First Language Acquisition - Essay Example

First Language Acquisition Student Name: Institution: Date: Introduction Early detection of infant hearing loss is important. This is because early treatment for hearing impairment enhances the level of speech and language development of newborns with hearing disorders. Cochlear implants have been considered the standard care given to babies born with severe-profound hearing disorders. In recent years, there has been an increase in the uptake of immediate bilateral implants among the infants born with hearing loss (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). A cochlear implant is a type of treatment for hearing loss that is given to small children and adults. It is a small electronic device, placed behind the ears of children and adults with difficulties in hearing or can understand speeches through hearing aids to enhance their sounds. This implies that when babies are diagnosed and inserted with appropriate hearing devices in their early stages of development, they can easily learn from their hearing peers who are better in listening as well as spoken language. Based on the clinical research findings, it can be noted that babies born with severe and profound hearing impairment but given cochlear implants before they are two years of age perform well in mainstream schools compared to those who receive it later in their lives (Hammes et al. 2010). Determining the suitability candidature for cochlear implantation in babies Early cochlear implantation was initially practiced in children as the only suitable recipients required who were required to use the device particularly those that did not have useable aided hearing. Although research indicates that cochlear implants can damage the inner ear, causing the auditory hearing not to function post-operatively. The technological developments in electrode design as well as speech processing methodologies and receiver programming have increasingly facilitated the use of cochlear implants. As a result, determining the suitability of cochlear implants in babies has become a more complicated task than it has been for the post-lingually-deafened adult people with completely developed speech production or language skill. Therefore, it can be argued that for adult people the ability to perceive speech can be limited by hearing capability alone. For children, however, it is a different case because speech perception is determined by language knowledge as well as speech production skills. This means that speech perception among the children can be limited by the quality and amount of residual hearing (DesJardin et al. 2009). Advantages of Cochlear Implantation The safety and use of cochlear implants has been investigated by scholars of medicine from New York University. During the hearing screening survey on newborns, eighteen children were identified with severe hearing loss. The children went through cochlear implant surgery in which regular check-ups were made to ensure that devices used were functioning effectively. The findings of the study indicate that surgery was successful and in a period of six months after the surgery, all the children had made substantial improvements in their hearing abilities. Doctor reports showed that the children had started developing their hearing and language skills relevant to their age. From the research finds it is quite clear that cochlear implants if properly and effectively used they can enable babies with hearing loss to develop age-appropriate speech as well as their languages skills. Parents of babies born with hearing loss should be aware that their children’s ability to hear is determines their speech and language development. Therefore, parents should be able to evaluate their baby’s hearing ability shortly after their birth and throughout their growth and development stages (Waltzman, 2005). Cochlear implants can be used together with intensive post-implantation therapy to enable young children develop social, speech and language skills. Early cochlear implantation exposes the young children to needed sounds during their time of learning speech and language skills. Although the amount of improvement in using cochlear implants varies among children with hearing impairments, use of language and speech therapy helps children to understand speech as well as develop their speaking skills reasonably well. Early implantation of cochlear in children identified with severe hearing impairment helps to develop their hearing and speech to a normal hearing state of any child (Hammes et al. 2010). Implantation of cochlear to children at their younger ages based on new technologies has improved their speech perception abilities. It is important to understand that cochlear implant is a technical tool for enhancing a child’s hearing. Therefore, successful cochlear implantation depends on different factors such as age of implantation, rich communication environment and realistic expectations as well as effective audio processor development determine the benefits a baby may achieve from the use of cochlear implant (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). Cochlear implants enhances children‘s auditory awareness of their environment. This implies that use of cochlear implant helps children to hear different environmental sounds that seem to be not audible to them if they use other hearing aids. Therefore, cochlear implants are crucial in enabling children to hear the ongoing activities in their environment, and thus develop a sense of connectedness with the world’s happenings. Initially, environmental awareness was the major motivating factor in deciding whether to implant all children. However, after it was discovered that cochlear implant could help children to develop their spoken language both young and older children were considered as rightful users of this device (DesJardin et.al. 2009). Empirical studies show that cochlear implant enables young children to process the spoken auditory information within their environments in a more effective way. Although a cochlear implant may not restore the normal hearing state of children diagnosed with severe deafness and who do not receive full benefits from the use conventional hearing aids. It should be noted that cochlear implant would help deaf children to access sound that can enable them to acquire and understand the spoken language (Sarant et. al. 2001). Through universal hearing screening for newborns, a number of babies of have been diagnosed with hearing loss. However, for infants identified with severe hearing impairment, they have been referred for cochlear implant as the major treatment for their hearing loss. It has been noted that early implantation improves the spoken language of babies or leads to their rapid understanding of new languages. Research indicates that bilateral cochlear implantation has become an increasingly accepted method of choice for caring infants or children diagnosed with bilateral severe hearing loss (Offeciers et.al. 2005). Geers (2006) examined that cochlear implantation leads to faster language acquisition compared to the hearing aids for babies with hearing loss. Children who receive minimal benefits from using amplified speech type of hearing aids can easily learn the perception of speech if inserted with cochlear implants in their ears (Geers, 2006). Hammes et al. (2010) compared data between the 12 infants who were diagnosed with hearing loss but received cochlear implants before they were 18 months of age and 13 infants who received the implants later in the age. This involved a review of the spoken language data for babies who at least had used cochlear implant for 6 months so as to evaluate the progress and performance for those babies who used the implant at the age of 9 months. The findings of the study showed that babies inserted with cochlear implants at their early ages made improvements both in their expressive and receptive language abilities. The study also indicated that early fitting of cochlear implants helped such babies to develop their speech and language skills at a normal hearing rate of children not suffering from hearing loss. Therefore, it can be concluded that babies who are inserted with the cochlear implants before the age of 12 months show improved outcomes in using the device (Hammes et al. 2010). Disadvantage of using Cochlear implants Cochlear implants become very successful for specific age groups, indicating that not every child is a candidate to receive them. Basically, children of one year or more with severe hearing loss are considered excellent candidates for cochlear implants compared to babies below 12 months of age. This implies that each newborn baby must be assessed by a cochlear implant expert to determine if device is the appropriate option for a particular hearing impairment. A 2003 study was carried out to investigate the risk of Bacterial Meningitis and its effect on children with cochlear implants. The study revealed that Bacterial Meningitis occur more often in children with cochlear implants than other children who are age-mates. Therefore, parents whom their children use cochlear implants should take not of the symptoms associated with Bacterial Meningitis such as difficulties in looking directly into bright lights, high fever, sleepiness, headache, confusion, stiff neck and nausea (Reefhuis et.al. 2003). It has been discovered that children with cochlear implants do not acquire enough pragmatic skills needed for social integration. Poor pragmatic skills make children develop behaviors that lead to their communication breakdown or lower their social acceptance. This suggests that such children may opt to avoid unpleasing interactions with others. It is important for parents to be aware that pragmatic problems cause delayed language development in children in terms of limited vocabulary and age-appropriateness slang. Some parents may decide not to use a cochlear implant on their babies because the device may not be suitable. For example, profoundly deaf babies who are born with severe cochlear abnormality cannot use cochlear implant. Therefore, parents should be provided with a cochlear implant evaluations to enable them make appropriate choices for their children to overcome the hearing disorders (Bat-Chava et al. 2005). Cochlear implantation requires parents to make informed choices about the probable risks and lifestyle limitation associated with the use of such device for their children. However, parents may not be able access up-to-date safety precautions and information on the cochlear implants that are appropriate for their children’s use. Although cochlear implants are beneficial to babies, they also create some risks such as wound infection and leakage of the cerebrospinal fluid in infants. Therefore, implant site draining filled with pus may be the major wound infection. However, babies detected with minor infections should be given antibiotics that can be taken orally and ensure that the wound is kept clean for quick healing. It should be noted that implant surgery may be associated with other risks such as puncturing of the inner ear during the surgery process, causing the fluid to leak from the wound. Furthermore, parents of the infant candidates for surgery need to constantly monitor the potential complication associated with the general anesthesia required to undertake the surgery (Goldenholz, 2010). Although bilateral cochlear implantation has become the standard care given to children in well-developed countries such as the U.S, Germany and England, in less developed countries use of cochlear implants is very infrequent. It has been discovered that in developing countries, a number of children are still going for unilateral single-channel type of cochlear implants because they are cheaply manufactured. Treatment for the wound involves hospitalizing the baby as well as giving him or her antibiotics regularly and changing the cochlear implants. Therefore, it becomes very expensive for parents of babies with hearing impairment to afford the medication. This clearly indicates that many parents of babies born with hearing impairment cannot access the technology of cochlear implantation because of its high cost (National Institute on Deafness & Communication Disorders, 2011). Conclusion Based on the above discussions, it can be concluded that those babies born with severe hearing loss significantly benefit from the use of cochlear implants particularly in speech perception and language development. Cochlear implants enhances children‘s auditory awareness of their environment. Early use of cochlear implants for babies born with hearing impairment enhances their level of speech and language development. Implantation of cochlear to children at their younger ages based on the new technologies improves their speech perception abilities. It is quite clear that cochlear implants are beneficial to babies. However, they create some risks such as wound infection and leakage of the cerebrospinal fluid in infants. It is important for parents to make informed choices about the probable risks and lifestyle limitation associated with the use of cochlear implants for their children before accepting them as treatment for hearing loss. References Bat-Chava, Y., Martin, D., & Kosciw, J. (2005). Enhancing communication and socialization of abilities of deaf children through cochlear implants and hearing aids, The Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 46(12), 87-96. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2009). Early detection of hearing loss and Intervention Program. Retrieved May 23, 2013 from, DesJardin, J.L., Ambrose, S. E., Martinez, A S., (2009). Understanding speech perception abilities and developing spoken language skills in young children with hearing loss. International Journal of Audiology, 48(2), 248-59. Geers, A.E. (2006). Improving spoken language outcomes in children by providing early cochlear implantation. Developments in Oto Rhino Laryngology, 64, pp. 50-65. Goldenholz, S. (2010). Infant Cochlear Implant Surgery Risks. Retrieved May 23, 2013 from, Hammes, D, Novak, M, & Rotz, L., (2010). Promoting development of spoken language in infants diagnosed with hearing loss. 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