Chapter Four:
This chapter was all about early identification and early intervention. I think that is one thing that was drilled into our heads throughout the program! I agree though that early identification and intervention are so important. The earlier you know the earlier you can make arrangements to help the child succeed in language growth and speech (if that is what is best for the child). Below is a few things that stood out while reading the chapter:
Some practitioners initially questioned whether identification of hearing loss at such an early age might interfere with development of positive parent-infant bonding. (page 40)
Six months of age does not always emerge as critical for positive effects of early intervention for deaf children. (page 43)
Last, one question at the end of the chapter stuck out to me. Why does the average development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children continue to lag that of typical hearing children even in the case of early intervention? (page 47) Why is this the case? What a great question to ponder...
Chapter Five:
This chapter was about language development, languages, and language systems. I think it would be a hard choice to decide what mode of communication you are going to choose for your child if you do not know anything about deafness. What a difficult task to decide how your child is going to communicate? I think it should all depend on the child but I could talk about this forever. A couple of things that stood out in the reading for me were regardless of the modality of language, language delays result from lack of complete access to a language model (pg. 78) and regardless of the language approach used, deaf and hard-of-hearing children tend to have significant delays in the acquisition of vocabulary, the understanding and use of grammatical morphemes, and other aspects of syntax (pg. 79). I just am curious why even if you do everything you are supposed to do, early identification and intervention, why there is still a delay? It just doesn't seem fair. Anyways, this chapter was a good refresher and I learned a few new things about all the different approaches to language (oral or sign language).
I found the concern that early identification and intervention may affect parent-infant bonding very interesting as well. This is something I have thought about before. It is sad to think that learning this information would affect that relationship between a parent and child but I can also see how it would. From what I read, it appeared that they found there isn't an impact on the relationship but it is still something I wonder about. I would imagine that the benefits of the early intervention services would be enough of a positive impact to outweigh any possible negative impact this information may cause. I also think that with these early services a lot of us have seen the parent become more involved in their child's education and that bond would be rebuilt. I'm not sure, just a thought!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was a concern that identifying your child as having a hearing loss may affect parent-infant bonding. I know we have talked about how parents are ussually going through the grief process at this time and there could be differences in their bonding with their child. I think that it is still important for a child to be identified and recieve intervention early on regardless of the potential affect of parent-infant bonding. If the child does not recieve the services that they need there more problems in the future then just a strain on the parent-infant bonding.
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