The rich and rapid learning of early childhood depends on a number of factors related to the child and the child’s environment. When the child has a sensory disability, his or her ability to experience the environment, whether in interacting with other people or with objects or with any other aspect of the environment, will also be affected. This may, in turn, affect the child’s development.
How important is your hearing to you? How do you use your hearing throughout the day? If you have a hearing impairment yourself, how does it affect your life? How might your life be different if you did not have a hearing impairment? If you do not have a hearing impairment yourself, how do you think your life would be different if you did have one?
Why is it so important that children with hearing impairments be identified as at young an age as possible and that, if cochlear implant processors are appropriate, that the children wear the processors throughout their waking hours at school and at home? Researchers are developing an artificial vision system that is analogous to cochlear implants and translates visual information into electrical impulses that are interpreted by the brain. Suppose such a system were available now. Use your understanding of working with children who have cochlear implant processors to explain how you would work with children who had artificial vision processors.
