Diagnosing a Learning Disability in a Hearing-Impaired Child: A Case Study

In the past, the learning problems of hearing-impaired children have been attributed solely to the child's hearing loss. A hearing impairment and its associated language deficit make it difficult to determine whether an underlying learning disability contributes to the hearing-impaired child's learning problems. This report describes a case study that used an interdisciplinary diagnostic approach to determine whether a hearing-impaired child had a learning disability and to determine the type of disability. The approach included teacher observation, standardized assessment procedures, interpretation, and subsequent recommendations. Applying this approach to various educational settings is also discussed.