Children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) often demonstrate pragmatic language difficulties which can impact academic and social outcomes. This randomized control trial for DHH children, ages 3-12 years, explored the Technology-Assisted Language Intervention (TALI), incorporating augmentative and alternative communication technology (AAC)…

Purpose: Individual-randomized trials are the gold standard for testing the efficacy and effectiveness of drugs, devices, and behavioral interventions. Health care delivery, educational, and programmatic interventions are often complex, involving multiple levels of change and measurement precluding individual randomization for testing.…

Young deaf and hard-of-hearing children enrolling in school in Sri Lanka often display language delay due to limited amplification and limited language stimulation. The scarcity of speech and language therapy support within the educational context at present necessitates a rethink of service-delivery models to reach more children. Multi-sensory…

Efforts to improve cultural competence in pediatric hearing loss services should be informed by evidence of how culture can affect services, yet there is a paucity of research in the field of audiology. The aim of this study was to gain insight into practitioners' experiences with offering early hearing loss services to minority culture families.…

Children with hearing impairment (HI) are at an increased risk of developing speech and language problems similar to those of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), including difficulties with phonology and grammar. This study investigated similarities and differences in phonological and grammatical production between children with…

Background: The effectiveness of two treatment approaches (phonological therapy and articulation therapy) for treatment of 14 children, aged 4;0-6;7 years, with phonologically based speech-sound disorder (SSD) has been previously analysed with severity outcome measures (percentage of consonants correct score, percentage occurrence of phonological…

In North Carolina, the eligibility criteria for enrollment in Part C early intervention services do not exclude infants and toddlers based on the severity or laterality of hearing loss. As such, the state's early intervention population represents a widely diverse array of children ranging from those with minimal to profound hearing losses. While…

Background: Speech perception is often considered specific to the auditory modality, despite convincing evidence that speech processing is bimodal. The theoretical and clinical roles of speech-reading for speech perception, however, have received little attention in speech-language therapy. Aims: The role of speech-read information for speech…

A model is presented which incorporates components of perception, production, and cognitive-linguistic processing in the assessment and daily treatment of speech in hearing impaired students. Assessment and treatment factors are detailed. (CL)

This volume examines the ramifications of individual differences in therapy outcomes for a wide variety of communication disorders. In an era where evidence-based practice is the clinical profession's watchword, each chapter attacks this highly relevant issue from a somewhat different perspective. In some areas of communication disorders,…

Assessments of 18-to 35-month-olds (N=40) documented as having persistent otitis media with effusion indicated that a combination of low production scores for velars, liquids, and obstruents as well as early onset and late remission were important in characterizing children who would need speech remediation or intervention. (Author/CB)

Argues that language intervention with children having hearing loss should, through the collaborative efforts of speech language pathologists and teachers, promote communication interactions that emphasizes English discourse which facilitates interpersonal and school language learning. Issues of "teacher talk,""talk around print,""self-talk" in…

This paper deals with the specific problems of the adolescent and adult hearing-impaired individual who wishes to improve and develop his or her expressive speech ability. Considered are issues critical to the learning process, intervention strategies for improving speech production, and speech production as one part of communication competency.…

Seven papers report on speech language pathology and audiology studies performed by graduate students. The first paper reports on intelligibility of two popular synthetic speech systems used in communication aids for the speech impaired, the Votrax Personal Speech System and the Echo II synthesizer. The second paper reports facilitation of tense…

This article presents ideas to encourage speech and language in infants and toddlers with hearing impairments. Ways to embellish interactions in daily life to make speech/language aspects more salient are suggested, with a 2-minute example of such an interaction between a mother and her 13-month-old hearing-impaired daughter. (DB)