to auditory-verbal memory of sounds (reverse), visual-verbal memory of letters, and visual-verbal memory of pictures. However, they showed lower levels of performance in reading comprehension (p<0.001). Moreover, no significant relationship was observed between working memory and reading comprehension skills.
Conclusion: Findings indicated that children with hearing loss have a significant impairment in the reading comprehension skill. Impairment in language knowledge and vocabulary may be the main cause of poor reading comprehension in these children. In hearing-impaired children working memory is not a strong predictor of reading comprehension.