Partners in Education: Issues and Trends from the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf

Selected Abstracts

SelectedAbstracts Thirty-eight professionals reviewed and provided recommendations to the ICED Scientific Program Committee for all of the proposals submitted to the congress. From this process more than 300 proposals were accepted for presentation. From that number the Scientific Committee selected the ensuing abstracts to be included in the proceedings: ICED Scientific Program Committee Janet Jamieson, chair, Canada Tane Akamatsu, cochair, Canada Susan van Gurp, cochair, Canada Donald Moores, associate member, United States Review Committee Kika Hadjikakou, Cyprus Rachel O’Neill, UK Tane Akamatsu, Canada Margaret Harris, UK Brenda Poon, Canada John A. Albertini, US Manfred Hintermair, Germany Stephen Powers, UK Jean Andrews, US Janet Jamieson, Canada Suzanne Quay, Japan Shirin D. Antia, US Harry Knoors, Netherlands Susan Rose, US 175 176 Selected Abstracts Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta, Sweden Venetta Lampropoulou, Greece Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, US Rod G. Beattie, Australia Amy R. Lederberg, US Patricia E. Spencer, US P. Margaret Brown, Australia Greg Leigh, Australia Michael S. Stinson, US Paula M. Brown, US Irene W. Leigh, US Ruth A. Swanwick, UK Stephanie W. Cawthon, US Dave Mason, Canada Susan van Gurp, Canada Barbara Gerner-deGarcia, US Margery S. Miller, US Linda Watson, UK Donald A. Grushkin, US Paul Miller, Israel Bencie Woll, UK Caroline A. Guardino, US Pamela Millet, Canada Anat Zaidman-Zait, Canada Early Intervention The LittlEARS® Early Speech Production Questionnaire: A Validated Parental Assessment Tool for Infants and Toddlers Joanna Brachmaier, MED-EL Medical Electronics, Innsbruck, Austria Bianka Schramm, Department for ENT and Communication Disorders, Mainz, Germany Annerose Keilmann, Department for ENT and Communication Disorders, Mainz, Germany Introduction: The LittlEARS® Test Battery was designed to assess the preverbal auditory, speech, and language development of infants and toddlers with normal hearing (NH), cochlear implants (CIs), or hearing aid(s). The battery comprises three parts: the LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire (to assess auditory skills), the My LittlEARS® Diary (to record progress), and the LittlEARS ® Early Speech Production Questionnaire (LEESPQ; to assess speech skills). These tests are administered by parents as they have been shown to be reliable sources of information on their own child’s development, though their assessmentsaresubjective.Parentquestionnairesare,therefore,agenerallywellaccepted method of assessing the early development of infants and toddlers. Still,notmanyvalidtoolsexistforassessingthespeech-productionskillsofthe growing young population of children receiving hearing instruments. Therefore , the LEESPQ was designed to be used for children aged up to 18 months. Selected Abstracts 177 Methods: The LEESPQ contains twenty-four complex, age-related questions and is based on a longitudinal study with children with NH and children with CIs implanted before the age of 16 months. The assessment of expressive speech skills includes: (1) reflexive behaviors (e.g., crying when hungry or uncomfortable), (2) early vocalization stages, (3) babbling and canonical babbling, and (4) jargon through to the production of the first words. A critical evaluation of the LEESPQ itself and professionals’ and parents’ comments are reviewed to validate this tool. Results: The outcomes of the constructional process, as well as the first statistical results and normative scores, are presented here. Furthermore, aspects of the test’s clinical usability and suitability are presented. The questionnaire was well accepted by pediatricians and parents. Conclusions: Early results with the LEESPQ show that it is a promising tool for assessing the early speech production of infants and toddlers. The Infant Monitor of Vocal Production: Improving Evaluation of Auditory-Vocal Development in Infants with Hearing Loss Robyn Cantle Moore, RIDBC Renwick Centre for Research and Professional Education, North Rocks, NSW, Australia Greg Leigh, RIDBC Renwick Centre for Research and Professional Education, North Rocks, NSW, Australia Universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) is associated with significantly earlier intervention. Such intervention typically involves the early fitting ofhearing aids and, increasingly, cochlear implantation before 12 months of age. Although cortical evoked potentials may help determine thresholds of hearing in infants, the actual extent of their auditory processing capacities often remains in question until standardized assessments of linguistic development are appropriate. In the interim, there is need to evaluate infant progress toward speech, specifically, the transition from “anatomical drivers” to “auditory-vocal loop,” in order to ensure that the interventions being pursued are achieving the desired and expected outcomes; failure to do so may squander the benefits of earlier intervention. 178 Selected Abstracts The Infant Monitor of Vocal Production (IMP) is a criterion-referenced instrument that systematically records the emergence of hierarchical changes in the prelinguistic vocal productions of infants, birth to 12 months of hearing age (i.e., 12 months postfitting...