Review: Advances in the Spoken-Language Development of Deaf andHard-of-Hearing ChildrenHayley J.LoneyUniversity ofMinnesota Duluth Introduction”A communicationdisorder is an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, andcomprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems. Acommunication disorder may be evident in the processes of hearing, language,and/or speech (ASHA)”. I decided tofocus on a specific section of a book published from a journal of Deaf Studiesand Deaf Education, this is because the major I am pursuing is CommunicationSciences and Disorders. This undergraduate degree allows you to move on tohigher education in a Masters of Speech Language Pathology or Audiology.
Audiology is a branch of study I am looking into pursuing prior to my undergrad,this is why I have decided to review a published book revolved around thisprofession. Cochlear Implantation is a huge aspect to the Audiology world; theyare used for hearing impairments, which is mainly for people that have impairedauditory sensitivity to physiological auditory system. Having said that thislimits the development, comprehension, production or maintenance of speech andlanguage development in youth. Being deaf or having a hearing impairment canaffect a child’s oral communication skills and having a cochlear implantdemonstrates benefits to help with these skills as well as hearing, languageand speech and overall development of a person. This book presents informationon the new world evolving for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and theimproved expectations for their acquisition of spoken language.
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With myknowledge regarding cochlear implants and communication disorders this book isvery interesting and rewarding to read, it discusses the main factors andcomplications or cochlear implants in the world of audiology.Evaluation InformationTitle: Advances inthe Spoken-Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing ChildrenAuthors: Patricia Elizabeth Spencer, MarcMarscharkPublisher: Oxford University Press YearPublished: Sept 1,2005The authors of “Advances inthe Spoken-Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children” have written this book for twopurposes. Their aim is to be informativeto students and teachers about the success of children as they develop and howhearing impairments can affect ones social and emotional development in termsof communication skills. This book has a wide scope; it covers a lot ofinformation that is important to improve a child’s reading and communicationskills. The topics range from differentstudies and how they correlate with student achievement all the way to theassessment of oral communication and literacy skills which is something wecover in early childhood studies and special education in the support andemotional development of a human being. In order to give a summary I willorganize each sub heading with a brief overview of each therefore you will havea good idea of all the concepts within the book.
Summaryand Overview of Author’s Opinions/ UsefulnessThis book is what reviews that available evidenceconcerning the effects of cochlear implantation on the development of readingskills and academic achievement among deaf children. It also goes through onesworking memory capacity in deaf children with cochlear implants. It givesempirical study evidence that supports theoretical and philosophical positions.
The studies initiated are for various purposes that contradict assumptionsabout the effect of implants, cued speech and audiological advancements on adeaf child’s academic achievement. Summaries of some of the investigations areas follows: a score is derived for language growth of cochlear implant users tothe growth rate that is expected for ones age. There is a clear gap betweennormal hearing children and ones with hearing losses and as well a gap fortheir social and emotional well being. This is because, tests show that a childmust actually learn at a rate faster than that of normal hearing children.Overall, end results show that the use of cochlear implants increase oneslanguage ability.
The tests got compared from examinations over years and theydid an evaluation to see the difference between the implant group and the non-implantand the results varied. One other investigation that was outlined in this bookwas that enhanced phonemic awareness and phonological processing skills wouldresult in better reading abilities among children with peers that don’t have animplant. Some evidence that the authors portrayed very well and that I found aparticular interest in is the main influence that cochlear implants have on adeveloping childs ability to perceive speech and language and how theseimplants helped these children. The author quoted directly: “Thebest-documented effect of cochlear implantation on profoundly deaf children isa marked increase in their speech perception ability (Spencer, Marschark pg.245)”. Overall, this book made a lot of connections with reading skills andrelations of language with tests that proved the correlation difference betweenhearings impaired children vs.
non-hearing impaired.EvaluatingConclusions/ ProblemsBasedoff of the review of this published book on hearing impairments correlated withachievement in academics and spoken language development it is based off ofproof of a huge aspect of early childhood and that is language development.There were studies revolving around theoretical analysis of cochlear implantsfrom those who work in a clinical practice of audiology or deaf studies. The issues it raised regarding a child withhearing impairments were clearly stated and dealt with a lot in the field ofstudy and practice I am studying (Clinical Speech-Language-Pathology/ Audiology).
The information that the book gave was adequately presented because of all ofthe investigations and tests that were developed and that were done withchildren that either had cochlear implants or did not, and it provided how allaspects of language syntactically, phonetically, receptively or expressivelyare affected. However, it lacked and omitted information and proof regardingwhether a child lacks verbal communication skills or reading and languagecomprehension or just has problems with certain aspect of speech and languageperception. I would have wanted to learn more about the actual “skills” thisentailed in depth. The wide scope the book gave completely encompassed thetopic of Audiology because in this scope of practice the central focus of theprofession is concerned with all auditory impairments and their relationship todisorders of communication. Audiologists identify, assess, diagnose, and treatindividuals with impairment of either peripheral or central auditory and/orvestibular function, and strive to prevent such impairments (ASHA, 2016). Having said that, this book completelyencompasses this profession and gives a lot of support and knowledge regardingit. The book persuasively demonstrates the idea and topic it developed, andaddressed my main point of interest which is the audience can clearlyunderstand what the point is and it gives a lot of information to convince thereader to take their position on the issue and general topic it is expressing.Through the authors writing about the topic it would make a difference insomeone’s life after reading it, because it would influence someone to take acertain action and come to realization about children around them that havehearing impairments This is a book that would make an adult audience withchildren of their own become informed and aware of the issues children withcochlear implants truly face.
Having said that, the audience it is intended foris very clear and is suitable because it provides not only clear informationbased off of the clinical practice of audiology but to help those who may havechildren or people around them whether it is students, friends, etc. becomeinformed about the issues raised with ones academic achievement.Final Thoughts/ RecommendationsThis book is very useful, and the author did a great jobat informing and convincing people about the efforts tohelp deaf children develop spoken language through which they could have fullaccess to the hearing world. Being a Communication Sciences and Disorders major, it was extremely eyeopening to read.
I feel like I have gained a lot more knowledge about the scopeof practice I will be diving into later on down the road and it makes me veryexcited. Given my field of study, I would highly suggest this book published byOxford about Deaf Studies to be used as a tool and a guide for students and orfaculty. This book highlights many different topics that go above and beyond ina beneficial way; it allows you to see what really goes on in the Audiology anddeaf-studies world and what is behind ones development with language and socialties.
What I mean by this is the big picture is how audiology can be used toinfluence a child’s life that is hard of hearing. For example, the author made aclear point that there are innovative testingprocedures for hearing, in which allow for early identification of loss thatleads to intervention services during the first weeks and months of life inwhich can help children improve the skills they need to develop as a humanbeing in language and speech acquisition. Programmable hearing aids are outthere and discussed in the book, they allow more children to make use ofresidual hearing abilities.Having said that, reading this book you get a taste ofwhat it is really all about first hand to be in the audiology world and dealingwith children that have hard-of-hearing and in thisbook they present the latest information on both the new world evolving fordeaf and hard-of-hearing children and the improved expectations for theiracquisition of spoken language and what can be done to help them with all of the tests, investigationsand real life examples it provides.In conclusion, the author did a great job on includingseveral variables that connect the foundational role in the development ofspeech and language skills with cochlear implants.
These certain findingscorrelate with memory processing (encoding) and serial scanning of ourshort-term memory and how atypical they are in deaf children. Overall, this book represented that barriers to deaf children’sfull participation in the world around them will continue to be overcome. ReferencesMarschark, M., & Spencer, P. E.
(2006). Advancesin the spoken language development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children.Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.