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This article aggregates and reviews the disparate information needed to assess journal literature related to communication disorders both directly and peripherally. An extensive analysis was performed using a list of 40 journals on communication disorders derived from a review of selected libraries’ journal collections, and then compared to entries in respected indexes and bibliographies covering this discipline. The result of this analysis is a list providing comprehensive information including scope and coverage, publisher information, indexing/abstracting data, and online availability for those 40 journals. In addition, a survey was conducted among communication disorders faculty in the City University of New York (CUNY) to investigate which professional journals are used regularly for current awareness and for clinical/research information. The information presented in this article should be of interest to faculty, students and practitioners in this area, as well as subject librarians responsible for collection development.

Special education today in the Ukraine is dramatically different than its early origins which stressed communal guardianship for persons with disabilities to its current movement to inclusive education. The journey to inclusive education was inconsistent due to a variety of elements such as the collapse of the Russian Monarchy, a series of different governments and social-political structures, World War II and membership in the USSR which stressed a unification of the education system. However, special education professionals who worked at the Special Education Pedagogy Institute of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences continued to research and develop a philosophical instructional framework to educate students with disabilities that includes theoretical and practical aspects of inclusive education. This chapter provides a detailed description of this framework as well as prevalence and school placements aspects, classification and assessment parameters, and the impact of legislation for free public education. The chapter concludes with challenges to inclusive education such as attitude modification, infusing necessary teacher instructional strategies, and the incorporation of best practices from special education to regular education settings.

The education of deaf and hard of hearing (d/DHH) students is largely dependent on the preferred mode of communication. Historically, the mode of communication for d/DHH students was determined by society rather than by students and families. This resulted in divisiveness between the Deaf culture and proponents of oral communication. The adoption of IDEA allowed family participation in the decision-making process. Advances in technology increased student access to sound, resulting in more educational placement options. Despite the positive changes, the complex nature of hearing loss and the wide variety in cultural considerations have made it difficult to determine the best approach to deaf education. Thus, educators and providers are left in a conundrum of which version of “traditional” deaf education is best for students.

With a push toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom, students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are exposed to greater educational opportunities. Given the largely verbal nature of traditional classroom instruction, there has been a need for advancements in technology to provide more access to the material covered by teachers and in class discussions. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to virtual learning also brought to light many additional challenges for the DHH population, which can, in part, be lessened through technological advancements.

Writings about language and speech impairments (SLI) have been present for many centuries (Smith, 2004). Unfortunately, early historical accounts tended to reflect negatively upon individuals with SLI. For example, Van Riper and Erickson (1996) related that during the Roman times, an individual who stuttered was placed into a cage for entertainment purposes. According to these authors, citizens passing would throw coins into the person's cage to get him to talk. During the late 1800s, the profession of speech-language pathology began as an avocation of certain professionals, notably doctors, educators, and elocutionists (public speakers), who were interested in helping others improve their speech. American doctors studied under the auspices of European doctors who treated people with communication disorders. The two most common disorders that were treated then were dysfluency (stuttering) and speech sound errors (articulation) (Duchan, 2002). Treatment was available for the above disorders, however, the programs were not in public schools and the results of intervention were mixed (Smith, 2004).

Congenital hearing disabilities among children are associated with lifetime discrepancies in the attainment of speech, poor academic-performance, socio-individual isolation and emotional-maladjustments. The present study aims to combine evidence from randomized, controlled trials to assess the accuracy of hearing-screening procedures and relative diagnostic-tests concomitant with partial/permanent hearing loss (HL) among neonatal and under-five children.

The steps in this process were conducted according to the PRISMA (Preferred-Reporting-Items-for-Systematic-reviews-and-Meta-Analysis) guidelines. The PubMed, ProQuest, Science-Direct, Cochrane-Library and secondary reference databases were searched. Analyses were carried out by using fixed/random-effects-models for calculating the summary estimates on hearing-screening and test-procedure. Meta-regression-analysis is performed to explore the influence of confounders on the net-pooled effect.

A total of 1,656 articles were identified, and 1,575 were excluded as they were not relevant to the purpose of the study. Further, out of 81 studies, 67 were excluded with reasons and 14 were included in the final analysis. Three independent reviewers have assessed the titles/abstracts for their potential relevance. The results from meta-analysis indicate that hearing-screening was significantly higher in the intervention group (n 8,102; OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.34, 0.79; p < 0.00001), as depicted via forest plot. Meta-regression analysis indicates a positive relationship between the age and effect size (regression-coefficient 0.638, 95% CI 0.005, 0.731; p < 0.05).

The evidence from the present study can be used as reference for identifying the associated risk indicators, improved hearing-screening and reduction of hearing disability among under-five children.

The results of this review will be used for implementation of a new-born hearing screening, diagnostic accuracy and understanding the risk indicators for HL among under-five children in the South-Asian region. The evidence will be helpful for strategic directions for improved hearing screening and reduction of hearing disability among under-five children.

By understanding the underlying dynamics of hearing-screening procedures, hearing-impairments can be identified at an early stage and required treatment can be provided to the children.

The findings of this study indicate that early detection, screening and diagnosis of the HL among the children, especially among the infants and new-born (0–2 years of age), will be of utmost importance in reducing the prevalence of HL, especially among the South-Asian region. This study can be used as a reference for other future studies in the area of hearing-screening, diagnostic accuracy and associated risk indicators among children.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of a virtual reality (VR)-based approach to improve teacher education and life-long professional development. Through constant training in real-life based situations but within a safe three-dimensional virtual school environment, teachers are given the opportunity to experience and learn how to react to different types of incidents that may take place in a school environment.

The current paper presents the design cycle that was followed for the implementation of the VR teacher training system. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study that aimed to promote teachers’ understanding of student’s problematic situations related to substance use. As part of the experimental investigation, the impact of the VR system on participants’ emotions and mood states is evaluated through Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, heart rate (HR) recordings and self-reported data.

Results indicate significant changes to participant’s negative emotional and mood states, suggesting that the scenario and the VR experience had a strong impact on them. Moreover, participants’ HR was increased during the experiment, while the analysis of the EEG signal indicated that the participants experienced a stressful situation that could justify the change in their negative emotions and mood states.

The proposed VR-based approach aims to provide an innovative framework to teacher education and the related training methodology. In the long-term, the proposed VR system aims to form a new paradigm of teacher training, an alternative safe method that will allow user-teachers to learn through trial and error techniques that reflect real-life situations within a three-dimensional school space and without the risk of harming real students. To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first systematic attempts to use a VR-based methodology to address real teachers’ needs. The development of the VR application is linked to both strong theoretical foundations in education derived from the literature but also from real teachers’ problems and requirements derived from an extensive literature analysis, survey and interviews with experts including teachers, school counselors and psychologists. The VR tool addresses specific teachers’ competences as outcome, after an extensive documentation of existing Teachers’ Competence Models and significant guidance by experts who pointed specific competencies of primary importance to teachers.

Students with communication disorders present unique challenges to educators working toward fostering an inclusive classroom. For children with speech/language impairments, expressing themselves either academically or socially may present obstacles requiring communicative support and facilitation. For children with hearing loss, full access to educational material will be difficult without technological and/or visual support. Many children may have a combination of disorders, requiring a team of educators and other professionals to provide educational content and classroom support in the most inclusive way possible. This chapter is intended to provide an overview of variety of communication disorders, along with guidelines for improving student access across educational settings.

Disorders of speech and language include myriad diagnoses that vary in incidence and prevalence across age span and cultures. Disorders can range from those that do not impinge upon general communication, learning or psychosocial function, such as a mild speech disturbance, like a lisp, to global aphasia with a complete lack of communication ability. The short- and long-term effects of these impairments are often directly related to the age at onset, duration, co-morbidities, access to intervention by qualified professionals, and the societal response to the disability. In cultures that take a dim view of any type of deviation from the norm, there may be less access to diagnosis and treatment, as well as a hesitancy to seek out available options for treatment. Additionally, for those countries in which there are larger issues of general health, economic support, and quality of care, the nature of the disability may receive little or no attention simply due to national priorities or limited access to resources. Although, globally, disorders of speech and language are not exclusively limited to those countries with poorer health outcomes, in general, speech and language services may be less accessible or absent in poverty-stricken nations of the world. In many cases, these countries are at greater risk for many of the disorders simply due to environmental and social conditions, such as lack of early access to health care and preventative interventions. This chapter explores Global Perspectives on Speech and Language Impairments.

Prevalence of hearing impairment is quite common in people with learning disabilities (double jeopardy). However, this debilitating co‐morbidity remains largely undetected by carers and professionals due to presence of additional disabilities and complex clinical presentation in this population on the one hand, and lack of specialist hearing impairment service provision and difficulty in accessing generic audiology services on the other hand. This article aims to provide practical guidance on assessment and management of hearing impairment in people with learning disabilities by offering a narrative review of available literature on gaps in service delivery.