A Person with Some Degree of Hearing Loss - Essay Example

Hearing Impaired Hearing impairment is a term used to refer to any person with some degree of hearing loss. The Individuals with Disability Act (IDEA), formerly the Education of the Handicapped Act (P.L.94-142), includes “hearing impairment” and “deafness” as two of the categories under which children with disabilities may be eligible for special education and related service programming. While the term “hearing impairment” is often used generally to describe a wide range of hearing losses, including deafness, the regulations of IDEA define hearing loss and deafness separately. ‘Hard of hearing’ is a term referring to a person who has some degree of hearing loss but is able to function in the hearing and speech modalities either with or without the use of assistive listening devices such as hearing aids. ‘Deaf’, on the other hand, is a term used to refer to people who have a greater degree of hearing loss, use sign language as their primary means of communication, and are in some manner affiliated with the Deaf community. Thus, deafness may be viewed as a condition that prevents an individual from receiving sound in all forms. In contrast, a child with hearing loss can generally respond to auditory stimuli, including speech (“Deafness”, 2004). Section 504 of IDEA states, “No otherwise qualified individual with disability in the United States … shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (“Exceptional”, 2007). The problem undertaken in ensuring this law is complied with enters when one begins to look at the various characteristics of hearing loss and deafness and attempts to incorporate alternative learning strategies into the classroom are made. Describing the Characteristics Communication characteristics People who are deaf or hard of hearing use one of three main approaches to communicate. These include the oral approach, the manual approach and the total approach. The oral approach makes heavy use of speech and reading skills to communicate with others and generally has a tendency to remain close to the familiar. The manual approach uses sign language only as a means of communicating and is generally used by people who are completely deaf or well integrated into the Deaf community. Total communication refers to the use of a combination of the oral and manual approach to communication, including the use of informal gestures and written or spoken words. Social characteristics Certain behavioral differences are brought about when hearing is impaired because individuals who are deaf view the world through their eyes more than through their ears. For example, people who are deaf or hard of hearing may appear to stare at the face, lips and hands of a speaker, characteristics that may seem inappropriate to the hearing community but remain essential communication skills for the individual. In addition, while the hearing world responds quickly to a teacher’s clapping hands, the sound of a fire alarm or follows the soundtrack of an instructional video, the hearing impaired or deaf student may need some additional assistance in the form of a tap on the shoulder, a clear sight line, flashing lights or closed captioning for films. Educational characteristics Students who are hard of hearing commonly underachieve on both reading and math scores. There is no clear reason why this should be so, but it is instructive to realize the issue as being associated with their handicap and thus provide them with additional instruction or assistance whenever possible. Also, students who are deaf typically have reading problems in three general areas: vocabulary, syntax, and figurative language (Turnbull, 1995). This is presumably because they are essentially learning a second language in addition to their sign language and it could be beneficial to instruct these students, appropriately, as if they were in an English as a Second Language course. Simulation of hearing loss During my daily life routine, I used ear block for a period of approximately half a day. Using this device, I could not hear any thing clearly although I could see people’s lips moving and hear garbled faint sounds. One problem that frustrated me immensely was that I could not hear the doorbell, nor could I understand what people at the door were trying to tell me when I did realize someone was there. What I realized from this experience is that hearing problems introduce very serious issues into the lives of those it affects. I also realized I don’t have enough information regarding the various hearing aids and treatment options available for hearing loss patients. For this reason, I am planning to see a otolaryngologist to learn more about what can be done and how to help people to a greater extent who are dealing with these issues. I have also discovered a number of technological advancements that may become key elements of education for deaf children such as the use of word processors and electronic tablets. Educational Implications Through my experiment, I realized that hearing loss or deafness does not affect a person’s intellectual capacity or ability to learn. However, children who are either hard of hearing or deaf generally required some special education services in order to receive an adequate education simply because their methods of communication are vastly different from methods used by the hearing world, both to learn and to teach. Education can be made more accessible to these children if the teacher is able to use some sign language or provides alternative means than sound (written instruction or visual aids) for the student to receive the instruction required. By instructing hearing children in the classroom with some basic sign language, the teacher can facilitate greater social integration, encourage collaboration between students to help the one who’s hard of hearing and assist this child in feeling an active part of the hearing community. Teachers can also help specialist instructors in the classroom setting by providing a favorable setting for the child to practice lip reading, include only closed captioned films in their instructional day, enlist another student to help with taking notes for the hard of hearing student, provide study guides of key concepts or vocabulary lists, provide additional copies of work for family to help the student learn the necessary skills or even use specialized software designed to reinforce these skills. The importance of including family in the child’s instruction could be very helpful as the family has already worked out various ways of effectively communicating with their child as well as being aware of particular weak areas or trouble issues. Technological advancements can also be of great assistance to these children. These aids include the use of word processors or writing tablets for elementary school students who would be capable of writing, drawing and sharing their ideas (Stewart & Kluwin, 2001). Children would be able to think about an idea they want to write about, bring in photos or magazine images related to their idea, write the story or draw the picture on their electronic tablet and then share the picture and story with others Finally, it should also be expected that a student who is hard of hearing may need additional time to complete an assignment – particularly as they are translating their own internal language based on the sounds they can hear or their sign language vocabulary into English. Providing a word processor, peer tutor or paraprofessional to help may be essential to a student’s ultimate success.   References Turnbull, Ann P. & H. Rutherford. (1995). Exceptional Lives: Special education in today’s schools. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. “Exceptional Student Leadership.” (2007). Colorado Department of Education. Available February 8, 2008 from Stewart, David A. & Thomas N. Kluwin. (2001). Teaching Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: Content, strategies, and curriculum. Needham Heights, MA: Pearson Education Company. “Deafness and Hearing Loss: Fact sheet.” (January 2004). Washington D.C.: National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Available February 8, 2008 from < http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/factshe/fs3txt.htm> Hallahn, D. P. & Kauffman, J.M. (2005). Exceptional Learners : An introduction to special education. (10th Ed). Boston: Pearson Education Company. Read More