Hi everyone,
I am usually at this wonderful site because I my 9 yo ds w/ADHD and visual issues. That seems to be getting under control just in time for me to start another journey….
My 2nd grade daughter is is 7 1/2. She has had an increasing hearing loss since about 4. Starting at 20% now up to 40%, both ears. Early on in 1st I wanted her in the remedial reading, becase my gut told me she wasn’t strong and I thought the hearing had something to do w/it. Plus the program had been a blessing for my son. I contacted the director of the reading program, the speech person and her teacher. Her reading scores came on the low side of average so she didn’t qualify. The reading director personally worked w/her 1 on 1 for about a month, just to give her a little extra attention. At that time the speech woman was shocked because she’d been in her room a lot and never picked up on the hearing loss because she compensated so well. Because it was being done for her brother she joined the bandwagon and was tutuored 2x a week this summer as well as a 3 week mini “school” camp. Also, over the summer her loss increased to 40%. Because of the increase of the loss I decided to let the speech women know, also noticed some minor regression in speech w/her R’s. Because the hearing loss increased, and the portential to keep increasing was there, she involved the guidance couselor (incharge of 504’s and IEP’s). The guidance couselor, like the speech therapist, was concerned because of the potential for more loss so she decided to pull in the district level deaf and hearing impairment support. Things have really moved forward since Sept. The specialist’s in class observations ended up with just about every red flag that could be checked off was. She has done very well in math, ok in lang arts and is very well behaved and liked so she was not screaming out for attention and almost slipped through the cracks. The specialist had a sound feild put in the class (teacher has portable mic & speaker) on the 3rd day the teacher emailed me and told me dd had raised her hand more that week than she had in the 1st 10 weeks of school. So the marking period just ended. Her reading level has not increased since the end of first. Her accuracy is ok but not fluent and very slow..51 wpm..I think. What I was told, and it makes sense, is now that the vocabulary is expanding and more sounds are being used it will be harder for her to pull off normal scores, it will get harder. She is in the remdial program as of next week (which she is not happy about because now she is getting pulled from her current group) and qualifies for the Hearing specialist to work w/her 2x’s a week. The sound feild only needed a 504 but her services require an IEP. The specialist will work on educating her on her loss (which we’ve already done), as well as teaching her to listen and discriminate. Processing problems were also eliminated. She will also work on the reading, I guess as how it applies to an impairment and how to address the sounds? The remedial reading program will jump in a step up from that working on the basics: phonics, maniplutives and the biggest benefit is it is 1 teacher to two students so she will hear much more than her current group of 20 just because of background noise.
I guess my question is does it sound like a good approach? There may be a little redundany w/the reading but they are willing to work together and at this point I think too much of the basics is better than not enough. I’d love to hear about any similar experiences as well as what we can be doing at home. Linda Mood Bell, Phone Graphix or Audio Blox? I am so sorry this is so long but will appreciate any feedback. Thanks so much!
reading andhearing impairment
My son is hearing impaired, too. He has a high frequency sensorineural hearing loss that is stable. He learned to read with Phono-Graphix. His spelling is still pretty bad. He does not hear /s/ very well and drops off plurals. Says “he” for “she” etc.
I agree with Victoria’s comments. The more she can understand about sounds and their relationship to reading now, the better off she will be if she continues to lose hearing ability. Lip reading can also be important and should be a skill that your school system teaches hearing impaired students. Cued speech will also help if her hearing declines.
The good news is that your school seems quite responsive to your child’s need so that you can work together to maximize her learning. Good luck.
what is the root of the the progression in the hearing loss?
I am an SLP and I have a genetic hearing loss. Do you know what can be done to slow the progression in her hearing loss or what is causing it? I have Meneire’s Disease with the accompanying low frequency hearing loss. My hearing is fairly stable now due to medication which also controls the fluctuation in my hearing.
Does your daughter wear hearing aids? Are you using closed captioning TV at home? What is being done to conserve her hearing? One thing that I have seen recently is many kids listen to music loudly with Apple I-PODS and they don’t realize this can cause permanent damage to their hearing due to the loudness and intensity of the sound piped into their ears.
The program sounds good for your daughter but you did not mention if she sees an audiologist or Ear Nose and Throat Specialist to monitor and manage her hearing loss.
Re: 7 yo dd w/Hearing Impairment needs help w/reading!
Hi there,
Thanks to you all for replying. The advise was all sound and in the general direction I expected. Sorry I didn’t give more background. Her loss is because she had several infections w/ruptures in both ears at @ 2 1/2 so we had tubes put in. Then when the tubes fell out her eardrums did not natrually close up because of the loss of elasticity from all the ruptures. One hole is @ 80% of the drum surface area the other @ 40%. Additionally they are “open doors” for bacteria to march on in. Her loss, because of drum damage is 25 to 40%, w/ it highter when she is infectied (often) because the goop starts to ooze out of the drums then gets all clogged up…then off to the ENT to get suctioned. The larger hole requires corrective surgerey w/scalp tissue, and a 2 to 3 month hearing loss because of packing, but the ideal age is @10. The other hole only requires a fat graph, w/fat from ear lobe, they tried this past July and it didn’t take. They will try again next time when they are doing the more complicated surgery. These surgeries only have @ 75% sucess rate. The surgeries will not return her lost hearing just hopefully prevent infections and the potential for increased permanent loss. Traditional hearing aids won’t work because of the drum damage. A “pinna” aid could work ..for the pinna bone behind the ears. But…it is a learge contraption and at this point she’d resist greatly. If we can avoid it we will but I am not ruling it out. I have total loss, in one ear, that occurred as an adult so I know if she can get throughthese sound/reading hurdles she can manage it. Most people don’t know I have the loss because I use all of my stratgies so well. So I think for now I’ll see how the remedial reading and hearing impaired support improve her reading. I think at our re-evaul in March I’ll know if I need to look into something intense for the summer. Thanks again.
it will be harder for your daughter..
You lost your hearing as an adult and it is only on one side. She has a bilateral loss which has occured as she was developing her language… Hopefully it is something that can be controlled if the ear infections are kept in check? Has she had a tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy and is she treated for allergies because that could be part of the problem for the recurrent ear infections.
Learning to read for student with hearing loss
Hi,
I have been teaching a boy who had the same problems with his ears as your daughter. He is in grade 5 and was reading on a preprimer level when he was accessed last spring. (No decoding skills because he was unable to clearly hear the sounds of the letters). But he is a very quick learner, and memorizes well. So when someone reads info to him, he “gets it.”
The fulltime SLD teacher at his school assigned him to me this year to see if I could help him learn to read. (I am split between 2 schools). I told her I thought that if he was taught to decode every word using a concrete, multi-sensory method, he would learn to read.
The good news is that once he “did decoding,” the idea of sounds for words began to make sense to him. Then his quick mind kicked in, and he found out he could memorize words easily. I have been very pleased with his progress since late Aug.
Also, several years ago, I tutored a 1st grade student with hearing loss, and helped him survive in the reg ed classroom until his parents were able to get sped for him. Email me at [email protected] if you would like me to send you copies of letters about the method that I exchanged with another teacher.
Anita www.learntoreadnow.com
Re: 7 yo dd w/Hearing Impairment needs help w/reading!
I have taught hearing impaired children for 20 years. I would say that the services will be a plus IF the hearing impaired teacher and remedial reading teacher have been trained in any of the good structured language reading programs for dyslexic children. Often they haven’t been. I would ask exactly what they plan to use with her. Then come back and tell us. I do use a program similar to Phono-Graphix sucessfully with hearing impaired children.
At home, I’d recommend that you get the Earobics software as well as Sound Reading Solutions elementary software. She might do better with ehadphones, but you will need to train her to use the Earobics CD before letting her do it independently. For example, they have to learn to click on a little horn if they need the item repeated before answering.
Her type of loss is not as devastating as a sensori-neural progressive loss which can lead to total deafness. As you said, you could be using a bone conduction hearing aid if she doesn’t do well enough with the soundfield system.
Janis
My gut feeling on this is to get in as much sound therapy, Lindamood Bell, language learning, and phonics as you can cram in fast before her hearing drops any further. I know from reading that people who have language skills before they become deaf have a far easier time than those who have to learn them without hearing. I would tend to consider the next couple of years as a last window of opportunity and spend as much time enriching as possible. If her hearing stays OK or she gets workable hearing aids, you won’t have lost anything, and if she does lose the hearing, at least she will have good language and reading skills to go on with.