“Children with typical hearing tend to follow a general sequence of speech sound mastery (Sander, 1972).
We all know that children with typical hearing do not speak perfectly when they begin to talk. Every child takes a while to master the production of speech. Many children below the age of 3 or 4 years old have spoken language that only their families can understand. It takes time for any child to master their speech production.
Most children with typical hearing master their speech production between 6 and 8 years old.
When a child with a hearing loss begins to talk, sometimes parents can feel concerned if their speech is not clear. In AVT, we realise that perfect speech is only achieved by quality listening time so we need to set realistic expectations for these early years of listening.
AVT is always diagnostic – every session, an AV therapist helps and guides a parent to become diagnostic and together, the parent and therapist set appropriate speech goals for that child’s listening age.
We must always keep in mind the appropriate developmental route for any child.
Some children who are diagnosed later or they are late in having appropriately set hearing aids/ late to cochlear implantation, are later in having their auditory brain exposed to sound and this can affect how well or how clearly the child is speaking.
It can therefore be useful on these occasions to begin to use some remedial methods to correct speech appropriate to that child’s development and hearing age. This must be done carefully in order to set the correct goals in the right order.
Rosie Gardner
