As we progress into the heart of the school year, we are becoming more familiar with all of our students. This is a great time for teachers, because we are becoming more confident in identifying the strengths of our students, as well as highlighting areas for growth. We may find that our day-to-day areas of focus and intervention strategies are becoming more fine-tuned and specialized for each child. We may also note that there are some areas that we would like some extra help in addressing with struggling learners.
Today I want to talk about the main aspects of language development and how they relate to our auditory/oral hearing impaired students. Some aspects may be extremely familiar and an integral part of our curriculums each day. While others may seem to get lost in the shuffle of our many priorities and time-constraints.
1. Phonetics and Phonology: The practice of learning to produce and understand sounds and their sequence in language. This is a BIGGIE and likely one that we have built into our everyday lessons already. However, for students with hearing aids and cochlear implants, this may be a significant area of challenge especially during large group lessons in the classroom. There may be background noise present, gaps in the ability to hear and recognize certain sounds in running speech or a diverse range of distractions and opportunities for overwhelm. Just think about how fast-paced learning has become! If a student falls behind for just a few lessons in one or two areas, the deficits may easily begin to snowball. This may lead to challenges with reading and comprehension down the line.
2. Syntax and Morphology: The arrangement of words in sentences, changing tenses, voice or number in language. This is another skill that we see very often and our curriculums emphasize. However, for children with hearing loss, lessons in these areas often pose a challenge as they may introduce new and unfamiliar vocabulary that we use to describe words. For example, if a student struggles to comprehend new words such as “morpheme”, “prefix”, “suffix” etc., the lesson may quickly become out of reach.
3. Semantics: The foundation of acquiring new vocabulary and connecting it to known concepts. For our students with hearing loss this is a HUGE area of challenge. Students with hearing loss often are not exposed to the same wealth of vocabulary and experiences as typically hearing children at an early age. This may be due to late identification of hearing loss, troubles with amplification, or not wearing the amplification consistently enough at home. Add to this the wide range of socioeconomic, cultural and family life
concerns that all students may face, but may hit our students with hearing loss a little harder. Our students with hearing loss may already be behind due to a combination of these aforementioned challenges. In addition, they often have trouble with acquiring new information through the incidental learning opportunities that other children may take for granted such as: watching television or listening to adult conversations taking place around them.
4. Pragmatics: Becoming accustomed to the often-unwritten social rules for communication. While typically hearing students may simply acquire pragmatic skills such as turn-taking, staying on topic and selecting appropriate language for diverse listeners solely by participating and observing conversations with others, for students with hearing loss it is often necessary to directly teach these skills. As a classroom teacher, it may be extremely challenging to address these concerns with students using the one-to-one strategies that are often most beneficial, due to time constraints.
5. Receptive and Expressive Language: Listening and understanding what is being said and using language to respond appropriately. This is another area that may be more intuitive for our typically hearing students than our hearing impaired students. For the Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing this is often a MAIN area of focus as we are able to devote the time it takes to address gaps in auditory processing and auditory memory skill development that students with hearing loss may otherwise try desperately to mask in the classroom.
6. Non-Verbal Communication: This includes the use of gestures, facial expressions, signs and symbols to convey thoughts and emotions. For children with hearing loss this may be an area of relative strength, due to relying on these methods to understand their environment from an early age. However, these skills may become unbalanced in our students if they rely too heavily on non-verbal cues and ignore conflicting or more nuanced and complex verbal messages. The Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing often will take the time to identify these communication breakdowns and to build upon foundational skills to allow for more advanced comprehension and expression as they learn and grow.
In conclusion, if you are noticing gaps in any of these areas with your auditory/oral deaf or hard of hearing students, please reach out to your Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We are here to collaborate and we have the precious 1:1 time available to address these and any other concerns that may arise for your D/HH learners. Oftentimes, behavioral issues and delays that present socially and academically in the classroom can be traced back to challenges with one or more of these aspects of language.
If you do not currently have a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing providing services for your student, please consider reaching out to your SLP or Exceptional Student department leaders to weigh the options. All of these aspects of language work together, in tandem, to create a well-rounded student and lifelong communicator.
Equalize Sensory Services has a wide range of professionals available to evaluate and create specialized instruction for the unique needs of the child. We are here to help!