social-communication-pragmatics

When we think of the needs of children with hearing loss, it is widely known that they are very likely to have significant delays in language skills without early, effective and meaningful interactions with those around them. Hearing loss is a distance sense, which allows people to hear what is going on around them, from a few inches to many feet away in some situations.

What is universal to children with hearing loss is that they have a reduced listening bubble, meaning that they are unable to overhear conversations going on around them beyond a few feet. Hearing aids have a very small microphone and pick up sound best in a quiet room when the speaker is within 3-6 feet. The distance between the ears of a child sitting on the floor near a standing parent is often further than 3-6 feet.

Along with fewer words learned, children with hearing loss are at high risk for not learning what typically hearing age mates know about social communication, or pragmatic language use.