Teaching Children with Hearing Difficulties: Evidenced-Based Practice
Early evaluation and detection for hearing difficulties forms the basis for timely intervention. This text emphasizes the need for early intervention as a way of maximizing the linguistic competence and literacy development of children with hearing difficulties. It covers the JCIH position statement and uses research evidence to demonstrate how early audiological intervention could help promote academic outcomes for children with hearing difficulties.

Reaction to the JCIH 2007 Position Statement

The JCIH position statement advocates for early evaluation and diagnosis of auditory problems for children with hearing loss. Early hearing loss detection and intervention helps to maximize the literacy development and linguistic competence of children with hearing difficulties, thus helping to enhance their academic and social outcomes. Studies have, in fact, shown that children whose hearing problems are diagnosed early (before 2 months of age) and intervention initiated have better functional, language, and speech outcomes than those whose problems are identified later in life (Cupples et al., 2013).

However, differently from what the position statement suggests; hearing problems may not always be diagnosed at this early age. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.1 billion young people aged between 12 and 35 are at a risk of developing hearing loss due to exposure to noise (WHO, 2020). This calls for vigilance on auditory evaluation at all stages of life, including schools and workplaces. At the school level, early intervention calls for the presence of a full-time clinical audiologist to make continuous audiological evaluations on at-risk children, fit hearing aids, and measure children’s progress. However, all people working with children need to remain sensitive to symptoms of hearing loss, evaluation, and progress. Teachers can contribute to early detection and intervention by engaging in continuous education to increase their awareness on potential risk factors, evaluation techniques, and potential interventions. They need to engage in research to offer evidence-based advice to school authorities on the most appropriate assistive technologies for the children they serve.

Cupples, L., Ching, T., Crowe, K., Seeto, M., Leigh, G., Street, L., Day, J., Marnane, V., & Thomson, J. (2013). Outcomes of 3-Year-Old children with Hearing Loss and Different types of Additional Liabilities. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 19(1), 20-39 (https://academic.oup.com/jdsde/article/19/1/20/394682)

In the above study, Cupples et al (2013) sought to investigate the functional, language, and speech outcomes of 119 three-year-old children with hearing loss and other disabilities, and assess how audiological evaluation early on in a child’s life influenced the same. The research findings provide crucial insights that instructors could adopt to improve academic outcomes for children with hearing difficulties. Outcome measures in the above study were assessed using formal assessments of language and speech development and subjective measures of functional auditory behavior as reported by clinicians and parents. All 199 participating children had been diagnosed with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. Most of them were users of hearing aids, and slightly over one-quarter used bilateral or unilateral cochlear implants (CI). The researchers ran multiple regression analyses to determine the effect of three variables: the degree of hearing loss, maternal education, and age at the onset of audiological intervention (HA fitting and CI switch) on participants’ functional, language, and speech outcomes. The study findings showed a significant association between the age of audiological intervention, degree of hearing loss, and maternal education and all three outcome variables. Children whose hearing...…the child’s hearing loss on his auditory, speech, and language skills. Voice and speech characteristics of children with hearing loss differ from those with normal hearing. The loss reduces their speech intelligibility, which impairs the tonal and production aspects of speech (Cole & Flexer, 2016). Jonathan is likely to have difficulty articulating consonants and vowels such as omissions, distortions, and substitutions (Dobie & Hemel, 2004). He may also be unable to differentiate between voiceless and voiced consonants such as ‘p’ and ‘b’ (Dobie & Hemel, 2004). This is often accompanied by a slowed rate of general speech sound awareness – he may be able to produce isolated, but may have difficulty combining the same in connected speech (Cole & Flexer, 2016).

His language skills are also likely to be affected. He will display a slow rate of vocabulary growth and grammatical development that may plateau prematurely (Dobie & Hemel, 2004). In this regard, he may have difficulty constructing long sentences and comprehending complex sentences such as those in the passive voice (Dobie & Hemel, 2004). His auditory skills are also likely to be affected (Easterbrooks & Astes, 2007). He may not hear quiet speech sounds such as ‘k’, ‘t’, ‘f’, ‘sh’, and ‘s’ and may thus not include the same in his speech (Dobie & Hemel, 2004). Further, he may not hear his own voices when he speaks and will often speak either too loudly or not loud enough, and may mumble due to poor inflection in some cases (Easterbrooks & Estes, 2007).

Conclusion

In conclusion, early evaluation and intervention offers promising avenues for teachers to promote the linguistic competence and literacy development of children with hearing difficulties, thus ensuring enhanced academic and social outcomes.…