Meeting the Needs of a New Generation with Hearing Loss by Karen Rossi, Executive Director

	Karen Rossi, MA, LSLACertAVEd, is the author of several books for parents and educators, including Learn to Talk Around the Clock.

 

This is a new generation of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Babies can now be identified at birth and begin wearing hearing aids while still in the crib. Babies with severe to profound losses are receiving cochlear implants at younger and younger ages—twelve months and below! These babies urgently need special auditory-oral education in order to help them maximize the use of their new technology.

There are amazing possibilities for infants and toddlers with hearing loss. The years from birth to three are a critical time for babies as they learn to listen to the world around them. What parents and their baby do now will impact the development of listening, talking and even reading later on. It seems like you only blink and kindergarten is here before you know it! It is important for the child with hearing loss to start developing age-appropriate language and listening skills long before he or she reaches kindergarten. This requires specifically-designed services to develop listening and spoken language, beginning when the children are infants and toddlers. In a quality auditory-oral program, like Tucker-Maxon’s, listening and spoken language specialists will:

• Visit the family at home on a regular basis and help them learn how they can best help their child at home.

• Help parents establish the child’s consistent access to sound through full
time use of hearing aids or cochlear implants.

• Help parents learn to use daily household activities to help their child talk—labeling things in their world and responding to others talking.

• Demonstrate to parents that they can read simple books to their child (10 or more books a day!) as another way to develop and reinforce vocabulary and hear the natural rhythm of our spoken language.

• Give early and specific education in auditory learning and spoken language to set the stage for reading and academic achievement.

• Innovate and adapt to the changing needs of children with hearing loss.

Technological and medical advances have dramatically changed the outcomes for many children who are deaf or hard of hearing, making once-impossible things now possible! Auditory-oral education introduces deaf and hard of hearing children to the world of sound and to the world of listening and spoken language.

LISTENING & SPOKEN LANGUAGE FOCUS BENEFITS HEARING CHILDREN TOO

At Tucker-Maxon the focus on language and listening continues through the preschool and elementary years. One way classroom teachers build children’s speech and language skills is by emphasizing spoken interactions between classmates. Although this language-rich learning environment was designed to benefit deaf students, the ability to listen, speak, and communicate is important for hearing children, too. Strong verbal communication skills help all children:

• Read, write, and achieve academically.

• Make and keep friends.

• Negotiate conflict.

• Navigate the world with confidence.

 

This article is from the Spring 2010 issue of Now You're Talking.