Lets hope 'her' child does not have to deal w/ ANY of these issues.
http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/summer98/downsynd.htmAddressing hearing and vision related issues in an educational setting
The vision and hearing loss which frequently occurs, especially when combined with other issues associated with this syndrome, can mean significant problems for these children in any educational setting. Buckley and Bird offer some specific suggestions for addressing both vision and hearing loss in educational settings in their book Meeting the Educational Needs of Children with Down Syndrome. Information from their book can be found on Downsnet at <www.downsnet.org>, and parents and professionals working with the child who has Down syndrome may want to review this literature.
Speaking and listening
"Children with Down syndrome have a range of specific learning difficulties that, combined together, make learning to speak in sentences very hard to achieve. Although their expressive language difficulties are greater than their comprehension difficulties, they do have delays in developing comprehension that may be made worse by hearing loss." (Buckley & Bird 1994) A child with a conductive loss brought about by otitis media may be able to hear the teacher some days and other days will not. It just depends on whether or not there is fluid in the middle ear. We have all experienced this phenomenon from time to time when we have had a bad head cold.
If the otitis media persists and the fluid thickens the child may have a constant mild hearing loss. This can effect the child's ability to perceive the differences between some consonant sounds. This means that if I said, for example, "bat the ball" the child might think I said "pat the doll". In other words, the child will have to figure out what I said based on the context of our conversation. He may also miss information that would help him to understand plural endings (plate/plates) or verb endings related to tense (stop/stopped). Single, short instructions may be easy for the child to figure out, but longer sentences may prove to be confusing. Language development can be impacted negatively.
Of course, the child may also have a sensorineural hearing loss alone or in combination with the conductive hearing loss. Evaluation to determine if there would be a benefit to using hearing aids is important, as well as the need for services of a speech/language therapist. Many children with Down syndrome benefit from using sign language (even if they are not hearing impaired). It is important to understand the impact of the child's hearing loss in accessing information in the classroom. Mild hearing losses, even a 15 decibel loss, have been shown to affect children's progress in school. (Buckley & Bird, 1994) Some strategies discussed by Buckley and Bird that should be employed in classrooms to help children with mild hearing loss include:
There is soo much more out there.
It's actually quite sad/depressing.