Treatment of a Case of Cerebral Palsy with Hearing Impairment

Abstract

The case study of an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, athetoid type, is reported. The girl had been diagnosed as severely mentally retarded, and placement in a residential institution with custodial care had been recommended. The girl was found to have extensive hearing impairment, with residual hearing in the low frequencies. Hearing testing was complicated by uncontrolled, extraneous movement. The loss was identified only after her understanding of nonverbal concepts was found to be well developed. A program of instruction was presented both orally and manually. In eight months the girl had a manual vocabulary in excess of 500 words and was functioning in reading and arithmetic at a mid-first-grade level. Placement in a special class for the deaf followed.