This trio of SIG 9 articles provides the reader with three diversely focused topics related to pediatric hearing and hearing disorders. These range from a review of barriers to equity in pediatric hearing health care, to students’ perspectives on preservice education about cued speech, and then how practitioners measure receptive and expressive American Sign Language (ASL).

The review, “Barriers to Equity in Pediatric Hearing Health Care: A Review of the Evidence,” explores data to suggest that hearing health care disparities constitute a major factor in loss to follow-up or documentation for children going through the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention process. Underlying disparities are multifactorial and result in delayed care and suboptimal developmental outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“ASL Assessment in Practice: Assessing American Sign Language Across Clinical Settings” discusses exploratory research to investigate what assessment tools professionals use in measuring receptive and expressive ASL. Conclusions indicate that there is variable access and knowledge for appropriate assessment measures in ASL.

“The Effect of a Graduate Course in Cued Speech on Students' Perspectives: A Pilot Study” is a pilot study investigating the beliefs and attitudes in Deaf Education related to a course on cued speech. The investigation revealed that a single course in the approach could influence student perspectives on cued speech and other Deaf Education instructional approaches.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• identify potential barriers to accessibility of pediatric hearing health care
• describe the difficulties with language assessment of visuospatial languages and the characteristics of ASL assessment tools
• summarize graduate students’ perspectives about cued speech and other Deaf Education instructional methodologies

Assessment Type
Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

Articles in This Course

1. Barriers to Equity in Pediatric Hearing Health Care: A Review of the Evidence by Sarah Kingsbury, Nicole Khvalabov, Jonathan Stirn, Cara Held, Stephanie M. Fleckenstein, Kristi Hendrickson, and Elizabeth A. Walker, published in SIG 9, Volume 7, Issue 4, August 15, 2022
2. ASL Assessment in Practice: Assessing American Sign Language Across Clinical Settings by Kristen Secora, Addison Welch, and Eva Parks, published in SIG 9, Volume 7, Issue 2, April 14 2022
3. The Effect of a Graduate Course in Cued Speech on Students' Perspectives: A Pilot Study by Amanda Howerton-Fox, Michelle Veyvoda, and Jennifer L. Montgomery, published in SIG 9, Volume 7, Issue 3, June 13, 2022