Sugaya A, Fukushima K, Takao S, et al. - Researchers sought to identify language development characteristics and demographic factors of Japanese hearing-impaired children diagnosed as having reading/writing difficulties. For this investigation, data from a total of 546 sever-to-profound preschool and elementary school hearing-impaired children were analyzed. Investigators found that the prevalence of difficulty in reading/writing among participants was 20.1%. They observed that reading and writing are important for the language development of children with hearing impairments, particularly for academic achievement during the elementary school middle phase. Screening difficulties in reading/writing is important for appropriate intervention and to prevent language and academic delays among children with hearing impairment.