What Causes Hearing Impairment

Early intervention, at its core, is “services provided to infants and toddlers who are at risk for, or showing signs of developmental delays” (Coleman, 1993). The intervention is individualized for each child and family and their specific needs. Thus, when the service providers work with the families, they can “create optimal environments for language learning” (Moeller, et. al., 2013). Research shows that language of routines and joint attention are two successful evidence based practices families and interventionist can use with children who are d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Joint attention relates to “the eliciting and directing of another person’s attention to an object for mutual engagement with the object,” (Tasker, Nowakowski, & Schmidt, 2010) while language of routines emphases the idea that “when a child is familiar with routines, the interventionist can focus on scaffolding new and more complex learning” and language (Vygotsky as cited in Jennings, Hanline & Woods, 2012). By utilizing both methods of interventions in a child’s natural environment, their language will flourish.

embarrassment or uncertainty. It can also have a large impact on how they socialise and interact with others, for example a child with a hearing impairment could be able to lip read but may shy away from communicating with others as it is can be too difficult at

If educators can take into account the social development needs of hearing impaired students, their success in the mainstream classroom could most likely rise significantly. The authors above pinpoint important problems with socioemotional growth and the acceptance of hearing impaired students in the classroom and if these issues are addressed, students would hopefully adjust properly to the mainstream

As for the social, emotional and behavioural aspects of this disability, the child will find it hard to communicate with its peers if they are not in a school dedicated to deaf students, and when out of the family home and school life will feel isolated, and sometimes become reluctant to socialise with others because of fear and frustration of not being able to communicate effectively .

Social competency can be defined as skills related to interaction with others (peers, family, authority figures, nonfamiliar speakers, etc.) both verbally and nonverbally. This may be due in part to the affect on facial expressions (Geirdal, Overland, Heimdal, Storhaug, Asten & Akre, 2013, p. 2880). This may also be due to the significant amount of time that children with TCS (individuals whose phenotypic symptoms are severe enough to be noticed as neonates, infants, and young children) spend in hospitals/away from peers in natural contexts. This lack of experience affects language, and language is associated with both theory of mind and social competency, as they are both in-turn also associated with language. Each entity is interconnected with one another. Language age is associated with social competency and children with hearing loss often have language delays. Furthermore, social competency is likely affected by the inability to maintain peer relationships due to ostracization from peers, ostracization that may be due to either hearing loss and/or physical differences. Not to mention, the speech-hearing and physical disabilities are likely to affect self-esteem, which will negatively influence participation and

| Speaking clearly and keeping eye contact. Making sure that if hearing aids are used that they are working and that they are used. Making sure that the environment that we are talking in is quieter so there are no noises that will be interfering with what they are trying to hear.

For most children there is no clear reason as to why there is a delay in the development of speech, language and communication skills. Therefore, an adult should never assume that the child’s speech, language and communication problems are due to hearing loss. It may be that the child is experiencing communicating difficulties that are unrelated to their hearing problems because the child may not have acquired the vocabulary necessary to express his thoughts and actions.

Speech, language and communication difficulties can have a profound and lasting effect on children’s lives and development. These can affect their ability to communicate and interact with others. The impact of these difficulties will vary depending on the severity of the problems, the support they receive, the demands of the child’s environment

Children may face behavioural difficulties such as aggression. This could affect their speech because they may express how they feel through the aggression and not by using speech. Their speech may become poor as a result. Their language they use may not be correct and their communication maybe poor or no existent. Emotional difficulties could include going through a family breakup or grievance. The child may become withdrawn and upset. Children going through this may not want to communicate with people in turn becoming mute. This would have a negative effect on their speech. Social difficulties could include poor housing, lack of friendships and living in poverty. This would affect the child’s SLC because they may not get the socialisation

Fortunately, there are numerous resources available for people with disabilities that offer assistance and programs to meet their everyday needs. The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind serves as an educational resource for individuals who are deaf, blind, deaf-blind, and multi-disabled. I decided to research this agency because it has been referenced in my communicative disorders classes. As a future speech language pathologist, I want to learn about this agency and discover the programs it offers to help me with my future clients. The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind is relative to this course because as mentioned in the textbook and other course material, resources and programs that offer assistance to individuals with disabilities are essential to their successful futures. This agency is a means in which people who are deaf and blind can seek assistance to improve their skills of communication, and this is ultimately my goal as a speech language pathologist.

People as individuals will always have different ability, physically and mentally which may cause them to have limited communication ability such as blind people, deaf people or people who have issues regarding cognitive ability. It is very important that people have the support to help them participate as much as possible in school life as pupils, parents or staff members.

Without stimulation and social interaction with others, their learning and development may become affected. Some children may have speech and language difficulties, which may be due to a number of reasons, but still alternative forms of communication can be used, such as visual aids, sign language and speech therapy.

Kleinman’s questions are more applicable to deaf people in general who are more in favor of and interested in improving their hearing through hearing aids, cochlear implant, and/or speech therapy. Therefore, they would be more likely to answer his questions even though they do contain the term sickness as these people are more to likely view deafness as a disability compared to people who strictly identify themselves as a part of Deaf culture. Also, Kleinman’s questions can be especially applicable for hearing parents with deaf children who want to raise them as hearing children. According to the ninety percent rule, ninety-percent of deaf children have hearing parents and ninety-percent of hearing children have deaf parents (Sparrow 141). Since hearing parents want to raise their children in the hearing culture, it is ideal for them to be able to utilize Kleinman’s eight questions as a means of providing a way for their deaf children to improve their hearing through hearing aids, cochlear implants, and/or speech

I also want to briefly point out the range of hearing impairments that a child can have. Even though a child may not be classified as “profoundly impaired” or deaf, this does not mean that the child will not face several of the obstacles a deaf child does. Therefore, even though this site is taken from a “worse case scenario” perspective, many of the methods and therapy situations may apply to those with less severe impairments.

Recently in the United States, there has been a drive at both the state and national level to provide universal screening for newborns to detect hearing loss. Although the idea of a universal screening in newborns is a new phenomenon, research has examined the impact of early intervention and screening for children with hearing loss. “Most professionals in the field feel strongly that early identification of hearing loss and early implementation of intervention enhances the child’s social, communicative, and academic development” (Calderon, 1998, p. 54). With that, the two studies used participants in the same early intervention program and mainly focused on the importance of the age of enrollment. Furthermore, the age of enrollment