Moving to Mainstream Preschool

Abstract

Children with hearing loss have a world of opportunities available to them because of marvelous advances in hearing technology, including super-powered digital hearing aids, cochlear implants, wireless FM systems, infrared classroom technology for sound field, and the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA). These advances, along with the ability to identify children with hearing loss soon after birth and fit them quickly with hearing technology, have changed the face of intervention and education. It is important for clinicians to start listening and spoken language (LSL) intervention very early, because babies' brains' neural pathways have increased sensitivity to sound before age 3 years. When children with hearing loss learn to speak through listening, they may stay on a normal path to speech and language development (Cole & Flexer, 2007). Now, children with hearing loss who learn to listen and speak typically develop regional accents, clear speech production, the ability to grasp idioms and jokes, and competent conversational skills. The purpose of this article is to describe the processes that are typical as a child with hearing loss transitions from services provided by professionals at an outpatient cochlear implant center to services provided in school settings.