Integrated Language Intervention for Children with Hearing Loss

Earlier generations of deaf children were educated with curricula based on models of learning that were hierarchically organized and modular, such that low-level perceptual processes were presumed to operate without input from higher-level processes or from other sensory systems. According to these models, information derived at each level of processing could only flow up in the system. But now research from a variety of fields is demonstrating that information flows more broadly in the nervous system, such that higher-level processes can affect lower-level processes, and there is cross-talk among sensory systems. Behavioral interventions that take advantage of these integrated systems facilitate optimal outcomes. This chapter describes an integrated approach to language intervention that can help shape educational and clinical treatments for all children with hearing loss, including those with cochlear implants.