Early Intervention for Hearing-Impaired Children: Oral Options (review)

Reviews push up, but they remain unanswered. For example, was legal intervention taken on Anne's behalf? We do not know, but we would like to know more about this young woman who's indomitable will is a testament to the human spirit. To those of us who live with and love our disabled children , this story of a family's anguish, frustration, anger and isolation is all too familiar and is repeated again, again and again. Is anyone out there? Does anyone care? Jacqueline Cosgrove Shields Parent Walkersville, MD 21793 Early Intervention for Hearing-Impaired Children: Oral Options, Daniel Ling, (Ed.), 217 pp., $19.50, paperback, College Hill Press, 4284 41st St., San Diego, CA 92105, 1984. This text is a well-written and informative account of a limited approach to education of the hearing impaired. The definition of Total Communication as the incorporation of oral, aural, and visual-gestural communicative modes to meet the unique needs of each hearing-impaired child is rejected. Instead, the editor divides Early Intervention for Hearing-Impaired Children into two volumes, Oral Options and Total Communication Options. This division suggests a dichotomy contradictory to contemporary progress toward an educational approach which includes rather than excludes a variety of intervention strategies. Oral Options supports the notion that auditory oral options will not succeed if presented in combination with Sign Language and fingerspelling . The editor states this view in introductory and summary chapters. He provides a short discussion of hearing impairment, hearing aids and oral education that would be useful for parents and nonprofessionals. In each of the four remaining chapters, a current program is described which emphasizes using residual hearing as the primary means for eventual language acquisition. The ultimate expectations for deaf children are quite similar in the four approaches described in this text. All of the programs include pragmatic, motivational communication activities that involve family members as well as hearingimpaired peers. The reader can gain an insight into current auditory oral practice and, in addition, can profit from a number of positive suggestions regarding parent education and participation, observational assessment, and evaluation protocols for both classroom and individual therapy settings. The McGiIl University project, for example, details a logical progression of stages which would lend itself to the integration of linguistic, cognitive and psychological intervention strategies. Their focus on normal language acquisition and ethnographic research methodology provides a practical framework for early intervention programs, regardless of philosophical or methodological preferences. If one truly attempts to avoid making "any assumptions whatsoever about a child's prognosis" (page 113) then, in the opinion of this reviewer, one must also avoid drawing premature conclusions which limit the quality and quantity of receptive communication that a child can receive. Some of the methods described in this text seem to incorporate flexibility and sensitivity to individual communicative strenghs and needs of children. It may be that this flexibility, rather than a particular communicative option, is the variable which will determine the eventual acquisition of communicative competence among hearing-impaired individuals. Kathee M. Christensen, Ph.D. Department of Communicative Disorders San Diego State University San Diego, CA 92182 The Hearing Impaired Child in School, Raymond H. Hull and Karen I. Dilka (Eds.), 200 pp., hardcover, Grune & Stratton, Inc., Orlando, FL 32887,1984. In this text, the editors have organized chapters written by professionals in various disciplines. The chapters cover such topics as the function of the auditory system in speech and language, hearing aids and other amplifying devices, placement and programming for the hearing impaired, practical suggestions for teachers and administrators of mainstreaming programs, the relationship between home and school, the process of language stimulation and development, and interpreting in the K—12 mainstream setting. The text also includes a list of resource materials for use in school and at home. The Hearing Impaired Child in School is an ideal resource for a diverse reading audience such as public school teachers in a mainstream setting, educators of the deaf, speech/language pathologists, audiologists, and parents. The editors' goal is to strengthen the bond between teachers, parents, and hearing specialists. Whether they succeed in such an ambitious undertaking is a moot point. Some of the chapters are too technical...