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Assessing Communication and Social/Emotional Development in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Infancy to Early School Age. Janet R. Jamieson Susan Lane Educational & Counselling BC Family Hearing Psychology, & Special Ed. Resource Centre UBC.
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Assessing Communication and Social/Emotional Developmentin Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Infancy to Early School Age Janet R. Jamieson Susan Lane Educational & Counselling BC Family Hearing Psychology, & Special Ed. Resource Centre UBC
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Development? • Early infancy • mother-infant “courtship dance” • synchronous vs. asynchronous communication • hearing loss affects every aspects of psychological development in a bidirectional way: • social-emotional • language • cognitive
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Social-emotional Development? • From the Parent’s Perspective: • parental grieving (anger and denial) • parents may not make necessary adjustments to communication • increased control • in communication • in behaviour • what is the impact of this increased control on the child?
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Social-emotional Development? • From the Child’s Perspective: • inability to predict what will happen next • resulting frustration • fear of taking risks (e.g., new settings, new experiences) • increased dependence on others • sense of isolation and loneliness • preference for peers with same hearing status
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Language Development? • From the Parent’s Perspective: • lack of expected response • spirals of increasing control • difficulty with turn-taking • increased use of directions, 2-choice questions, “air time”
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Language Development? • From the Child’s Perspective: • may be delayed, but not deviant • approx. 1/3 of deaf children have other disabilities (leading to possible language disorder) • inability to divide attention between visual and auditory cues • strong reliance on visual cues
Overall, then... • Language development includes: • phonology • semantics / morphology • syntax • Neurologically, there are many paths to language development • Focus on the process; don’t worry if a path is unique
How Does Hearing Loss Impact Cognitive Development? • A learning cycle has been created: • the child does not respond as expected • the parent reacts by taking control • the child has less room to take risks, unless she does so quickly
We assess young children to... • determine if child needs help • design an appropriate plan • monitor change in child and family to determine if intervention is resulting in positive outcomes
What we look at when we assess... • child-caregiver interactions • listening • play • vocalizations / speech • gestures • vocabulary development • combining of words / signs • pragmatics
What assessment tools do you use? • 1. • 2. • 3. • 4 • 5. • etc…..
Special Considerations when Assessing a Child with a Hearing Loss • What language systems surround the child? • What is the child’s preferred modality (vision or hearing)? • Are there idiosyncracies in the child’s use of the language system?
Special Considerations when Assessing a Child with a Hearing Loss • Bottom line #1: During assessments, use the child’s preferred language, and receive input from informants across contexts. • Bottom line #2: For non-English-speaking hearing parents, use culturally sensitive interpreters and and at least one parent report instrument that is valid for the home.
Special Considerations in Test Selection and Interpretation of Results • Both formal and informal assessments are needed. • Most formal tests are normed on hearing children • some tests unfairly penalize deaf children and make their language appear more delayed than it is • procedures may differ from standardized test • question the value of comparing the performance of younger hearing children with older deaf children • make sure some part of assessment occurs in relevant communication context
Other Professionals Who May Be Involved in the Assessment of a Child with a Hearing Loss • Medical • Family Physician • Ear, Nose, & Throat Physician (ENT) • Audiologist • Habilitation • Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing • Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) • Occupational Therapist • Physical Therapist • Aural Rehabilitationists • Family Support • Social Worker
Videos: Communicators in Action! • E.L.R • Joshua • Sam
Your (Very Important) Role in the Assessment of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children • You are a key team member -- each member holds a piece of the puzzle • The overall goal of intervention is to impact the communication system • Select assessment tools carefully and interpret the results with caution