Susan R. Easterbrooks - Helping Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students to Use Spoken Language: A Guide for Educators and Families

We dedicate this book to the many children with hearing loss and their families who have shaped our knowledge and experiences with spoken language development, and to the teachers who work tirelessly for their students.

We also dedicate this book to our families, who give us all their support and love. They are: Amy, Bryan, Dewey, and William.

Copyright 2007 by Corwin Press

All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities who have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Easterbrooks, Susan R.

Helping deaf and hard of hearing students to use spoken language: a guide for educators and families/Susan R. Easterbrooks and Ellen L. Estes.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-2732-1 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4129-2733-8 (pbk.)

1. Deaf childrenLanguage. 2. Hearing impaired childrenLanguage.

3. Deaf childrenEducation. 4. Hearing impaired childrenEducation.

I. Estes, Ellen L. II. Title.

HV2483.E23 2007

371.91'24622dc22 2006102697

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

07 08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Mary Ellen Nevins, EdD
Teacher, Teacher Educator, Author, Educational Consultant, and Professional Development Specialist Currently in Private Practice in Tecumseh, MI

A rticulate and coherent communication skills in the language of the majority allow the individual who possesses them to more easily negotiate the world in which he or she lives. This is especially evident in the experiences of individuals born with significant hearing loss. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing are at a considerable disadvantage in learning to talk if they do not hear clearly enough to perceive the nuances of sound that make up spoken language.

Limitations of hearing aids available in the past created very real barriers to the acquisition of spoken language. Historically, efforts to develop spoken language in deaf children were met with more than occasional success. However, the enormity of the task often left children with such limited spoken language competence that they could communicate only with immediate family, teachers, and close family friends.

In years past, educators became specially trained and prepared to undertake this challenging task. Not surprisingly, the global advances in technology that have influenced our everyday lives have created opportunities for a new generation of deaf children to learn spoken language more easily by mitigating the effects of severe to profound hearing loss. Todays digital hearing aids and cochlear implants have provided unprecedented auditory access for the children who receive these devices. There are children for whom these devices are all they need to acquire spoken language; however, there remain a significant number of children with hearing loss who will require more from the teachers and clinicians with whom they work.

These are children who perhaps come to language learning somewhat later in life or who are challenged by processing or learning issues beyond the peripheral hearing loss. Auditory access alone, even with intentional guidance by the teacher and clinician, will not be sufficient for the acquisition of spoken language. These children will need more intentional instruction to launch their journey in spoken language learning. And, once underway, they will continue to benefit from the systematic application of the knowledge and skills involved in this instruction.

It is our good fortune that authors Susan Easterbrooks and Ellen Estes have teamed up to create a text designed to assist teachers and speech and hearing professionals in developing spoken language in children with hearing loss. Geared specifically for the child for whom auditory access is not sufficient for language acquisition without intentional instruction, this text will be of particular benefit to the teacher or clinician working with a child who presents as languageless.

The authors combination of theory and practice in this book encourages novice teachers and speech-language pathologists to create a conceptual framework for the task of developing spoken language intentionally. At the same time it provides rich and practical examples of objectives that will lead to a childs learning to talk. Just as a fledgling artist learns concepts of figure, ground, distance, and perspective as a prelude to drawing and painting, so too the novice speech and hearing professional will be exposed to concepts such as auditory brain tasks, listening and speaking skills, and external factors that will influence teaching and learning. Once armed with the conceptual framework, the reader is challenged to locate the intersection of these factors that represents the point at which any particular student stands in the journey to spoken language competence. The varying model aspects can be manipulated to assist the child in moving through the three dimensions of spoken language learning.

Susan and Ellen are to be commended for their thoughtful preparation of this text. The accessibility of the concepts presented through their framework will allow for precise communication between and among all those helping the child. As expert teachers of children with hearing loss and as experienced teacher educators, the authors demonstrate their own scientific knowledge and artistic skill in crafting this text to invite us to learn more about developing spoken language in children with hearing loss.