Auditory Communication for Deaf Children: A Guide for Teachers, Parents and Health Professionals

For hearing-impaired children, the development of listening skills is the basis for successful spoken language, communication, and conversation. This book presents a rationale and framework for auditory learning in childhood, and it describes a wide range of practical listening activities that can be applied during everyday interaction with a deaf child. Written for parents, teachers, and students, the book will serve as a guide to intervention and practice. Recurrent themes include adult-child interaction, careful observation of communication behavior, adaptation to the child's abilities, introduction of complex listening tasks to challenge the child, and application of effective communication strategies. The book contains not only basic activities for listening practice, but also proposes methods for adaptive auditory assessment, conversation-based therapy, telephone-communication training, self-help communication strategies for children, and use of a hearing-loss simulator to develop speech and language clarity in communication partners. It shows how adults can become better communicators and how they can help hearing-impaired children maximize their listening skills. Many of the teaching/therapeutic methods are based on evidence obtained from research studies. Other methods are based on practical experience obtained in pre-schools, classrooms, clinics, and parent-advisory centers. References to supporting literature are provided throughout the text. Auditory Communication for Deaf Children is an excellent book from start to finish. All topics are presented in short, easy-to-understand segments. Charts, diagrams, and other graphic aids are ubiquitious, providing readers with how-to's at a glance. Highly recommended. Choice, September 2012, Vol. 50 No. 01