How to Teach Children With Hearing Impairments
A hearing disability need not determine the outcome of a child's education, but it will determine the methods by which he can successfully master the subjects. Teaching a child with a hearing impairment takes patience and willingness to adapt instructional techniques to suit his disability. If the child has some hearing, the techniques may be used in conjunction with traditional teaching methods.
Instructions
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Learn to sign if you are the parent of a hearing-impaired child or if you will be teaching a child with a hearing impairment in an academic setting. American Sign Language Professionals (ASLPro) offers free sign language video lessons, designed for parents and educators to help them learn to effectively communicate with hearing impaired students.
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Demonstrate the lessons with as many visual aids as possible. Learning is the process of the brain translating information in a way that the child understands the subject matter and can build upon it in future lessons. Young children benefit from hands-on math, science or reading visual aids that allow them to associate the lesson with a physical model such as an abacus, counting blocks, alphabet pieces and simple science experiments.
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Position a hearing-impaired child in the front row and in a place where the lighting is good. Since these children often use lip-reading to supplement their learning, it is imperative that they have a clear view of your mouth as you speak.
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Focus on reading skills before introducing more advanced lessons. Children with hearing impairments depend upon the ability to read quickly and retain the information. Even preschool children can learn to recognize letters and simple words in a written context when the parent or teacher uses sign language and lip-reading to reinforce the lessons.
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Show captioned videos to older students with hearing impairments. Public schools offer captioned videos and they can be located at your public library, many of which are available through inter-library programs. In addition, captioning services can alter an existing video. Hearing-impaired children may benefit from the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), available to registered members online (see Resources).
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Use role-play to introduce and extend concepts. Acting out simple concepts reinforces the subject matter. Used in conjunction with visual aids, preschool and elementary-level children may find it easier to mentally process the lesson and master the concept.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Photo, courtesy of stock.xchng
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Comments
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Great information................
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l like your reshearh
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deafbowtie
Mar 03, 2010
By the way, may I suggest to change from Hearing Impaired to Deaf/Hard of Hearing or People with Hearing Loss because Hearing Impaired is politically incorrect because it implies that Deaf people are impaired in some important way. Do not want all readers, teachers and parents think our ears are broken! Again, people with hearing loss do not have a disease. We are not looking for a cure but ACCEPTANCE. Thank you for reading this message.
