Development of communication skills with deaf and hard of hearing children necessitates understanding of the numerous variables which influence a child s success with listening or speech development tasks. The difficulty of auditory and speech activities can be modified by changing one of the variables that impact on how challenging a task will be for a child. Understanding these factors is integral to the success of planning and implementing strategies and activities that will challenge yet not frustrate a child as they develop auditory and speech skills. Amplification Consistent use of properly functioning amplification is an influential factor in the development of useful auditory skills .
Amplification provides deaf and hard of hearing children access to sound.
Each child s benefit from amplification will be different. Some children will utilize sound only at a basic level for awareness of sound while others may benefit from a hearing aid to process complex spoken language information. Speech and hearing professionals working with a child, the classroom teacher, the student, and family should be responsible for monitoring daily hearing aid use and functioning. The ability to be aware of and comprehend sound is related to the loudness of the sound in relation to any competing background noise. This means that the sound the child is trying to hear should be significantly louder than the background noise in the environment.