Hearing Impairment
Progress:
Need To Know Facts About Deaf Students
- Most teachers will meet a handful of students who are deaf or hearing impaired in their teaching lifetime. It will most likely result in having ONE deaf or hearing impaired person in a class of hearing peers.
- There are several degrees of hearing loss (slight to profound)
Hard of Hearing (HH) → Mild Hearing Loss→ Severe Hearing Loss → Profound Hearing Loss
- Deaf = deaf with no hearing aids or cochlear implants. Hearing Impaired = deaf but have hearing aids or cochlear implants.
- Nowadays, more and more deaf people have either a hearing aid or cochlear implant. They will often be bilingual – and will be more fluent in speech, than in signing.
- When a student tells you that they are deaf, always ask them TWO questions:
- What degree of deafness do you have?
- What’s the best way for me to communicate with you?
- If you can, ask them about their deafness and/or hearing support: it shows that you respect the person with the hearing impairment and you’ll quickly find out what’s the best way to communicate with them.
- Some people do not want to reveal that they are deaf.
- Reasons: they feel uncomfortable that they have to tell people that they can’t hear well. Fear of stigma of society: people with hearing would treat the deaf students differently after they find out.
- What to do in this situation: Just be clear that you want to be able to communicate with them well, so this is a must need to know, and you’ll keep it discreet when with other people.
- Since the deaf students are often on their own, the learning experience can often be isolating, confusing and difficult, and even everyday conversations with their peers can be difficult. Thus it is important for teachers to be aware and perhaps take control in certain situations. I.e. Group discussions, encourage them!
