Parents’ guidance is very important for the language development of deaf children

The acquisition of listening skills is an important guarantee for hearing-impaired children to get sound speech rehabilitation. The earlier the hearing-impaired children are diagnosed by audiology and equipped with appropriate hearing aids (hearing aids or cochlear implants), the earlier they can acquire the possibility of language and speech development corresponding to their age. In order to make this possible, language teachers and parents of hearing-impaired children should continue to cooperate with audiologists and do a good job in the continuous and effective management of hearing ability of young hearing-impaired children, that is, to do a good job in the basic work of audiology.

The importance of listening management

Listening ability management is an important basic task in the process of hearing and language rehabilitation. For audiologists, the content of hearing management includes the identification of the types of hearing impairment and the degree of hearing loss; the early detection of hearing impairment and the early configuration of hearing aid equipment; and the timely and appropriate debugging of hearing aid equipment according to the observed changes in children’s hearing system, so as to optimize its effectiveness, and work closely with parents of hearing impaired children to provide high-quality hearing and Learning environment. For parents or caregivers of hearing-impaired children, listening management also needs their participation. They must change from passive observation to active participation. Therefore, when a audiologist is doing a hearing test for a child, his family (or caregiver) must be present. On the one hand, it is to let them understand the hearing problems of deaf children, on the other hand, it is also to increase their relevant knowledge. When the family (or the caregiver) participates in the scene, they should provide the hearing doctor with the phenomena observed on weekdays according to the response of the child’s hearing test, which is the responsibility and obligation of the parents (or the caregiver) in the implementation of hearing management.

Taking the children for hearing test, hearing aid equipment debugging or audiology professional evaluation provides a very favorable opportunity for parents to deeply understand and grasp the hearing ability of the deaf children at this stage. Parents who lack awareness and experience can only passively listen to the general and general introduction of audiologists, while experienced parents will actively ask professional doctors about their concerns. The more targeted your questions are, the more systematic and comprehensive you are in your child’s current listening comprehension.

Listening test – in depth understanding of children’s listening ability

When a child’s hearing test is carried out, as a parent, he should fully understand the test items and the corresponding phenomena and significance of the items. Generally speaking, hearing test includes naked ear hearing test, hearing aid threshold, Lin’s six tones, acoustic immittance test and brainstem evoked potential test. At the same time, it is supplemented by speech perception threshold, speech auditory response test and true ear test to fully understand the children’s hearing status.

After the child has finished the hearing test, you can understand the following problems:

● what is the overall hearing loss of the child

● which frequency range does the child listen to better

● which frequency band can’t be heard at present

● which side of the ear has more hearing at which frequency

● how about the middle ear function of children? If the middle ear function is not good, can it be improved through treatment

● has the child’s hearing level changed compared to the last test

② when the child finishes hearing threshold examination, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● does the child have the ability to detect the sound, that is, pay attention to listening when there is a sound and find the sound source

● what vowel sound potential does the child have to perceive

● which vowels are likely to be heard as similar by children and need visual cues to distinguish them

● which consonant phoneme does the child have the auditory ability to detect

Which consonant is more difficult for children’s independent auditory perception

③ when the child has finished the six tone imitation check, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● from the current basis, what speech sounds can children perceive

● does the child have the ability to detect all vowels or recognize vowels in the back, middle or front position; can he detect all consonants or distinguish some features of consonants (pronunciation method, pronunciation position)

● after improving the middle ear function, which speech sounds are most easily detected

● at what distance can’t children recognize speech sounds in detail and accurately

● at present, which amplification strategy can improve children’s hearing ability to distinguish speech sound details?

④ after the child completes the impedance hearing test, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● what is the function of the middle ear of the child? Will it affect the pure tone threshold

● how often does a child’s middle ear function need to be checked

⑤ after the child completes the auditory brainstem response test, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● what is the degree of hearing loss in children’s ears

● can the sound heard by children be transmitted to the auditory center smoothly

● is the child’s behavior observation response consistent with the ABR test results

● what are the differences between ABR and other hearing test results

After the child completes the speech perception threshold test, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● what is the speech sound intensity that the child can perceive

● how loud can children perceive in class

● how loud is the child’s perceived difficulty or inability in class

● in daily living environment, how much speech sound can children naturally perceive

After the child completes the speech acceptance threshold test, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● can children understand familiar words only through hearing

● when speaking with children, what is the softest voice level that children can distinguish words

● when speaking with the child in the background noise, what is the level of the softest utterance that the child can distinguish between small phrases

● what is the best level of speech recognition for children at this stage

● at what distance can children achieve the best speech recognition level by using existing hearing aids

● with FM system and existing hearing aids, can children’s hearing achieve the best speech recognition level

⑧ after the child completes the word recognition test, you should ask and understand the following questions:

● is the child’s listening level in monosyllabic word recognition test at the level of multiple choice or at the open level

● children’s errors in auditory discrimination mainly include vowel discrimination, consonant pronunciation method discrimination, consonant pronunciation method discrimination or consonant pronunciation part discrimination

● in the real environment, which way does the child rely more on (pure listening, pure looking or combination of listening and looking) to receive verbal information

● what is the impact on children’s auditory word recognition in the background noise environment

⑨ after the child completes other relevant speech auditory response tests, you need to ask and understand the following questions:

● can the child recognize the differences in stress patterns between monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic words? If not, what are the stress patterns he can correctly distinguish

● in the classification and combination of auditory discrimination of each type of stress pattern, what are the words that children can correctly distinguish

Can children distinguish between two word types

● can children recognize words and short sentences in the closed item response test

● can children understand short or long stories and answer questions

● can children understand the story in the background noise

● can the child distinguish the details of the sentence material

● can additional visual cues improve children’s recognition of intentional components of sentences

● what is the child’s ability to recognize sentence details in background noise

● in the natural environment, can children recognize the spectrum difference of environmental sound

When the child has finished the test of sound transmission through the probe tube, you need to ask and understand the following questions:

● is the child’s hearing aid (hearing aid or FM system) working properly

● in order to improve children’s current hearing ability and speech perception ability, do hearing aids or ear models need to be adjusted or improved

● which FM assistant system can improve children’s speech hearing ability in various listening environments

Why should we pay attention to children’s auditory behavior in life

This is because hearing-impaired children go to professional service institutions for hearing test and ability assessment, which only reflects the hearing response of children at a certain time in a specific environment, and can only provide static and fragment information, not represent the whole picture of children’s hearing performance. Children’s natural performance and response from real life environment can make up for this deficiency, and provide more valuable dynamic information for professional testing and debugging of audiologists, so as to help children optimize their listening ability and provide effective help for their early return to the sound world.

How to use daily observation to record children’s auditory performance in detail

(1) observation records on the use of equipment and the discomfort of loudness

● record the times, days and time of wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants on a weekly basis, and describe the life rule of wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants within one week.

● record whether the child complained about the loud voice or showed fidgety (such as shock, crying, covering the ears, removing hearing aids, or other discomfort symptoms) in one week, and describe in detail the time and place when the child appeared or did not appear the above behaviors.

② observation records of children’s listening in different environments

A. in a quiet environment (when the TV, music or radio is off or when other people in the room are in other areas or engaged in quiet activities), describe in detail the time and place when the child appears or does not appear the following behaviors in one week.

● the child is sitting side by side with you, or behind you, or passing through the room, or keeping your eyes closed to let you feed. When the child can’t see your face, can he immediately respond to a familiar voice (call his name, talk to him or sing a familiar song)? For example, he may show a smile, look up, turn his head, respond orally to you; or be quiet, or stop Stop sucking, speed up sucking, open your eyes, open your eyes wider or stare.

● when you ask your child a simple question (e.g. where is the mother?) or finish a simple task (e.g. look, clap, wave)