Effective Interaction and the Development of Spoken Language in Hearing-Impaired Children

T h e oppor tuni ty to be involved in some dep th in auditory programs for hearing-impaired chi ldren in 10 countries over a per iod of 9 years has been a t r emendous privilege. T h e contrast between a wealthy country like J a p a n and a tiny povertystricken island like Rodrigues (10 miles long X 4 miles wide), set by itself in the middle of the Indian Ocean, could no t be greater. Nor could the contrast between the affluent cities of Germany and the villages of the high Andes or of the jung le areas of Ecuador. It is certainly t rue that each situation is un ique and that plans to develop work within each area have to be tailored to fit that area's specific needs , but, in relation to work with hearing-impaired children, what stands out is no t the differences bu t the similarities. It is so exciting to discover that wherever in the world residual hear ing is being used to the full, in an envi ronment in which parents and professionals work as par tners to motivate chi ldren to communicate, hearing-impaired chi ldren are learning to listen and to develop spoken language of a quality that is functional for life in society at large (Clark, 1989). Such findings are a testimony to the fact that hearing-impaired chi ldren do have the capacity to develop fluency of spoken language in their mo the r tongue in the same way as their hear ing counterpar ts , if they have the same opportunity. It is the purpose of this paper to examine what that oppor tunity is. In o ther words it is impor tan t to look at what constitutes a language enabling environment (Tough, 1977) for normally hear ing children, and then to examine how best such an envi ronment can be provided for those who have a hear ing loss. Tough describes such an envi ronment as a situation that encompasses activities that motivate a child to communica te and in which dialogue can play a major role in the fostering and developing of language.