A child in my class is 8 years old. Throughout his childhood he has suffered from many ear infections and still has grommets. On the surface of things he appears to talk and understand like other children, however he has made slow progress with reading and writing at school. When he was assessed by an educational psychologist she identified that his understanding and use of vocabulary was low for his age, and she felt that this might be due to his fluctuating hearing loss. Please could you tell me what I can do in the classroom to help him increase his vocabulary.

Hi Martha, good to hear from you again.

Yes I imagine that his hearing impairment has been a big part of his language delay. If children miss out on that early speech and language input, it may impact on their general development later on. Children that have no real speech and language problems in their early years usually have a big advantage when they start school and probably progress more quickly.

This young chap may have slipped through the net a little .You say he appears to talk and understand like the other children, but children often become very adept at following instructions by watching others and using context.

This guy really needs professional involvement from a speech and language therapist / pathologist and maybe a literacy specialist. His difficulties may not just be because of his hearing impairment, he may have a specific language or literacy difficulty. So to answer your question about how you can help him in the classroom, unless you are able to give him some extra 1:1 tuition, I think you will need to contact the relevant specialists to assess him and put in place some programmes to facilitate his literacy and language skills.

It would also be very beneficial to get his parents on board as well so that they can help him with any extra homework he may have.

I hope that helps Martha. If other teachers out there have similar experiences and have some advice it would be great to hear from you.

Regards icommunicate webteam