Parents have a stronger role than researchers thought, in developing verbal language in children with hearing issues. A new study from the University of Miami shows “maternal sensitivity [has] strong and consistent effects on oral language learning”, a fact that hospital cochlear implant teams need to note.
Read: Mom’s sensitivity helps language learning in deaf children
Parent-Child Talk Is Everything
Dr Dana Suskind at the University of Chicago, similarly believes children with cochlear implants need to hear words, interact and share reading time with their families, to have an optimal language-development environment.
Being in a silent environment isn’t conducive to language learning. Verbal family interactions need alternating with reading and time on smart-devices, and the children need to interact in person at a social and emotional level.
This research from Miami proves that children with parental guidance and hearing-devices are best placed to learn incidentally – by overhearing what’s said around them, whether this is supplemented by lip-reading or not.
More Reading
- New Words-App For Children With Hearing Issues
- After A Cochlear Implant – The Real Work Begins
- One Language May Be Best For Kids With Implants
- Bilateral Cochlear Implants – Hearing With Two Ears
- How Families Can Accept Hearing Technology
- Massachusetts Prices The Cost Of Not Intervening
- Apps For Son’s Language Development (Part 1)
- A Surgeon’s Thirty Million Words Research
