Pragmatics in deaf and hard of hearing children: an introduction

The purpose of this supplement is to highlight the importance of attending to the development of pragmatic skills in children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) for health care professionals, allied health professionals, and researchers. Through increased awareness of the need to identify congenital hearing loss as early as possible, the medical field has been instrumental in fostering substantial improvements in the early detection of hearing loss and widespread implementation of early intervention to support children who have been identified with hearing loss.1,2 Benefitting from this earlier diagnosis, many DHH children are showing improved language abilities, relative to previous generations of young DHH children.3,4 Yet pragmatic abilities remain an area of concern for many DHH children.5,6 We believe that attending to the pragmatic development needs of DHH children is the “next frontier” in improving the quality and type of care needed to optimize development for DHH children.