Describe the two specific ways that a hearing loss may alter a student's development.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Language: Even though children who are deaf or hard of hearing have the same cognitive ability to learn language as their hearing peers, to achieve their linguistic potential they need to interact with adults and other children who consistently talk and/or sign with them. A clear relationship exists between children's progress in language learning and the amount of conversation they have with sophisticated language users. Reading: Reading is a complex skill that challenges most students with a hearing loss, primarily because of the communication and language development connection. Acquisition of a first language and ongoing language development throughout early childhood and elementary school are necessary for individuals to become skilled readers, and many students who are deaf or hard of hearing are learning to read while they are learning to communicate and use language, so difficulties result. Many children with a hearing loss do not have books read to them by adults, which has been determined to be an essential component in literacy development. Writing: problems faced by these students in mastering written English are even more formidable than those they encounter in developing reading skills because it is highly dependent on a primary language system, such as speech or sign, as a foundation. students who are deaf or hard of hearing achieve at a higher grade level in mathematics than in reading or writing, although their achievement level generally still is problematic.