Children with Hearing Impairments

Hearing impairment affects over one million children in the United States.  Currently 43 states and D.C. screen infants for hearing loss.  A child who is identified and receives intervention by 6 months is likely to match a typically developing child by Kindergarten.

How do children with hearing impairment communicate in school?
  • Lip reading
  • American Sign Language, Cued Speech, Signed English
  • Bilingual (ASL and English)
  • Hearing Aids, cochlear implants, and Hearing Assistive Technology Systems (technology that is built into the classroom)
Difficulties that children with have with English:
  • Children may have a hard time lip reading certain sounds such as /p/, /b/, and /m/ which look like each other.
  • Articulation problems can occur which means their intonation and rhythm will differ from a typically developing child.
  • They could also have problems with syntax which later impacts reading and writing.
Next we will take a look at children with autism.

Resources:


References:
Griffin, P. (2012). Class 4 Phonology Speech Hearing. [PowerPoint Slides] Retrieved online.