Improving english literacy and speech-acquisition learning conditions for children with severe to profound hearing impairments

Only a small minority of children with prelingually severe to profound hearing impairments in any country acquire either high spoken-language skills or high literacy skills. This article discusses English acquisition in relation to multiple language domains and multiple language modes for cultures in which English is the majority language. We argue that learning is complex and that at some developmental points there will be mutually facilitating progress in syntax, phonology, narrative, and other language domains, but that at other developmental points short-term negative trade-offs can be expected. To support progress by hearing-impaired children with quite varied profiles of language skills, "tricky mixes" of converging learning conditions must be identified and maintained more often than in past typical educational practices. Such dynamic tricky mixes repeatedly combine new language challenges with cognitive enhancers of effective processing. In addition, these complex contextual mixes include social-emotional factors that favorably affect children's self-esteem, mood, and expectancy of success.