Goal 3: Language Skills
Goal #3: To develop an understanding of the important role of acoustic environment conditions and listening abilities in the development of auditory and spoken language skills.
Artifact 1: Listening Environment Profile for Classroom Acoustics
Earlier in EPSE 518, we learned about the acoustics and noise levels in an environment and how it affects our hearing especially for people with hearing losses. In EPSE 521, we were asked to assess the classroom our student was in using the Listening Environment Profile. The Listening Environment Profile is a tool used to assess the listening environment of the classroom. There is a possible 55 points to designate if the class is a poor or good listening environment. If the results are poor, the student who is D/HH and their teacher may need regular support as well as modifications for the classroom and an addition of sound field amplification. Many schools are built without consultation of an acoustic engineer and may need retrofitting as an upgrade. Now, when I walk in to a classroom, I notice the acoustics and what can be done to make it a better space. If the student is unable to hear in a noisy classroom, they are not getting full access to language. It is important to reduce all the confounding factors to give them the best, possible listening environment.
Artifact 2: Auditory Skill Development
The Functional Auditory Performance Indicator (FAPI) assesses the functional auditory skills of children with hearing loss. There are 7 categories containing skills that children should generally acquire in a hierarchical order. When administering the FAPI, we can find where the child is having difficulty and work on 4-8 skills at a time. Working with my student during my practicum, I was able to assess where he was with his auditory skills using the FAPI. With this information, I carefully chose the category, skill and conditions to further develop his listening. For each of the 7 goals, I had two different strategies that would work to build on his auditory skills. Click on the button below to see the plan.
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Artifact 3: Speech and Language Development
Through a video observation of a child, her mother and her Auditory Verbal Therapist (AVT) interacting, I was able to assess the level of her speech and language skills. I listened and transcribed the sounds and suprasegmentals she was making in the video. This led me to create goals to develop more sounds and speech for her linguistic repertoire. I also analyzed her expressive and receptive language skills. Since hearing children learn language in a hierarchical order, I found what stage she was on in her development of speech and then go on to the next sound. When working with younger children, finding those gaps in speech development can guide me to know where to go next.
Artifact 4: Speech and Auditory Development
In EPSE 518, we also worked on speech and language development which is exciting for me as my main focus in Linguistics was phonetics. We explored all the speech sounds from the English language and learned how to teach our students to elicit these sounds. Students who are D/HH have common difficulties with particular phonemes and suprasegmentals. There are many great resources, literature, and games available for teaching speech. We can teach each phoneme through auditory, visual, tactile, or visual and auditory modalities. It is important to know about the place and manner of articulation and how to write phonetically when working with our students so we can figure out what they are hearing and how we can teach them the components of speech. In this assignment, I focused on the phoneme /r/ and pitch. Please click on the button below to see my plan.
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