The earlier your child is diagnosed with a hearing impairment, the earlier he can receive services to assist in the development of speech and language skills during the critical 0-3 year-old period. Children with a hearing impairment are at a disadvantage during this time frame because much of language develops from exposure to the sounds and voices around them.

Implications of a hearing impairment during early childhood can include the following:

• A smaller base vocabulary
• Slower acquisition of words and sentence structures
• Some American English sounds are produced with a very high frequency which is harder for children with hearing impairments to hear.  As a result, children with hearing impairments don’t learn these sounds.
• Difficulty hearing and/or producing the /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/, /f/, and /v/ sounds. Read more