Research indicates that only 10% of children achieve full-time hearing aid use during all waking hours and 40% wear them only 4 hours or fewer per day. Young children average only 5 hours of wear, with 2 of these in noise.

This presentation reviews the reasons why young children with hearing loss may remove their hearing aids and how we can support families in achieving full-time use, as early as possible. [This presentation can be expanded to 2 hours as a support to reviewing the contents of the Achieving Effective Hearing Aid Use in Early Childhood guide for parents and early interventionists.] For early interventionists, not school-age providers.

• Describe the importance of hearing aid wear in young children, including brain development and language outcomes
• Describe child development and wearing hearing aids at different ages
• Describe gaining independence and transitioning to preschool

Students with hearing loss are the only ones, if trained, who can identify immediately when their hearing devices are malfunctioning. This presentation will review the legal need to teach students hearing device monitoring skills along with reviewing some key self-advocacy expectations.

• Describe why it is important to teach hearing aid independence skills and related listening strategies
• Describe the general hierarchy of independence and self-advocacy expectations
• Describe specific hearing aid independence and self-advocacy skills with suggested activities

Increasingly, students are being educated in their neighborhood schools where they may be the only person using hearing technology. Developing independence and expectations for increasing responsibility for hearing device care and self-advocacy is part of the expanded core curriculum and is necessary, as only the student can identify when interfering hearing challenges occur.

• Describe why it is important to teach students specific hearing aid independence and self-advocacy skills
• Describe hierarchies of expectations for skill development in independence with hearing devices and self-advocacy
• Provide examples of activities to use to teach hearing device independence and self-advocacy skills

This one-day workshop reviews the information contained within the 500-page Building Skills for Success in the Fast-Paced Classroom book, which is now owned by more than 1/4 of the teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing in the US. The seven chapters cover assessment, understanding the effects of hearing loss on speech perception, auditory development, social and conversational competence, communication repair, self-concept development, self-advocacy, and accessing the general education curriculum. [This workshop is intended to be presented primarily to participants who have been provided the book.]

• Describe the educational impact of hearing loss and functional assessment of adverse educational needs.
• Use materials to improve communication skills, including auditory development, social skills, conversational competence.
• Use materials to improve function in the classroom via self-advocacy, communication repair, and accessing the general education curriculum.

Communication breakdowns happen to everyone, but more often to children with hearing loss, especially in large group listening environments and when socializing. An essential part of self-advocacy is the ability to appropriately repair communication breakdowns.While this is a skill that develops naturally in children with typical hearing, those with hearing loss do not develop communication repair skills at the same rate or in the same way without specific skill development. [This can also be a half-day workshop that accompanies purchase of the Student Communication Repair Inventory & Practical Training for each participant.]

• Describe how communication repair skills develop in the typically hearing young child versus the child with hearing loss
• Describe a method to assess a student’s communication repair ability in comparison to typically developing peers
• Describe at least 3 strategies for developing student communication repair skills.

IDEA requires that schools ensure that hearing devices worn by students with hearing loss are functioning properly. As it is only the child who can identify, with training, the point at which hearing changes (due to malfunctions) it is necessary for schools to build student skills in independence with amplification devices.Specific age expectations for skill development will be described and example IEP goals will be shared. [This presentation can be lengthened to a half-day workshop to accompany Building Skills for Independence in the Mainstream that would be provided to each participant.]

• Describe why it is important to teach hearing aid independence skills
• Implement use of hierarchies of hearing aid independence
• Use suggested activities to improve specific hearing aid independence skills

This presentation focuses on the need for students to be able to identify when they have challenges comprehending what was said and expectations for building specific self-advocacy skills, preschool through grade 4-5. When students become tweens/teens they need to work on developing problem-solving skills to apply their self-advocacy strategies in ways that further their self-determination.

• Describe the steps to building self-advocacy and self-determination skills in students with hearing loss
• Describe strategies for specific skill building with students
• Use hierarchies and assessment tools to determine expected skill development

Self-concept is how we feel about ourselves. It gradually emerges and is shaped and reshaped through repeated experiences. Consistent, dependable communication is a critical component of developing a healthy self-concept. Early messages that families provide to their children and negative communication experiences with others can have a strong impact on self-concept.

• Describe aspects of self-concept that develop in toddlerhood
• Describe elements of social communication and provide ways to assess these issues
• Provide guidance for working with families to develop appropriate social communication and self-concept

Early hearing loss identification, intervention and amplification has resulted in children at age 3 having better language skills than at any previous point in history.Too often a standard language test will identify low average skills and children are found to be ineligible because they are ‘normal.’  Thus the child with hearing loss is often not assessed appropriately with evaluations that lack tailoring to identify issues in areas of need most vulnerable to the impact of hearing loss.

• Present legal issues related to eligibility and service provision decisions
• Discuss ways to empower families to help them get through the transition process
• Considering appropriate assessment results to include for eligibility/planning considerations

Access to verbal instruction is the foundation of student learning in the classroom. No hearing device restores typical hearing, challenging all students with hearing loss to compete with peers in the classroom setting.The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that school ensure that children with hearing loss are able to communicate as effectively as their typically hearing peers. Estimating access to classroom communication is the necessary initial step in evaluating a student’s needs within the school setting. 90 and 120 minute versions.

• Estimate how the student with hearing loss is perceiving verbal information in the classroom
• Describe ways to help teachers and parents understand the student’s access to verbal instruction issues
• Describe how functional listening and comprehension can be assessed as a necessary part of planning accommodations

Hearing loss is a barrier to accessing verbal communication, which impacts language, development, learning and literacy. This presentation provides an overview of the impact of hearing loss on brain development, access within the ‘listening bubble’, delays in vocabulary development, and audibility.

• Describe the importance of making speech accessible for auditory linguistic brain development
• How acoustic accessibility impacts listening, learning Language, and literacy
• Strategies for evaluating accessibility to communication in the environment

Most states are now requiring IEP goals written in accordance with the Common Core State Standards. Described will be the “new DHH learner,” the core standard areas most vulnerable to delay due to hearing loss and a variety of examples for self-advocacy IEP goals related the expanded core curriculum that reflect Common Core State Standards.

• Describe some characteristics of the “new DHH learner”
• Describe the importance of aligning habilitation activities with common core state standards
• Use specific goals to demonstrate how the common core state standards can be aligned to habilitation goals and activities

Communication in the school environment is challenging for students who are hard of hearing. Communication access is a topic of great consideration by school teams.This presentation will review the source of these challenges to learning and full participation. Information will be provided specifying the role of the pediatric audiologist in supporting the educational success of students with hearing loss, including specific testing and information to share with families and schools.

• Describe the audibility necessary for auditory learning
• Describe the communication challenges faced by students with hearing loss
• State specific assessment and other information to be shared with the parents and school

For children to become full participants in the classroom they require that access is optimized (usually through FM devices), teacher accommodations are provided and also that they use age-appropriate self-advocacy skills.Children with hearing loss do not perceive auditory information as fully as their typically hearing peers, resulting in communication breakdowns and missed classroom and social information. It is important for these children to learn self-advocacy skills from preschool through grade four and use problem-solving for self-determination as they reach the tween and teen years.

• Describe the steps to building self-advocacy and self-determination skills in students with hearing loss
• Describe strategies for specific skill building with students
• Use hierarchies and assessment tools to determine expected skill development

Only 1% of students with IEPs receive specialized services primarily due to hearing loss. Thus, school teams often misunderstand the access issues caused by hearing loss as they relate to classroom performance.As such, the involvement of persons with specialized knowledge in the area of education of the deaf/hard of hearing is increasingly being questioned. This presentation will provide justifications for involvement of D/HH professionals and suggestions for making the case for the unique access and learning needs of students with hearing loss.

• Share legal underpinnings requiring students with hearing loss to receive equal access to communication
• Describe inservicing steps to get across the needs of students with hearing loss to teachers, parents, school staff
• Clarify the specific expertise of DHH professionals as part of a team that supports the student with hearing loss

Even children with age-appropriate vocabulary development typically experience pragmatic language and social issues related to a lifelong reduction in incidental learning, secondary to a smaller listening bubble.This presentation will provide information about the components of social communication, means to assess, and ways to respond to improve social skills. Information will also be shared about psychosocial development and addressing feelings of belonging.

• Describe specific ways to identify pragmatic language needs and address socialization issues
• Describe how stages of psychosocial development affect student socialization and feelings of fitting in
• Use available materials to guide student discussions to address feelings of fitting in

With better child outcomes due to early identification, improved hearing devices and quality early intervention services, more children with hearing loss are being found ineligible for support services.This presentation will review eligibility requirements, the assessment process using the ‘deaf lens’ and provide some examples of assessments to use to identify needs in areas vulnerable delays in development due to hearing loss.

• Describe requirements for selecting assessments
• Describe some norm-referenced assessments to identify adverse educational affect secondary to listening issues
• Describe functional assessments to identify non-academic adverse educational affect

With better child outcomes due to early identification, improved hearing devices and quality early intervention services, more children with hearing loss are being found ineligible for support services.This presentation will review eligibility requirements and provide extensive detail about the assessment process in areas vulnerable delays in development due to hearing loss. Case examples will be provided throughout the presentation to facilitate integration into current practice.

• Describe requirements for selecting assessments
• Describe some norm-referenced assessments to identify adverse educational affect secondary to listening issues
• Describe functional assessments to identify non-academic adverse educational affect

Over 80% of children with hearing loss are educated primarily in mainstream classrooms within their neighborhood schools. Most schools that include children with hearing loss have only 1 or 2 in the building.Thus, it is common for classroom teachers to have little or no experience with students with hearing loss before they are assigned to their classes. Getting across the impact of hearing loss on listening, learning and behavior is paramount if the teacher is to understand why accommodations are necessary. Providing this information is a way that invites future collaboration is critical to supporting student success.

• Relate adult learning principles to communicating with teachers about their student with hearing loss
• Break the inservice activity into distinct steps and provide examples of information to be shared at each step
• Provide resource suggestions to inform the classroom teacher of the student issues related to hearing loss and set the stage for effective collaboration

Children with unilateral hearing loss are at ten times the risk for school failure as compared to their typically hearing peers. Unaddressed, mild hearing loss can result in a two-year language delay by school entry. There are more children with unilateral and mild degrees of hearing loss than all other degrees combined.This presentation reviews the barriers and issues caused by these ‘little hearing losses’, how educational needs can be identified, and ways to accommodate listening needs.

• Describe the causes, prevalence of and access barriers created by unilateral and mild hearing loss
• Describe ways in which educational needs of students with mild or unilateral hearing loss can be identified
• Describe how the access barriers of these hearing losses can be addressed by appropriate accommodations

Only 1 out of every 100 IEPs is for a child who has been made eligible for specialized instruction primarily due to hearing loss. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing typically require direct instruction from teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing, yet there are often misunderstandings about the role and competencies of the teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing in comparison to other special education providers.This session will compare and contrast the competencies of instructional providers and typical learning issues of students with special needs. Ideas will be provided for using this information to advocate for appropriate services for our “zebras.”

• Describe the analogy of zebras versus horses when considering the needs of children with hearing loss versus other populations of students.
• Describe the differences in competencies between the roles of the teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing, speech language pathologist, learning disabilities specialist and the regular education teacher
• Describe ways in which this knowledge can be used to advocate for appropriate student services.

Students don’t just wake up one day and decide to not use their hearing aids or FM systems. This session will explore the development of self-esteem, self-confidence, and resilience to adversity as it relates to children who are hard of hearing and actions that can be taken to build student attitudes to achieve continuous, successful amplification use.

• Describe factors from infancy and the elementary school years that impact resilience and self-esteem.
• Relate hearing device use to the schools’ responsibility by law and parent rights.
• Describe actions that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of students resisting or refusing to use hearing devices that are necessary for optimal school outcomes.

Based on the guide: The Developing Child with Unilateral Hearing Loss, this presentation provides specific information to share with parents of newly identified infants or toddlers with hearing in only one ear. Additional information is provided specific to children’s learning with mild hearing loss, including fluctuating hearing loss caused by recurrent ear infections. [This can be a half-day workshop in which The Developing Child with Unilateral Hearing Loss is provided to each participant or also include the 75-minute presentation on mild and fluctuating hearing loss.]

• Describe the causes and prevalence of unilateral hearing loss
• Present specific information to families based on PowerPoint slide information and provided handouts
• Describe the educational impact of hearing loss of mild degree (26-40 dB HL)