Tehran University of Medical Sciences Auditory and Vestibular Research 2423-480X 22 1 2017 07 31 67 74 Mohammad Rezaei Department of Speech therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran Vahid Rashedi Department of Speech therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran Laya Gholami Tehrani Department of Speech therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Akbar Daroei Department of Speech therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2017 05 30 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 visualverbal 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. https://avr.tums.ac.ir/index.php/avr/article/view/335