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…

Worldwide, 15 million babies are "born too soon" every year (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). Remarkably, prematurity survival rates now exceed 93% across all countries. More than 360,000 preterm babies survived in the United States in 2020; 10% of all births (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). While this is an…

Understanding the needs of parents with children with hearing loss (HL) is necessary to best support both the children and their families beyond what they have received in early intervention programs. The objective of this paper is to present the perspective of parents regarding their participation in a group intervention with their child and the…

Interactive silences are important strategies that can be implemented by practitioners and parents of children with hearing loss who are learning a spoken language. Types of adult self-controlled pauses and evidence pertaining to the function of those pauses are discussed, followed by a review of advantages to justify implementation of these…

Children with significant hearing loss may experience great difficulty developing spoken language and literacy skills to a level commensurate with children of the same age with typical hearing. While studies of children who use cochlear implants show improved spoken language outcomes in some cases, when compared to the same children's earlier use…

This study examined the association between parenting stress, family functioning, child behavior problems, language development, mother's education, child's sex, child's age, and child's hearing device in a cross-sectional sample of 37 mothers with typical hearing who have children who are deaf and hard of hearing enrolled in early childhood…

These are the proceedings of 2012 AG Bell Research Symposium, presented July 1, 2012, as part of the AG Bell 2012 Convention. The session was moderated by Tamala S. Bradham, Ph.D., CCC-A. The papers presented at the proceedings are the following: (1) The Queens of Audition; (2) Speech Perception and Hearing Loss; (3) The Restoration of Speech…

Delays in the onset of canonical babbling with hearing loss are extensively documented. Relatively little is known about other aspects of prelinguistic vocal development and hearing loss. Eight infants with typical hearing and eight with severe-to-profound hearing loss were matched with regard to a significant vocal development milestone, the…

In "The Relation of Language to Mental Development and of Speech to Language Teaching," S.G. Davidson displayed several timeless insights into the role of speech in developing language and reasons for using speech as the basis for instruction for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. His understanding that speech includes more than merely…

This article discusses the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language--an organization designed to build capacity of certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialists (LSLS) by defining and maintaining a set of professional standards for LSLS professionals and thereby addressing the global deficit of qualified LSLS. Definitions and…

Determining the most effective methods and techniques to facilitate the spoken language development of individuals with hearing loss has been a focus of practitioners for centuries. Due to modern advances in hearing technology, earlier identification of hearing loss, and immediate enrollment in early intervention, children with hearing loss are…

Acquisition of phoneme-grapheme correspondences, a key concept of the alphabetic principle, was examined in young children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) using a semantic association strategy embedded in two interventions, the Children's Early Intervention and Foundations for Literacy. Single-subject design experiments using multiple…

The history of oral teacher preparation in America is both significant and diverse. There are numerous individuals and events that shifted and defined the professional practices of individuals who promote the listening and spoken language development of children with hearing loss. This article provides an overview of this rich history and offers a…

This study examined the speech perception, speech, and language developmental progress of 25 children with hearing loss (mean Pure-Tone Average [PTA] 79.37 dB HL) in an auditory verbal therapy program. Children were tested initially and then 21 months later on a battery of assessments. The speech and language results over time were compared with…

This profile describes the University of Hartford's new Master of Education degree program in Aural Habilitation and Education of Hearing-Impaired Children. The Aural Habilitation and Education graduate program was conceptualized as a model partnership between Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) Soundbridge, the largest public provider of…