Description

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To communicate using speech and language, children ideally need to have the necessary skills and capacities which are prerequisites. According to Vanriper and Erickson (1996), "prerequisites for normal speech and language development are normal vocal tract, normal acquisition of motor skills or neuromotor maturation, normal auditory system as speech is acquired mainly through the ears, adequate physical and emotional health to support and foster the growth of oral language, normal intellectual capacity and cognitive development and finally a nurturing and stimulating environment that helps to develop an emotionally positive relationship with a caregiver who provides reinforcement for the child's communicative overtures and provides speech model and opportunities for exploration and a variety of day to day experiences that stimulate the urge to communicate".
Studies have shown that out of these prerequisites for language development in typically developing children, normal hearing is one of the important factors in the emergence of the language system. "It is through the auditory mode that speech and language are normally and usually developed" (Ross and Giolas, 1978). According to Pollack (1970) the auditory modality has been the natural and most effective way to learn speech and language, in addition to providing all the other auditory information from the environment.