Early Deafness Research Articles

Mode use in deaf children: the effects of communication method and communication competence

ABSTRACTThis study examined the differential mode usage (speech, vocalize, gesture and sign) of profoundly deaf preschoolers and their hearing mothers as a function of their level of communicative competence (high vs. low) and method of communication (simultaneous vs. oral). Language and mode use of twenty-eight hearing mother/deaf child dyads (equally divided into oral and simultaneous dyads) were recorded during free play. Findings indicated significant mode use differences as a result of both method of communication and level of competence within each method. Bimodal or simultaneous use of modes was related to both higher communicative competence in both oral and simultaneous children and specific pragmatic types of communication. Findings are discussed in relation to both theoretical and applied issues in understanding early childhood deafness.

Communication and language in severely deaf adolescents.

One of the most important psychological effects of early severe or profound deafness is an impairment in natural language-processing ability, with a consequent reduction in communicative skill secondary to the sensory deficit. Prelingual damage blocks the development of certain sequential/syntactical skills necessary for the acquisition of normal linguistic competence. Educators of the deaf in the UK have typically attempted to improve linguistic ability using amplification and intensive training in lip-reading, but evidence from several psychological studies suggests that communication systems based upon manual signing are more productive of both linguistic and basic cognitive skills. This paper reports an experimental study of the communicative characteristics of both oral and total communication systems as a function of language structure. For almost all types of structure investigated, the total system was found to be the more effective method of communication.

Developmental Aspects of an Infant With Transient Moderate to Severe Hearing Impairment

Very little is known about the effects of early deafness on later emotional and cognitive development, or about the span of time during which these effects may remain correctable. Adults who have had a profound or severe hearing impairment since infancy show a rather consistent pattern of personality development.1-3 A variety of behavioral deviations have been described in older children with congenital or early hearing impairment.3-5 There are very few observations, however, of the behavior of deaf children during their first two years of life. In this communication, we describe the behavior and some aspects of the development of a hearing-impaired infant during the period of moderate to severe hearing impairment (70 dB hearing loss) followed by resolution of hearing loss.

The emotionally disturbed deaf child: A first program of research and therapy

Psychiatric interest in the deaf was born only 20 years ago (Altshuler, 1971; Rainer et al., 1969), and systematic observations, over time, of emotionally disturbed deaf children are still virtually nonexistent.’ Of the population at large, one in a thousand has profound early deafness and among the school-aged deaf, close to a third have additional handicaps that interfere significantly with their classroom progress (only 510% in the general school population have such difficulties) (Jensema and Trybus, 1975; Meadow and Schlesinger, 1971; Schein and Delk, 1974). Professional meetings of those who work in deafness repeatedly issue strident calls for help with these children, but there is at this point in time no facility in the entire country geared to meet their special needs: the multiple problems of communicative handicap, emotional disturbance, and other handicapping conditions associated with the deafness causing agent (Altshuler, 1975; U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1968). It was this situation that led us to mount the pilot program to be described. New York State has pioneered in the provision of mental health services for the deaf since 1955. By early 1975, the Department of Mental Hygiene had, for several years, a well-established, state-wide inand outpatient treatment unit, which also included halfway house and rehabilitation services and a preventive and consultative service at a school for the deaf (Rainer and Altshuler, 197 1). At that time, Dr. John Rainer and ourselves from the Deafness Unit and Kendall Litchfield, Dr. David Spidal, and staff of the New York School for the Deal joined forces to plan and then to form two special classes for severely disturbed children. These classes began in September of 1975. Each consisted of five students, almost all residential, with one group in the age range of 4 to 6 and the other 7 to 10. The school also provided each class with a teacher and a teacher’s

New Opportunities for Deaf Children.

This short book serves to acquaint the reader with the point of view of a team of British educators of the deaf at the University of Manchester. It stresses the importance of early special education for the deaf child, by the parents and the school. The book covers briefly the handicaps on child development imposed by early deafness, assessment of extent of hearing loss, the use of various forms of amplified sound, the value and place of schools in educating the deaf. A disproportionately large section is given over to case histories. The book is well written, in a pleasant narrative style, and furnishes the parents of a deaf child a great deal of interesting information about the problems they will be facing. It must be remembered, however, that the Ewings are dealing with the English deaf child and consequently are relating to the English school system. Because of the

An exploratory investigation of delayed progressive neural hypacusis in children.

<h3>Introduction</h3> Attempts to classify early deafness in children are necessarily complicated by the factors of immaturity and communication. Problems of conductive loss have been relatively easy to diagnose and treat since the discovery of antibiotics and antihistamine therapy for infection and allergic control. However, the availability of drugs provides a great temptation to the practitioner to overlook the possibility of neural involvement. Indeed, nerve deafness in children is much commoner than suspected, and only recently have testing techniques been developed with sufficient precision to differentiate conductive from neural loss. Within the area of nerve deafness in young children, the clinician is faced with baffling etiological considerations. If the problem is detected within a few months after birth, the probability of congenital and/or hereditary etiology is great, but with time such a diagnosis becomes less tenable, especially with no readily discernible external and/or causal factors. The fact remains that apparently there

Mating and fertility patterns in families with early total deafness

Mating and fertility patterns in families with early total deafness

Genetic and eugenic aspects of early total deafness

(1956). Genetic and eugenic aspects of early total deafness. Eugenics Quarterly: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 69-74.