Excerpts from: “ Definitions
and Descriptions “ by Mark Ross Ph.D.,
in
“Our Forgotten Children; Hard of Hearing
Children in the Schools” J. M. Davis
SHHH Publications, MD U.S.A ,
2001
It is easy to forget hard of hearing children.
There is nothing about them that immediately calls attention to itself or tugs at one's heartstrings. Most hard of hearing
children have little difficulty understanding face‑to‑face
conversational speech. Their speech is ordinarily perfectly intelligible, even
if often marked by evident articulation deficiencies. Their voice quality and
speech rhythmic patterns are usually not too different from those exhibited by
normally hearing children. In other words, little about them marks them as
disabled, unless they wear visible hearing aids (which is
one important reason why many object to wearing them). Ironically, their
superficially normal appearance and abilities may make the situation worse for
them. Hard of hearing children do not
get the services they need and deserve because their very real problems are
masked by an apparently normal facade.
When we get past this
facade, however, and focus on the impact of a hearing loss
upon their speech, language, academic performance and behavior, it is apparent
that the potential consequences of the condition are far from trivial. What
has often happened in the past, and no doubt still happens, is that if a
hearing loss is not understood to be the basic genesis of their problems, then
other reasons (i.e., intelligence, emotional adjustment, attention deficit
disorder, etc.) may be ascribed as the responsible agent. A hearing loss in a
child, of whatever degree, is not a benign condition. It has ramifications that
can pervade every aspect of the child's life.
Hard of Hearing – a Definition
A hard of hearing child develops speech and language
skills primarily through the auditory
mode and employs (or is capable of employing) a primarily auditory‑verbal system of communication. While many
of these children may be dependent upon visual cues for interpersonal
communication, vision is still a secondary channel compared to audition. “Deaf”
refers to any person whose development of communication skills occurred primarily
through the visual channel and whose current mode of communication is primarily
visually based. (Note that this an audiological
definition, not a psychosocial one. Some audiologically hard of hearing people
identify themselves as Deaf and part of the Deaf community)
In
this respect, hard of hearing children are much more like normally hearing
children than they are like deaf children, exactly the opposite of what is
commonly presumed. Thus, a child who is hard of hearing is frequently treated
as a high‑achieving deaf child rather than as a lower achieving normally
hearing child. It makes a difference. In the latter case, parents and teachers
would be expected to increase the pressure for higher accomplishments.
Expectations are higher if they are based on normally hearing children. In the
former instance, the child would be considered to already be doing quite well
for a deaf child. Expectations are lower, since the
educational achievement of deaf children is often much lower than that of
normally hearing children). Many of the educational aberrations to which hard
of hearing children are exposed follow from this erroneous, limiting, and
basically pessimistic conception.
Hard of hearing children vary widely in the
attributes, experiences, and backgrounds that characterize all children, but
also in the dimension that defines them as hard of hearing ‑ the
degree, and nature of their hearing losses. Some have a hearing loss in only
one ear, a “unilateral hearing loss”.
The
kinds of difficulty children with unilateral hearing loss experience are quite
different from those manifested by children with bilateral hearing losses. The
former seem to hear better and usually manifest no speech or language problems
but will have more academic deficiencies than their normally hearing peers.
They are also likely to have more difficulty localizing sound sources and
understanding speech in adverse acoustical circumstances than children with
bilateral hearing losses. Because their behavior is harder to predict, they
tend to be rated more negatively by parents and teachers than children with
bilateral hearing losses (Bess, 1986).
Vocabulary
Perhaps
the most glaring deficiency in the language capabilities of hard of hearing
children is the status of their vocabulary. All studies of vocabulary usage by
these children indicate that they know and use many fewer words in their
utterances than do normally hearing children (Davis, Elfenbein, Schum, and
Bentler, 1986). Hard of hearing children often learn, or are taught, a single
meaning for a word or, conversely, a single word to express some general
concept. For example, the word "run" may mean an act of rapid,
bipedal locomotion, but not striving for a political office, having difficulty
with a nylon stocking, or the nasal consequences of a bad cold.
Hard
of hearing children appear to be bound by the literal meaning of words, in much
the same way as someone who is learning a second language. Words expressing
nuances of meaning may be either lacking or seriously reduced. Because a great
deal of normal conversation is made up of idiomatic or metaphoric expressions, slang,
and colloquialisms, these children are often linguistic strangers in their own
homes. Often, they "just don't get it."
Most
children pick up vocabulary almost automatically. All parents have experienced
the "big ears" of their normally hearing children who overhear
conversations they were not supposed to. These children can hear and learn new
vocabulary from any direction within earshot, whether or not the words are
intended to be heard. Hard of hearing children, on the other hand, tend to
master only those words directed right to them. But who will take the time to
teach a hard of hearing child the additional meanings of such words as
"cool," or the multiple meanings of common words such as
"ball" and "get (as in get sick, get back, get a grip, get a
life, get going, etc.).
Psychosocial Status
Superficially, there is nothing about the
appearance of hard of hearing children that sets them apart from their peers.
Some of them may exhibit behavioral problems, but so do many normally hearing
children. They may be withdrawn or aggressive, socially adjusted or
maladjusted, quiet or outspoken. Rarely do hard of hearing children behave in
ways that are not also frequently found in some of their normally hearing
classmates. Even the fact that they
have hearing losses does not mark them uniquely. These children are not deaf.
They can and do respond to speech and other sounds. When they do respond, or
respond incorrectly or inappropriately, their reactions are not necessarily
attributed to a hearing loss.
Instead, they are often accused of
not listening, not paying attention, or daydreaming. They are sometimes
described as children who "can hear when they want to" and who are
deliberately provoking their parents and teachers by willfully ignoring or misunderstanding
them. Professionals and parents cannot understand why these children are
able to comprehend in some, but not in other, superficially comparable
situations.
The effect of language complexity, dialectical
or poorly articulated speech, distance from the speech source, and poor room
acoustics will often have a disproportionate effect upon the ability of hard
of hearing children to understand spoken messages. Levels of reverberation and
room noise, that normally hearing children can tolerate easily may make speech
comprehension extremely difficult or impossible for hard of hearing children. Although
they can hear in almost all situations, they cannot understand in many of them.
Because of their unpredictable responses, observers often expect communication
behaviors beyond their ability. Adults assume that they will comprehend a
message because they can so evidently hear it. Other children may consider
them less than desirable playmates for reasons that neither group really
comprehends. The resulting, reciprocally reinforcing conflicts between societal
expectations and the capabilities of the children, and between the needs of
the children and the elusive and blocked gratification of those needs by an
insensitive and ignorant environment, can affect these children all through
their school years.
Children who are hard of hearing appear to
depend more upon the teachers for mediating classroom activities than do
normally hearing children, who rely much more on their peers (Kennedy,
Northcott, McCauley and Williams, 1976). This
is understandable when one considers the difficulty many hard of hearing children
have in following classroom discussions (ensuring effective child‑to‑child
communication in a classroom may be the major acoustic challenge).
As the
children get older and become peer dominated (just like other adolescents),
their personal and social problems may increase (Reich, Hambleton and Houldin, 1977). During adolescence, they may
rebel against wearing visible hearing devices and personal identity problems
may occur. As has been emphasized in this chapter, hard of hearing children are
not deaf, but neither are they normally hearing. A hard of hearing child
wearing, or requiring personal amplification, may be the only such student in
the school. They often feel different and isolated.
Their situation, however, need not be so
unremittingly gloomy. Social maladjustment and problems with self‑esteem
are not inevitable (Elser, 1959; Kennedy, et al, 1976; Reich, et al, 1977; Ross, 1978). Many of the apparent differences between hard of
hearing children and their normally hearing peers fall within an accepted range
of behaviors. This is not to deny the existence of problems, potential or
existing, but to affirm that the problems can be alleviated or reduced with
proper psychosocial management (Schwartz, 1989).
Before this can be done, however, the psychosocial problems must be
recognized for what they are, problems secondary to the hearing loss and not
an inherent personality factor. The key is understanding
the perceptual implications of all types of hearing loss. Once this is done,
behaviors that are apparently inexplicable become clear, as do the potential
solutions.
Some Summary Comments
It should be understood that not
every child who is hard of hearing will display communication or educational
problems secondary to the hearing loss. What can be asserted, however, is that
based on the research, children with any type and degree of hearing
loss are at risk for possible problems due to hearing loss.
Above all, what must be kept in mind
is that an individual’s needs and unique personality transcend any
categorization that divides children who are hard of hearing or deaf, or
somewhere in between. It may be a cliché, but it is one with a great deal
of truth: children are children first, and only
secondarily a member of any defining category.
