Facilitating emergent literacy skills in children with hearing loss

Purpose To (a) familiarize readers with the components of emergent literacy and the impact hearing loss may have on the development of these skills; (b) demonstrate the importance of parent-professional collaboration and show how specific literacy-based activities can be integrated into existing daily routines and intervention programming; and (c) discuss how literacy-based activities can be modified to simultaneously target auditory and listening development. Method The paper begins with a narrative review of the current literature on the components of emergent literacy and development of this skill in children with hearing loss. Within this review, auditory-based strategies that may be used to facilitate emergent literacy in children with hearing loss who use spoken communication are described. Readers are directed to contact the authors for more detailed examples of activities and strategies. Conclusions Building emergent literacy skills in children with hearing loss is contingent upon parents and professionals collaborating to develop specific literacy-based activities that can be incorporated into children's existing speech and language programmes and daily routines. These activities can be tailored to meet the individual needs of children with hearing loss and simultaneously address clinically relevant goals that maximize the development of auditory and listening skills. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2013.