Training Transcripts

Transcript for Audition / Hearing and Learning Part 2

– [Instructor] The starting point for children to begin acquiring their spoken vocabulary is audition. It takes a baby roughly 500 exposures to a word for that word to become a part of his or her vocabulary. For instance, in order to give the word book meaning for a child being exposed to it for the first time, it needs to be spoken in context. We can’t just say the word, book, book, book, book, book, book, without context. By repeatedly exposing the child to the word book and speaking it in context, this word will begin to make sense and will have meaning to that child. Let’s read this book. Look at the red book. Eventually, the more the child hears the word book spoken in context, he or she will be able to begin associating the word book with its meaning. Much of what a child learns in his or her early years is not a result of direct teaching, but the result of passive auditory learning or overhearing. In fact, as a child enters kindergarten, 90% of what he or she knows is the result of passive listening from overhearing conversations taking place around him or her, rather than the information being taught directly.

Marvin Gaye said it best, we “Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

♪ Don’t you know I heard it through the grapevine ♪ ♪ Not much longer would you be mine ♪ ♪ Oh, baby ♪ ♪ Heard it through the grapevine ♪

Children with hearing loss, however, are less likely than their classmates to enter kindergarten with a 5,000 word vocabulary. They’re also less likely to have the same level of general knowledge about the world around them. Children with hearing loss will have less access to speech because of their hearing loss, and a smaller listening bubble than their classmates with typical hearing. A listening bubble simply refers to the distance or range of a child’s hearing ability. You can think of it as an incidental learning bubble. The larger this listening bubble, the more likely it is that a child can be exposed to new vocabulary and knowledge incidentally, without actively seeking it out. The listening bubble is an important concept to understand, because audition is a distal sense, meaning that we can hear things from a distance. The scope and range of the listening bubble determines how much incidental and passive auditory listening and learning a child can potentially be exposed to. The larger the listening bubble, the more range it can cover, and the more likely it is that a child can be exposed to a number of conversations and sounds. Hearing loss can create a smaller incidental learning and listening bubble. resulting in a reduction in the instances when effective incidental listening and learning opportunities take place. In addition, this smaller listening bubble not only impacts opportunities for children to develop their vocabulary skills, but also their knowledge and understanding about the world around them. Even though the baby in this image is not actively involved in her mother’s conversation, she is still overhearing the words her mother is speaking. Children who enter school with a reduced vocabulary may be at risk for reading problems. Let’s talk about how hearing, learning, and literacy are all connected. Many people believe that the act of reading is primarily a visual activity. This is because when we read, we are using our eyes to access and take in information. However, with brain mapping capabilities, we have come to understand that reading is an auditory-based function. The same areas of the brain light up when we are reading as when we are hearing. More importantly, what these images confirm is that we are neurologically programmed to process spoken language and reading through the auditory centers of the brain. Again, our language and vocabulary development is an auditory-based activity. Learning to verbalize language requires us to first listen to spoken language. No one sat us down and said, “Now I’m going to teach you how to speak.” We learned how to do this incidentally, via listening. Hearing is the Velcro to which skills such as attention, spoken language, reading, and academic competencies are attached. The take home message is this, hearing, learning, and literacy are all connected. Look at the two columns. Notice how one side corresponds to the other. For example, we see that phonological awareness corresponds to the ability to understand that words are made up of sounds. Phonologic development corresponds to the ability to begin to manipulate words. Grammar applies to spelling. Syntax, or word order, applies to phrasing and sentence manipulation. Semantics, which addresses the use of vocabulary, applies to the meaning and relationship of words. And finally, pragmatics, which refers to the practical use of language, All are important to literacy.

– What word should we do first?

– How about that one? Fir.

– St.

– [Both] First.

– St.

– Orm.

– [Both] Storm.

– St.

– Airs.

– [Both] Stairs.

– St.

– Ar.

– [Both] Star.

– L.

– Ast.

– [Both] Last.

– Is that the last one?

– Guess so. See ya.

– [Instructor] If you’ve ever seen “The Electric Company” on PBS, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen that spelling silhouette segment before. What that clip showed was a terrific example of not just word creation, but phonology. Phonology is the component of language that involves sounds and the perception of sounds. And a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. M is a phoneme, b is a phoneme, and k is a phoneme. Children can learn to associate the speech sounds that they hear and the words that they can speak to written letters that they recognize, spell, and use to write the words they can speak. Speech, of course, is made up of isolated sounds, and while “The Electric Company” video clip did not specifically demonstrate isolated individual phonemes, it did demonstrate how we can use those various smaller, isolated sounds to create whole words. In order to vocalize words, however, you must first be able to hear the different parts of speech sounds so that you can use those isolated sounds to form different words. The importance of this phonetic ability will carry over when a child first begins to learn to read. Listening to spoken language, even if only passively via audition, allows young children to hear speech and become familiar with the variety of sounds that make up spoken words. In this chart, you can see all the skills that are necessary in order to develop literacy skills. By developing phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, children can begin attaching meaning to sound. They can begin developing and comprehending syllable awareness, word awareness, and sensitivity to rhyme, and so on. Studies show that 80 to 90% of students who struggle with learning to read have weak phonological awareness. Children must have adequate access to sound in order to develop these basic phonologic and phonemic awareness skills, and ultimately develop strong literacy skills. This visual represents the importance of hearing and access in terms of literacy development. Hearing, or access to sound, forms the foundation for literacy. With that access develops phonetics, the speech sounds within any specific language, phenology, how those sounds work within the environment, morphology, how those sounds are combined to allow for meaning, semantics, the combination of sounds to form words with meaning, and syntax, word order and how the order of words relates to meaning. Again, hearing is the foundation for the development of language and literacy skills. The language skills that we just identified relate to the development of reading, and ultimately writing skills. This is because written language, orthography, represents phonology, morphology, and semantics. The role of a good hearing screening program is to identify those children who do not have adequate access to sound. Research has shown that children identified with a hearing loss and who receive early intervention before six months of age are given the opportunity to enter first grade with age appropriate language, cognitive, and social skills. So in essence, screening hearing at regular intervals from birth to 21 is critical to facilitate literacy development. Listening is the cornerstone of our educational system. In fact, 45% of a student’s day is spent engaged in listening activities. While kindergarten classrooms may be filled with a lot of visual stimulation, kindergartners are drilled with verbal instruction on a daily basis. Kindergartners with a good auditory system are more equipped to listen to verbal instruction and participate appropriately in classroom learning activities. While this spoken form of instruction may be effective for many children, it can pose difficulties for children with hearing loss. If a child cannot clearly hear and attend to spoken instructions, then the entire premise of the educational system is undermined. In summary, reading is a necessary and valued skill in our culture. School districts emphasize the importance of reading as demonstrated by their emphasis on reading competency scores. In kindergarten, educators will provide a redundant signal to children in many modes. For example, the instruction might be get out your yellow crayon. First, the teacher talks about the yellow crayon, then she shows it, and if necessary, she will even help a child locate the yellow crayon. About third grade, classroom instruction becomes more complicated. There will be an increase in multiple instructions, and there will be a decrease in the redundancy of those instructions. Students will be asked to sequence, remember, and recall abstract information and or multiple instructions that may be presented by the teacher one time only. This continues on throughout the grade levels. As instructions become more complicated, there will be a big leap to abstraction, there will be multiple meanings of words, and there will be less use of pictures. Children must have the ability to manipulate language. Recognizing that words have multiple meanings becomes key to students’ understanding of verbal instruction. This image demonstrates that there are many ways to express the same meaning using different words. Now look at these. Here we have a variety of examples of the different number of ways that we can use the word running to convey completely different meanings. She is running to the store. My nose is running. The refrigerator is running. I keep running into you. In summary, learning to read becomes reading to learn. If by third grade, children develop good spoken communication skills and can learn to read and write, they can become academically competent. Students who hear incomplete bits and pieces of information and or instruction are more likely than their peers to exhibit habits or conduct that may be misinterpreted by an instructor. The child may be described as having a lack of attention, being unresponsive to classroom participation, or being a problem child. Can students capable of accessing only part of the auditory information presented to them in class survive academically? Will they be able to remember, recall, and sequence what instructions they are given? Students unable to do that fall behind and find their educational experience as one of playing catch-up. Studies show there is a significant increase in the number of students who are referred for special education and intervention by the time they’re in third grade. In summary, normal hearing leads to auditory access, which leads to the development of literacy skills, which leads to a lifetime of learning. Hearing screening is not a one-time event. Because hearing ability can and does change, periodic hearing screening is essential, so screening for all levels of hearing loss is important throughout a child’s developmental and educational career. A primary goal for our educational system is to develop independent and competent learners. Spoken communication and language development form the foundation for reading skills. With reading skills in hand, students are positioned to reach higher academic potentials, pursue higher education, and are afforded increased flexibility in choosing career paths. As we bring this course to a close, it bears repeating that the longer a child’s hearing problem remains unrecognized and unmanaged, the more damaging and far reaching the snowballing effects of hearing loss will be. And as it pertains to a child’s education, hearing loss is always educationally and developmentally significant. Therefore, if we want to make available opportunities for children to develop age appropriate language and literacy skills, enjoy meaningful educational experiences, realize their academic potential, and achieve the kind of improved outcomes that include more choices, opportunities, and independence, then it’s vital that we identify a child with hearing loss early and make available timely and appropriate intervention and management for that hearing loss.