Audiology, Part 1
Question 1: Discuss some educational implications of hearing loss in children.
Answer 1: Any amount of hearing loss can interfere with a child’s education. Children with even mild to moderate hearing loss may not hear up to half of the information in a classroom discussion. Hearing loss in children, if not addressed, compromises their language and speech development, their academic abilities, their educational progress, their self-images, their emotional development, and their social development. The average age at which hearing loss is diagnosed in children is two and a half to three years old, which is beyond the critical period for language and speech development. This can mean developmental deficits in language and speech that can never be recouped. Research finds that an estimated 90 fail at least one grade in school.
There are lots of good resources about Audiology that you can find available.
Question 2: Cite some statistics about children and hearing loss in the United States.
Answer 2: More than a million children in the U.S. have hearing loss. At least 5 of children with hearing loss also have another disability.
Question 3: Explain how hearing status influences the way children learn to read.
Answer 3: Children with normal hearing first learn to discriminate speech sounds; then they learn to understand speech; and then they learn to use speech themselves as their language and articulation skills develop. Children learn to read after they have learned to speak. They normally learn to read by associating the words, phrases, and sentences in written language with their spoken counterparts. Thus, the learning of reading has an auditory basis in children with normal hearing. Reading skills are acquired most efficiently when children have a foundation that includes a sense of hearing and previously acquired spoken and heard language. Children who are born with profound deafness will not develop a language system that includes an auditory basis. As a result, although these children may still be able to learn to read, they typically do not read at their grade level and have a great deal of difficulty attaining grade-level reading skills.
Previous: Atomic and Nuclear Structure, Part 3 - Next: Audiology, Part 10
|
