Teaching strategies for children with hearing impairment

 

Ms. Sangeeta Singh

 

Ph.D Scholar, Department of Education, University of Delhi, Delhi

 

ABSTRACT:

Every child has unique needs and abilities that affect her/his learning process. Children with hearing impairments (CwHI) are no exception. There is range of diversity in the nature of hearing loss experienced by CwHI. Four basic parameters that distinguish the nature of hearing loss are; degree of hearing loss, age of onset, type and cause of hearing loss. Therefore, needs and requirements of CwHI are diverse. Seeking unitary strategies to teach them is not justifiable. It is very crucial to address their special needs in the classroom. The present article is divided into three parts. First part describes the diverse nature of children with hearing impairment. Second part addresses the special needs of CwHI. Finally the last part discusses the teaching strategies for children with hearing impairment.

 

 

 

TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT:

The term ‘Hearing Impairment’ refers to deaf and hard of hearing people as per Right to Persons with disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016. According to RPWD Act 2016, “deaf” refers to persons having 70 DB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears and  "hard of hearing" means person having 60 DB to 70 DB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears. The Act defines the terms on the basis of degree of hearing loss. However, there is a range of diversity in the nature of hearing loss experienced by CwHI based on degree of hearing loss, age of onset, types of hearing impairments and causes of hearing impairments.  

 

Hearing loss can occur at any period of time. The pre lingual deaf child is born deaf or become deaf before acquiring speech. Post lingual deaf children had language exposure for sometime but later they became deaf owning to environmental factors. ‘Age of onset’ is an important because impairment after speech and language have been acquired leads to less marked effects than when it is congenital or occurs very early in the life (Goldstein, 1989). The distinction between pre lingual and post lingual deaf is of crucial importance to understand the language needs of CwHI. Post lingual children develop spoken language differently from pre lingual deaf children. They have had the auditory experiences that could enable them to acquire various aspects of spoken language in natural way. They can learn to speech read because of their ability to link visual information accompanying speech to the intended language form (Blom and Unworth, 2010).

 

A common cause of hearing impairment in children which is temporary is otitis media or conductive hearing loss. It is also known as “ear infections”. Oitis media occurs when the Eustachian tube leading from the throat to the ear becomes blocked and fluid builds up in the middle ear. Such infections can be treated through antibiotics. If not treated at time, chronic oitis media can lead to permanent hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss is of a serious nature as its effect cannot be treated. This hearing loss is permanent and usually more severe in its presence. When hearing loss results from the causes that cannot be cured, some degree of artificial correction might be provided by assistive listening devices and other amplification devices.

 

The degree of hearing loss ranges from profound, through moderate to mild. Children with mild hearing loss are often considered as having behavioural problem. They are viewed as confused, immature or even aloof as a result of missing out hearing soft level conversations or generally being unaware of subtle conversational cues (Welling and Ukstins, 2015). A mild to moderate hearing loss can have drastic impact on the acquisition of speech and language if the child has high frequency loss. Speech is characterized by low frequency vowels and high frequency consonants. Consonants carry most of the information for understanding speech. Therefore, a child would face difficulty in understanding speech if s/he had high frequency and can hear mainly vowels (Jones, 2002). Children with severe hearing loss hears no speech sounds of normal conversations and experiences severe difficulty in language acquisition and speech development. According to Roizen, as stated in Jones (2002), children with profound hearing loss hears no speech or other sounds. Hence, they experience severe problems related to acquisition of speech, language and learning.

 

A loss of any degree of hearing loss particularly during the developmental years can negatively impact speech and language understanding, academic achievement and social interactions. Therefore, it is essential to provide the necessary prerequisites in the home and school environment that would facilitate the language development of deaf child. Generally, educational stakeholders and other associates who are responsible for deaf child’s development consider their needs without realizing the range of variations among deaf children.  Marschark, Lampropoulou and Skordilis (2016) in their book ‘Diversity in deaf education’ posed the significance of recognizing diversity that exists among the Deaf and hard of hearing people. The authors cautioned the suggestions that seek ‘one true path’ for language, communication and education outcomes for deaf children.

 

Special needs of children with hearing impairments

The two major areas of concern to cater the needs of children with hearing impairment are language development and social development. The hearing loss results in speech and language delay which further affects the communication skills and academic achievement of a child with hearing impairment. Therefore, it is very essential to address the special needs of a child with hearing impairment for her/his academic, social and emotional development as well. There is no single intervention service and program that can cater the language needs of every child with hearing impairment. It is because of variation in nature, cause and degree of hearing loss among children with hearing impairment.

 

The effect on language development may be minimal for the children with mild to moderate hearing loss. Communication skills are possible for children who have moderate hearing loss by birth because voiced sounds of conversational speech remain audible (Gargiulo, 2015). Language and speech delays can be reduced or prevented in the individuals with this type of hearing loss by early diagnosis, use of assistive listening devices and other amplification technologies. Contrary to it, for those children whose hearing losses are severe enough to master a spoken language, sign language is an excellent alternative (Marschark, Lang and Albertini, 2002)

 

The barriers to communication often lead to failure in social interaction which impact socialisation especially in mainstreaming society. There is need to address the issues like peer interaction, self concept, confidence and self advocacy that impact the social and emotional development of a child with hearing impairment. Deaf children who studied in regular schools often feel isolated and develop feeling of loneliness. However, it is not that a deaf child cannot develop social skills. Marschark (2006), as cited in Gargiulo (2015) emphasized on a need to develop communication skills within hearing peer group and all teachers to avoid social isolation faced by CwHI in inclusive set up. It is only that the children with hearing impairment need support from parents, community (neighbours), schools and medical professionals associated with them. The support can develop their linguistic competence whichever is the mode oral or sign language. The child with hearing impairment must be encouraged to develop friendship relations with hearing and children with hearing impairment near home and in school. The technologies (e-mail, mobiles, social networking sites etc) can promote the children with hearing impairment to develop social relations virtually with hearing and other children with hearing impairment as well.

 

Teaching strategies for Children with hearing impairment

Based on the understanding developed related to range of variations among CwHI and their special needs, strategies for teaching CwHI are suggested. The section is divided into five parts including the general strategies, seating arrangement, teaching strategies, classroom environment modification and strategies for group discussions.

 

General strategies

It includes the presentation of teacher while teaching and skills that a teacher must embrace to gain attention of the CwHI. If the child is not ready to learn, s/he would not attain the things taught in the classroom. Thus, it becomes very important for a teacher to maintain facial expressions, gestures and body language that could make the classroom transactions interesting. Some of the suggestions in relation to it are:

 

o  Before communicating, get the attention of a child with hearing impairment

o  If the child is not facing, gently touch on her/his shoulder or on the arm to convey that you want to talk to her/him

o  Stay in one place while teaching or giving instructions so that the child does not face problem in speech/lip reading

o  Provide outline of the classroom activities and lesson in advance to the child with hearing impairment

o  Avoid covering your face with scarf or stole while speaking. Male teachers must have trimmed mustache.

 

Seating arrangements

The seating location of a child with hearing impairment is critical for effective instruction. Following strategies could be used for allocating proper seating locations for CwHI:

 

o  Seat the child where s/he can easily watch your face

o  Seat the child away from noise sources including exhaust fans, radiators etc

o  Allow the child to move during demonstrations, classroom activities and discussions to gain maximum information from such activities

o  Do not seat the child near the window or door to avoid distractions

o  Seat the child with hearing impairment where light is on teacher’s face and not on child’s face

 

Classroom environment modifications

It includes the modifications in the classroom environment to reduce reverberation and noise.

o  Add carpets to the floor and cover the bottom of chair legs with rubber caps to reduce sound reverberation

o  Install fiberglass panels at various wall locations to break up sound reflections

o  Windows are highly noise reflective. Therefore, use curtains or add window shades to avoid sound reverberation

 

Teaching strategies

o  Avoid giving instructions/reading while writing on the board

o  Write the notices/ announcements (related to assignments, exams, special events, and changes in classroom schedule etc) on the white/blackboard

o  Use visual aids such as picture, movies with captions, charts, models etc when possible

o  Provide one source of visual information at a time, otherwise, it is difficult for a child to concentrate on all the sources.

o  Give explanations using concrete examples and real life examples

o  Speak slowly, clearly and use simple sentences while teaching. Avoid using idioms

o  Avoid exaggerating your lip movements or shouting. Child with hearing impairment could find it difficult to understand what you are speaking

o  Do not communicate with the interpreter rather speak directly to the child

o  Allow the interpreter to stand on the place which is easily visible to the child with hearing impairment. Best place is close to chalkboard that is being used by the teacher. It will allow the child to see both the signs and the written instructions

o  Provide the outline of the lectures or written material in advance to the child and interpreter too. It will help the child and interpreter to become familiar with the new vocabulary

o  Obtain feedback from the child with hearing impairment to know her/his level of understanding

o  Use buddy to alert the child to listen and to be sure that the CwHI has understood all information correctly

 

Group discussions

Effective discussion could only be possible if every child would get chance to participate in it. Teacher plays an important role in executing a fruitful discussion. One may follow the following strategies given for involving CwHI in a group discussion.

 

o  Semi circle or a circle is the best seating arrangement for a CwHI. It is better to seat the child with “better” ear towards the class

o  There must be clarity of topic being discussed in the class

o  Involve the child and not interpreter in the discussion.

o  Encourage the CwHI to participate in the discussion by posing questions, probing and providing cues

o  Clearly identify who is speaking or asking a question. One can use pointing for indicating the person.

 

The article presents the strategies that a teacher can employ in her/his classrooms for teaching CwHI. It is of utmost important for the teacher to consider the diverse needs of CwHI. The diverse communication needs of CwHI demand classroom adaptations that ensure their active participation in the classrooms. Therefore, one cannot employ a single approach for teaching CwHI.

 

REFERENCES:

Blom, W. B., and Unsworth, S. (2010). Experimental methods in language acquisition research. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Gargiulo, R. M. (2015). Special education in contemporary society: an introduction to exceptionality. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Goldstein, D. (1989). The hearing impaired child. Windsor, Berkshire, England: NFER-Nelson.

Jones, C. J. (2002). Evaluation and educational programming of students with deafblindness and severe disabilities: sensorimotor stage. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.

Marschark, M., Albertini, J. A., and Lang, H. G. (2002). Educating deaf students: from research to practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Marschark, M., Lampropoulou, V., and Skordilis, E. K. (2016). Diversity in deaf education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pakulski, L. A., and Kaderavek, J. N. (2002). Children with Minimal Hearing Loss. Intervention in School and Clinic, 38(2), 96-103.

Right to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016

Smith, T. E., Polloway, E. A., Patton, J. R., and Dowdy, C. A. (2013). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive settings. Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.

Welling, D. R., and Ukstins, C. A. (2015). Fundamentals of audiology for the speech-language pathologist. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

 

 

 

 

Accepted on 10.03.2018            © A&V Publications All right reserved