Speech-language habilitation of hearing-impaired children: basis for assessment and training.

Spoken language assessment and training for profoundly deaf children should be based on normal developmental sequences. However, existing models of normal speech/language development have not been able to account for shifts from one developmental level to another. The implications of more recent theories of the development of expressive communication are reviewed. The concept of levels of spoken language development is reevaluated in terms of these theories. It is proposed that the developmental landmarks that initiate each level are a product of changes with growth in underlying subsystems. Some of these changes are specific to motor subsystems, but in addition, the interaction of motor, cognitive, linguistic, and social domains is stressed. The implications of these findings for development of assessment procedures and speech/language training programs is summarized.