FAQ Friday: Hearing Loss

Hooray for Friday!  Is it too early to start counting down until the next vacation?  Lol...I think ours is Fall Break in October.  Glad I don't have to wait until Thanksgiving for a couple days off!

Today's question is all about hearing loss.  I actually do have a couple of these types of kids on my caseload this year, and their parents usually wonder what effects a hearing loss has on their child's speech.

Hearing losses can actually affect your child's speech and language in several ways.  According to ASHA, some specific ways a hearing loss can affect a child include:

1. Vocabulary - Typically, vocabulary develops slower in children with hearing loss, as they often have difficulty with abstract and function words.  
2. Sentence Structure - Complex grammar is usually difficult for these kiddos, since they better comprehend sentences that are short and simple.  They also often have a hard time hearing word endings and suffixes, which further complicates their grammar development.
3. Speaking - Children with hearing loss often have difficulty hearing high frequency or voiceless sounds (like s, t, k, or f).  This causes them to leave these sounds out when speaking, making it difficult to understand them.  Other factors that could contribute to being misunderstood include not hearing their own voices when speaking, poor inflection, or poor syllable stress.
4. Academics - Hearing loss can potentially affect all areas of academics, especially reading and math.  The level academic difficulty varies and is influenced by several factors including the degree of hearing loss, parent involvement, and support therapies and services.
5. Social Functioning - Kids with mild to moderate hearing loss sometimes report feeling lonely or isolated around other hearing children.  

As always, early intervention is key.  Getting the right services early on and staying involved in your child's treatment plan can make a big difference!  Always ask your therapists and pediatrician what things you can do at home to help.  :)

As an SLP, here are few tips on how you can help boost their communication at home!

• Always make sure you are facing the child and they are looking at you when you speak to them.
• Repeat or rephrase directions or information when needed.
• Minimize background noise during conversations (i.e. turn off a noisy fan or microwave).
• Use lots of pictures and visuals when you can.
• Make them feel comfortable letting you know when they have trouble understanding something. Always keep the lines of communication open.  

Here are a few more fabulous articles on hearing loss and how it affects speech and language:

-This article by Vanderbilt Health lists the possible affects hearing loss can have according to the degree of the loss.  Great read!
-HERE is an article by Gallaudet on the different types of hearing loss.

In this video, Audiologist Anne Oyler explains how even a mild hearing loss can affect a child's speech and language skills.




Hope you found some of this helpful!

FAQ Friday: Baby Signs

Happy Friday!  I'm enjoying my last Friday of summer today.  Gotta love back to school time!  Let's check out the latest FAQ. . .

Today's question has to do with baby signs.  Several of my mommy friends are trying to decide whether or not to teach their babies sign language.  Here's what they're asking.

They want to know if baby signs can cause spoken language delays, meaning will the child rely only on signs and not use words.

Well, not according to extensive research is what the consensus seems to be.

Let's take a look at some of this research.  According to this article on the Baby Sign Language website, studies have shown that using sign language with your baby actually increased their verbal abilities.  It notes a study conducted by the National Institute of Health.  Here's what they found (quoted from babysignlanguage.com)

"The most significant research was an NIH funded study comparing two groups of 11 month old babies. One group was taught baby sign language. The second group was given verbal training. Surprisingly, the signing group were more advanced talkers than the group given verbal training. The lead of the signing group continued to grow, with the signers exhibiting verbal skills 3 months ahead of the non-signers at 2 years old. Their lead seemed to shrink a little after two years old, but even at three years old – the signers were still ahead¹."

They even checked on these kids at 8 years old and found that IQs of the kids that signed were 12 points higher than those that did not!

On BabySigns website, you can find even more research references that support the use of signing with your child.  In addition to the study mentioned above, it also includes research conducted from centers, early head start research, and international research.

Sooo, using baby signs does not cause language delays in children.  It looks like it, in fact, does the opposite!  Kids who sign are communicating at an earlier age and are learning and practicing the give and take nature of social interaction.

I think sometimes people may ask this question because they might see a child using lots of signs at an age when other children are using words.  But we don't know if this child would have been delayed no matter what. At least by signing we know they have communicative intent and are able to express their wants and needs to their caregivers.

Sometimes as an SLP, I will teach signs to a child who is nonverbal to give them a means to communicate.  It's a great precursor for verbal language and I've seen nothing but positive results so far! :)

If you are planning on teaching your child/niece/nephew/grandchild/godchild baby signs, here are a few tips to remember:

• Always pair the sign with the word.  When you teach your hearing child a new sign, you always want to teach them the spoken word along with it.
• Make it a fun social game.  Smile and talk and go back and forth with your child.  Encourage the social aspects of signing and communicating
• Be patient.  Stick with a few easy words at first (such as: eat, more, stop, mom, finished) and move on once they have those down.  Signing should help decrease frustrations for the child, not increase them.

Do you sign with your kids?  What do you think?  :)