In this activity, you will evaluate the case study of a child born with prelinguistic deafness in regard to their development and communication skills.

Step 1: Read the following case study. 

Case Study: You are a speech-language pathologist working in a school-based setting. A new student who is entering the first grade will be added to your caseload. The child, who is a 6 year-old female, has prelinguistic deafness (before language) with two cochlear implants. This is the child's first time attending a public school setting. The child has minimal language use and a small expressive vocabulary. She appears shy and timid and minimally expresses her feelings verbally. She uses many facial expressions and hand gestures to express her wants and needs.

Step 2: Examine the child's needs in regard to her developmental and communication needs given the following five areas of development:

• vocabulary,
• sentence structure,
• speaking,
• academic achievement, and
• social functioning.

Step 3: For each of the areas listed above, write 1-3 consequences that the child may face and 1 treatment option. Each area should be covered in a 200-400 word discussion post. All references should follow 7th Edition APA formatting. See the resource on the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library for instructions: APA citation resource (N.B. references are excluded from word counts).

Step 4: To share your work, click on the button at the bottom of the screen labeled “Add a new discussion topic” and include your work title in the subject line.

OPTIONAL Step 6: Interact (10 minutes)

If you would like to, you can reply to your peers' posts in a respectful and professional manner. Ensure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click “Reply” on a particular discussion, write your feedback and then click on “Post to forum.”