Reference no: EM133403928

Case Study: This is a topic close to my heart. My 6-year-old son was born with unilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss in his right ear. Birth to three is a critical learning stage for children, language included. My son was tested, and they found moderate to severe loss in his right ear; he was fit for a hearing aid. By 4 months of age, he wore an aid, but we didn't know that he also had middle ear dysfunction. Around 1.5 years of age, I noticed he was not progressing with speech as he should, and we were referred to ENT and the birth to three programs. I was told that for the first nearly two years of his life, my little boy was deaf everything sounded like he was underwater. Eustachian tubes were recommended, and by age 2, he had them in. He had a speech therapist and an educational therapist that worked with him for an hour a week. By age three, covid hit, and he no longer could attend PreK and was home with us 24/7! This was a blessing in disguise. My little boy, who barely spoke, started talking! By 3.5 years of age, he was speaking. We had virtual speech therapy with two therapists every other day. He now exceeds his kindergarten class in speech and vowel and consonant recognition. He also has a high level of vocabulary.

I tell my story with this topic because while yes access to language from birth forward is essential, it is not fully detrimental to a child if you gain access to early intervention when you find out the child has a hearing impairment. For a child who was deaf and later received a cochlear implant, I would believe that the critical period of language would all depend on when the child had the implant placed. The older the child is, the more loss of language they've had so the harder to learn the language it will end being for them.

Genie Wiley case:

This child was discovered at age 13, unable to walk or talk. I believe her case shows that there isn't a critical language period. The video discussed how eager and excited Genie was to learn words and that she had a significant size vocabulary. In the end, they discussed that her upbringing and trauma ultimately hindered further development and learning. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play. The nature aspect of Genie's ability to learn language 13 years after birth was there, she grew a good size vocabulary. The lack of nurture and the trauma she endured affected her brain to the point that she couldn't move on ((Istvan731102, 2013).

Question: What do you think about Genie's case? Do you think if with today's technology, a child was found similar to Genie's case, we would be able to further progress their language skills?