Children can only develop spoken language through consistent exposure to the acoustic cues that comprise speech and language. Until recently, hearing levels from the clinical audiogram were the primary measure used to define typical hearing and the presence or degree of a child's hearing loss. While the clinical audiogram remains an important…

People with hearing loss (HL) often express a desire for the particular hearing device that will yield the best speech recognition. The problem with fulfilling that desire is that a vast number of hearing devices are available from which to choose. In recent years, medical device regulatory agencies have generally viewed hearing devices (i.e.,…

The ihear[R] Internet Therapy Program (ihear) provides effective, individualized, and interactive therapy that is tailored to each child's specific needs through a secure, high-quality Internet connection. The program brings listening and spoken language services directly to schools and families. The foundation for ihear is based on the St. Joseph…

Twenty severely to profoundly hearing-impaired high school students (ages 15-19) evidenced marked improvement in average vocal pitch after implementation of a systematic curriculum that integrated visual and tactile sensory aids into daily speech training. Those using a visual display showed greatest progress. The eight participating teachers…

The availability of cochlear implants in younger children has provided the opportunity to evaluate the relative impact of the production system, or the sounds young children can say, and the auditory system, or the sounds children can hear, on early vocal communication. Limited access to the acoustic properties of speech results in differences in…

This paper offers an endorsement of mainstream placements for adolescents with severe and profound hearing impairments, describes successful mainstreaming at Clarke School for the Deaf (Massachusetts) in classrooms using spoken and written English, points out roadblocks that must be negotiated for successful mainstream education, and outlines…

The Larry Jarret House is a one-week in-residence program of the Helen Beebe Speech and Hearing Center in Easton, Pennsylvania, for parents of children with hearing impairments. The program is designed to help parents maximize their child's use of residual hearing in daily life situations to develop spoken language. (JDD)

This paper discusses basic strategies in providing speech information to deaf individuals via the tactile modality and describes the Tactaid II and Tactaid VII vibrotactile aids employed in the Central Institute for the Deaf Sensory Aids Study. Coding, display, and operation are described for each device. Results from previous studies with both…

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (New York) has developed a course for students with at least semi-intelligible speech, to improve their effectiveness when conversing in English with non-signing hearing partners. Lectures, discussions, and activities foster self-awareness, pragmatic facility, and communicative competency. Student…

This article describes the Colorado Phonetic/Phonologic Assessment of Hearing-Impaired Infants and Toddlers (PHONE) and the speech of 91 hearing-impaired infants and toddlers, examining number of vowels, consonants, elements per utterance, and utterances; differences by age and by hearing loss for each vowel and consonant; and relationship to…

The project developed a computer-based auditory training program for adult hearing-aid users and cochlear implant recipients, to evaluate three types of training stimuli: syllables with a reduced number of features, syllables with amplified features, and natural speech. Described are the training stimuli, training station, and training activities.…

The aim of this paper is to advance understanding of the theoretical basis for the difficulties many children who are deaf or hard of hearing face when learning spoken English grammar. The association between learning syntactical grammar and pre-verbal social interactions is explored and related to the effects of prelingual hearing loss. We…

The Association Method is an instructional strategy currently being used with children with hearing loss, children with speech and language disorders, and children with reading disabilities. It is a systematic, incremental, phonetically based, multi-sensory approach designed to increase the understanding and use of spoken language; improve…