Infants and Toddlers with Hearing Loss from Bilingual Homes

Abstract

This article provides information about intervention strategies for children who are deaf or hard of hearing in non-English speaking homes with research data on children in Spanish-speaking homes living in the United States. A description of the language learning environment of these families are compared to children with typical development in Spanish-speaking homes, children who are deaf or hard of hearing in English-speaking homes and children with typical development in English-speaking homes. The language learning environment includes the average number of adult words, of conversational turns, and child vocalizations in an average day, as well as the percent of the day in silence, in noise, with TV/radio, with distant language and meaningful language.