Children with Hearing Impairments

Children with hearing loss should learn oral or sign language, as learning a language model within the first year is valuable. Early intervention is critical, as these children may often have poorer long-term reading and writing outcomes compared to hearing children.

Signs to look out for:

    • Not reacting or listening to speech sounds
    • Problems creating speech sounds
    • Problems using and understanding words
    • Problems with putting words together into sentences
    • Differences between each child, depending on degree of hearing impairment and earliness of help

Things parents can do:

    • Help your child tell differences between similar sounds
    • Ensure your child is working in small groups or one-on-one sessions to improve language and reading skill
    • Evaluate your child's level of language improvement with one-on-one sessions every 6 months
    • Help your child learn sign language in the first 12 months, as cochlear implants may not be provided until after then

There are three language models that a child can learn; at least one should be learned within the first 12 months.

Children with hearing impairments require special intervention and may struggle in particular with distinguishing sounds and understanding conceptual print knowledge (for example, knowing where to start reading or where the first word on the page is). Although children with hearing impairments often improve over time, their rate of growth is often behind that of normally developing children, so it may be difficult for them to catch up. Having the right expectations for your child's development is beneficial to both you and your child!

Timelines of Normal Development vs. Deaf Children Learning Sign Language