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Discover up-to-date information on educational provisions for hearing impaired, how to identify a hearing impaired child in the classroom, classroom activities for hearing impaired students, teaching strategies for hearing impaired students pdf, special needs of hearing impaired child and how to identify a hearing impaired child in the classroom and how to help hearing impaired students in the classroom.
Educational needs of Hearing Impaired Child
Students with hearing impairments may: wear hearing aids, have cochlear implants, or use FM systems, which include a microphone/transmitter worn by the teacher and a receiver worn by the student. need to use real-time captioning for any audio-visual videos used in the classroom.
How to help hearing Impaired Students in the Classroom
Learning at school can pose a number of different challenges for any student, but for a child with hearing loss, that number can be even greater. Luckily, there are many ways teachers and administrators can accommodate a child’s needs outside of an established IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in order to help him or her overcome any difficulties and reach his or her full potential. This list includes some ideas, but it is in no way exhaustive! It’s a good idea to discuss these options, as well as brainstorm your own, during parent-teacher conferences or other school meetings so that everyone involved in the child’s education is on board.
- Find ways to communicate more effectively with the child
Don’t talk while you’re turned away from the student, such as when you’re walking around the room or writing on the board. The student will understand much more of what you say if he or she can see your face while you’re talking.
Use facial expressions and body language to highlight your points when appropriate. Don’t exaggerate or overdo it, but nonverbal cues like these will help with the student’s comprehension.
Give the student a handout of any notes so that he or she doesn’t have to concentrate on writing while trying to listen. Alternatively, assign the student a buddy who will take good notes and listen carefully; this way, the student can get any notes he or she missed or have any instructions repeated.
Make sure any videos or movies played in class have captions.
Develop a secret signal with the student to indicate when he or she is having trouble hearing. This could be a “thumbs down” signal or anything else that’s discreet yet effective.
- Reduce background noise as much as possible
Close the classroom door whenever feasible so that noises from the hallway are diminished. This modification will likely help all the children in the class.
Put tennis balls on the legs of chairs, tables, and desks. This way, it won’t be as noisy when students are moving around or transitioning between sitting and standing.
If the classroom has tile floors, try to find a carpet to put down. This helps the room’s acoustics and will absorb many incidental sounds that would otherwise be distracting.
- Help the student engage with the rest of the class
If possible, arrange the desks or tables in a large circle so that the student can see and respond to others in the class. This will help the student to feel engaged and included, even if he or she can’t always hear what’s been said.
Point to students and say their names as you call on them. This will help direct the child’s attention effectively from speaker to speaker and decrease the likelihood of him or her missing something that was said.
If the student is in a lower grade level and uses sign language, have the student teach the class one word in sign language per day. It’s a good idea to show children early on that hearing difficulties are not insurmountable and that efficient communication is possible.
- Consider hearing assistance technology
If the child has a hearing aid, there are many different ways to use it in a classroom setting. Most involve a microphone worn by the teacher that emits a signal directly to the hearing aid, amplifying the teacher’s voice.
Sound field systems also require the teacher to wear a microphone, but the sound is amplified across the entire classroom through speakers placed strategically. This technology can actually benefit all students in the class, as it increases the speech-to-noise decibel ratio (a measurement of how much louder the teacher’s voice is than other background sounds). Without amplification, this ratio in classrooms is often much, much lower than it should be, meaning either the teacher’s voice is too quiet or the background sounds are too loud (or both).
Some systems can translate voice into readable text on a device such as a tablet computer. This could be a good option, especially if the student has profound hearing difficulties or if the rest of the class just tends to be a noisy bunch; in this situation, the other options may not be as effective.
Encourage your hearing-impaired students to participate in all classroom and extracurricular activities.
Most hearing-impaired students can speech-read to some extent, but try to determine how well. To help your hearing-impaired students speech-read, make sure to face them when you talk, talk slowly and clearly, and don’t yell. As long as they have their amplifiers on, you can speak in a normal tone. Try to minimize background noises.
Use lots of pictures, graphics, and text labels. Try not to turn your back and speak while writing on a board. Remember: Many hearing-impaired students are visual learners.
Consider arranging chairs in your classroom in a circle so your hearing-impaired students can interact with classmates.
Check with a special education teacher, speech–language pathologist, or school nurse to see if any assistive hearing devices or other technology might be helpful
Classroom Activities for Hearing Impaired Students
Art
There are several types of art projects that are enjoyable activities for hearing-impaired children and adults. From drawing and coloring to painting and weaving, art is a fun activity that promotes creativity and expression. Hearing-impaired children can do basic art activities, such as watercolors and finger painting. Hearing-impaired adults can participate in more elaborate art projects, including working with clay and ceramics, as well as all types of sewing activities.
Treasure Hunt
The treasure hunt activity teaches hearing-impaired children and adolescents how to ask for help and ask for clarification, as well as to negotiate with peers. It can also be a fun game for hearing-impaired adults in a party setting. This activity requires planning beforehand, and there should be a group leader to explain how to play. The group leader hides the “treasure clues” in the activity setting (such as a classroom, backyard or house) and then divides the participants into small groups.
Each group is given one starting clue that indicates where the next clue is hidden. They must work together to figure out what each clue means. For example, the first clue may be about a fire hydrant and it could read, “Counting is fun; One, two, three; I’m out in the sun; Dogs pee on me.” Once the group realizes the clue is about the fire hydrant, they go to it and find the next clue. Most games have about five to six different clues and locations. Once the group reaches the last clue, they are rewarded with a prize, or “treasure.”
Acting
Group acting activities are another way for hearing-impaired children and adults to have fun. These types of activities can be done with or without props. Children that know how to read can use scripts and costumes to act out short plays. Charades is an impromptu activity that teaches hearing-impaired people how to fine-tune their abilities to read people non-verbally. The the game of charades may have a pop-culture theme and have items that require participants to act like celebrities. It can also take on an animal or emotions theme. For example, children can act the word “cat,” or they can act out the word “happy.”
Dancing Activities
Dancing can be a difficult activity for hearing-impaired people because they cannot hear all the sounds and tones of the music. One way to make dancing fun is to have a mimicking game. Designate a leader and ask the participants to imitate his dancing moves while the music is playing. When the music stops, all participants must freeze in place. The goal is to make dancing fun and teach the participants how to follow the rules.
Emotion Crafts
Hearing-impaired people sometimes have communication difficulties and may have issues expressing emotions. There are many ways to teach hearing-impaired children how to read and portray their emotions in social settings. Ask your students or children to create emotions posters with different emotions in each section. They can cut out pictures from magazines and simply glue them to poster boards. Another idea is to teach them the colors that depict emotions, such as “blue” for sad feelings.
Identifying Students with Hearing Problems
As students head back to school with renewed energy for the new year, it’s important that parents and teachers to learn to recognize when a child’s problems with learning are really the result of hearing loss. Childhood hearing loss isn’t always easy to recognize, but there are ways parents and teachers can determine if a child has hearing loss.
Parents of school aged children and younger often wonder what constitutes normal behavior and what serves as a sign a child may be having a problem with their hearing. Hearing loss can occur at any age and is the most common birth defect in the United States. Though there are now systems in place to recognize children born with hearing loss, but school age children who develop hearing loss can go undiagnosed.
Childhood hearing loss is sometimes misdiagnosed as ADD, or even dismissed because the hearing loss occurs unilaterally, only in one ear.
Speech Problems: If a child says words incorrectly, has delays in language and communication, feels more comfortable with gestures, these could be signs that your child is not hearing everything said or not processing sound in the correct way. Note: A lisp is not typically associated with hearing loss and is a relatively common speech disorder.
Inattentive: Parents of young children often complain that they don’t answer when called, so how can you tell the difference between “selective” hearing or a genuine hearing problem? The key is in consistency. If a child hears and responds to you a majority of the time, then they may have “tuned” you out on the one occasion they did not respond. But if in addition to repeatedly not answering your calls or responding to things you have said, the child often looks confused when asked a question, seems slow to answer, answers incorrectly or then asks to have things repeated, you could be seeing the first signs of a problem. Asking “What?” more than is typical or if a child needs to be looking directly at you in order to hear–this might indicate they are reading lips, may also be signs of hearing loss.
Hires Volume: If your child hires the volume on the television, radio, or computer too high, this could be a sound of hearing loss. Also a child that speaks in a higher volume than most children is also a sign of hearing loss. Children with unilateral hearing loss are often accused of being loud. This is important, because hearing loss in one ear can be harder to spot as the hearing ear sometimes masks, though it does not compensate for, childhood hearing loss. Studies show unilateral hearing loss can cause the same delays and cognitive problems as hearing loss in both ears.
Not Following Directions: If a child seems confused by directions, brings the wrong item, responds in a way that makes no sense, or consistently asks for things to be repeated he or she could have childhood hearing loss. Children with hearing loss often confuse what is being told to them. That means they have difficulty with language. They can also have issues with speech—how they express themselves. For a clearer understanding on the difference between speech and language, this is how it is described by kidshealth.org:
• Speech is the verbal expression of language and includes articulation, which is the way sounds and words are formed.
• Language is much broader and refers to the entire system of expressing and receiving information in a way that’s meaningful. It’s understanding and being understood through communication — verbal, nonverbal, and written
Learning Difficulties: Is your child having learning problems in school? Has the teacher complained that he or she is not paying attention? Does the teacher mention the child appears to not listen, ignores directions, or seems unable to keep up with the conversation? According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, “Children who are hard of hearing will find it much more difficult than children who have normal hearing to learn vocabulary, grammar, word order, idiomatic expressions, and other aspects of verbal communication.”
Social Withdrawal: Often times children with hearing loss avoid social situations, sports, parties and family events. These get-togethers can cause a feeling of being overwhelmed by his or her inability to communicate and understand. Sadly if a child has hearing loss and is asked why they avoid these situations, they might not know. To them their hearing loss is normal, so the child remains unaware that they are not hearing at the same level as everyone else.
In addition to these signs, parents must also learn not to ignore their instinct when it comes to childhood hearing loss, especially if the alarm continues to sound despite recent school testing of your child. School is not the place to have your child’s hearing tested and neither is your pediatrician’s office. Pediatricians cannot provide the same level of testing and are not aware of the same hearing issues as a certified audiologist. An audiologist has sophisticated equipment and specialized education needed to correctly identify the many different ranges of childhood hearing loss.
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