El desarrollo vocal en niños sordos de familias hispanohablantes

Prelinguistic vocal development is the process by which children begin to produce increasingly complex, phonetically diverse, and speech-like utterances before they say words on a regular basis. Despite its clinical interest, few studies have explored vocal development in very young children with hearing loss who are acquiring Spanish. This article represents an effort to fill this gap. In it, the reader will find a discussion of typical patterns of development in children from different language environments, with a special emphasis on Spanish. In addition, procedures for assessing vocal development through speech sampling and an intervention approach for children with delays in vocal development are presented. This information is intended to be of use for speech-language therapists, audiologists, and teachers of deaf children, and to encourage further research into the prelinguistic and early linguistic abilities of very young children with hearing losses who come from Spanish-speaking families.