Consonants are Silent Wisps 

Help Me Understand"

The reason for the words in my Haiku is because the article compared normal hearing 2 year olds with 3 year olds who are hard of hearing. The researchers concluded that the 3 year olds heard, comprehended, and expressed vowels within normal limits, but the consonants were a lot harder for the hard of hearing children. After watching the lectures and analyzing the GFTA, this study showed similar results that the consonants were behind for children with hard of hearing. These children need the help of audiologists, SLPs, families, and educator involvement to help them be able to hear and verbally express these sounds that may be more difficult. 

The last line of my haiku, "help me understand," explains our that our job is simply to help our clients." And to do that, we need to show the highest level of Evidence-Based Practice with our clients.

Auditory Language Learning

Anna Curet

Using: Misconception Check-- from this document- https://elearn.isu.edu/moodle/pluginfile.php/4085678/mod_resource/content/4/edutopia-dl-finley-53-ways-check-understanding.pdf

Given a common misconception about a topic, students explain why they agree or disagree with it.

-The misconception

Children who use hearing aids have access to sound, therefore they will have normal speech and language development when compared to normal hearing peers.

-Why I Disagree

Children who have hearing aids may have access to sound but that does not mean that they hear sound the way children with normal hearing do. According to an article by Ambrose et al. (2014), there are many variables that can influence speech and language outcomes in young children. Some variables discussed in the article were demographic, audiologic and linguistic variables. For audiologic variables it is important to consider the type and degree of hearing loss as well as how the loss is aided. For example, the article highlighted the fact that children with sensorineural hearing loss are more likely to experience distortion of sound. All children with hearing loss are impacted by environmental noise which can decrease the overall quality and loudness of the key signal. Not having access to sound as a result of hearing loss or high environmental noise levels will influence speech and language development. Even with appropriately fit technology children may still miss important information when the environment does not support good listening. It should be noted that even children with normal hearing need an improved signal to noise ratio to obtain appropriate access to sound, and therefore to speech and language development. 

The article also discussed the influence of hearing loss on speech sound development for children with hearing loss compared to normal hearing same aged peers. Their research revealed that children who were hard of hearing performed similarly to children with normal hearing in the area of vowel production accuracy, however children who had hearing loss were less accurate than their normal hearing peers on tests of imitative production of consonants. These findings suggest that children with hearing loss do not demonstrate normal speech and language development when compared to normal hearing peers. Overall, even though a child has access to sound with their hearing technology, there are still sounds that will be more challenging for them to hear than those who have normal hearing. 

Reference

Ambrose, S. E., Unflat Berry, L. M., Walker, E. A., Harrison, M., Oleson, J., & Moeller, M. P. (2014). Speech sound production in 2-year-olds who are hard of hearing. American journal of speech-language pathology, 23(2), 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1044/2014_AJSLP-13-0039

 

Be explicit, you can’t just expose them to the different components of phonological awareness, you actually have to train them. -->This is like mixing the ingredients for the perfect cookie! You can’t just put the ingredients in the same bowl together and expect them to turn into good cookies, you have to mix the ingredients together!

Follow developmental progression. Since we know that children with access to optimized hearing technology can develop speech sounds the same as normal hearing peers, we should go in the same order that children who hear normally would learn them--> This is like the importance of adding the ingredients in the right order. If you don’t, your ingredients may not bake correctly because the ingredients don’t mix right.

Pay attention to task difficulty, make sure that the task is not too easy for them but is also not outside of their current abilities.--> This is like the importance of adding the correct amount of the ingredients. Too flour and your cookies will be hard and may not stick together. Too little flour and your cookies will be flat.

Strategically introduce classes of sounds. You want the child to be successful from the start so beginning with sounds that the children with hearing loss will definitely have access too will make it more likely that they will succeed and build confidence--> Start by making the cookie you are most confident in, once you have found success with that cookie, then you can move on to make other kinds of cookies that might be harder!

Repeat repeat repeat. A lot of practice is required for children with hearing loss to master phonological awareness.--> It takes a lot of practice to make the perfect cookies. Practice baking cookies all the time!

Link to letters… eventually. With all phonological awareness, it is important to make sure that letters are introduced after the phonological awareness is developed otherwise, focus on the letters might get in the way of learning the sound structures.
--> You can’t sell your cookies until you have the cookie basics down 100% because if you give people yucky cookies, they won’t want to eat them anymore. Once you have gotten a good base down, THEN you can share them with the public!

#CDHH #phonology #phonologicalawareness #slp #aud #speech #language