Students with Deafness and Hearing Loss
Chapter 10
By : Sigit Budi Ananto
Federal Definition
“Hearing impairment means the impermanent of hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects children’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.
Deafness means a hearing impermanent that is so sever that a child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, [and] that adversely affect a child’s educational performance.”
Subgroups
- Conductive hearing loss– This occurs when a problem either from the outer or middle ear prevents sound from being conducted into the inner ear. This can occur if part of the external or middle part of the ear is never developed, or if it is not fully developed or else if it develops abnormally.
- Sensorineural hearing loss– This occurs when a problem in the inner ear or along the nerve pathway to the brainstem. As a result, the sound that travels to the inner ear and brainstem is not delivered at all or is much softer or distorted.
- Mixed hearing loss– Is when someone has both Conductive and Sensorineural hearing loss.
Two additional factors to be aware of when discussing types of hearing losses concerns whether the hearing loss is bilateral or unilateral. A bilateral hearing loss is a loss in both ears; a unilateral hearing loss refers to a loss in only one ear.
Characteristics
- Cognitive Characteristics- Early research on the cognitive skills of individual who were deaf or hard of hearing routinely found them to lag behind their hearing peers. The tests used in those studies often required comprehension of English and spoken language. Thus, many researchers were confusing cognitive ability with language ability. More recently, a variety of tests of cognitive ability have been developed that include nonverbal performances measures, such as tracing from a starting point to a stopping point on an increasingly complex maze and identifying that correct next geometric form to put in a sequence. The results of these studies indicate that a hearing loss in and of itself imposes no limitation on the cognitive capabilities of an individual.
Characteristics
- Academic Characteristics- During the first years of life, basic language skills are acquired. Children who do not acquire age-appropriate language skills face both immediate challenges in being able to communicate with others as well as long-term struggles to acquire information. Simply started, a hearing loss presents a potential barrier to communication, which in turn influences most areas of development, including those related to academic achievement.
- Language- Language is central to everything that we do because it is the means for communicating with others, thinking, and learning. Even though children who are deaf or hard of hearing have the same cognitive ability to learn language as their hearing peers. The experience of seeing, hearing, and forming words stimulates brain development in ways that help the child communicate more effectively.
Reading- You might assume that reading would not be a problem for students who are deaf or hard of hearing because hearing is not needed to read. That is not the case. Reading is a complex skill that challenges most students with a hearing loss, primarily because of the communication and language development connection.
- Language- Language is central to everything that we do because it is the means for communicating with others, thinking, and learning. Even though children who are deaf or hard of hearing have the same cognitive ability to learn language as their hearing peers. The experience of seeing, hearing, and forming words stimulates brain development in ways that help the child communicate more effectively.
- Written Language- Like reading, writing can pose challenges for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. In fact, researchers suggests that the problems faced by these students in mastering written English are even more formidable than those they encounter in developing reading skills.
- mathematics- In general, students who are deaf or hard of hearing achieve at a higher grade level in mathematics than in reading or writing. Pagliaro (2006) has identified three primary factors that cause students who are deaf or hard of hearing to perform poorly in mathematics.
- Experiential deficits– Lack of incidental mathematics learning negatively affects the building of schemata.
- Language difficulties– In addition to the communication, language, and reading challenges previously discussed in this chapter, mathematics uses specialized language such as conditionals, comparatives, negatives, inferentials, abbreviations, and symbols that combine to create barriers to mathematical concepts.
- Traditionally based instruction– Rote memorization of facts, formulas, and algorithms through drill-and-practices and worksheets filled with computation exercise are used instead of opportunities to engage in problem solving and conceptual development.
To address these problems, educators must raise their expectations for students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the area of mathematics, present experiences that build students’ background mathematical knowledge, teach the language of mathematics as well as the application, and integrate mathematics throughout the curriculum.
Social and Emotional Characteristics- For many children and youth who are deaf or hard of hearing, both of these areas are often compromised. As a result children and youth who are deaf or hard of hearing tend to have fewer friends, parents who have more restrictive rules for behavior, and parents who are unable to communicate expectations about social interactions. When parents and adults cannot fluently communicate with the child who is deaf or hard of hearing, they tend to solve the children’s problems for them rather than explain what to do, provide assistance, or give feedback. Thus, the linguistic and cognitive complexity of tasks often reduced for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
behavioral Characteristics- To behave in socially appropriate ways, children and youth have to consider alternatives in social situations. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing often lag behind their hearing peers in recognizing the reasons for other people’s behaviors, in part because they are less likely to receive or overhear explanations for those behaviors. As a result, students who are deaf or hard or hearing may not understand why people act or react the way they do. One successful approach for addressing the behavior problems that students who are deaf or hard of hearing may experience is called PATHS, Promoting Alternative Thinking Skills.
Recommended Education Practices
- Integrated Vocabulary and Concept Development- Many students who are deaf or hard of hearing have limited and/or delayed receptive and expressive vocabulary, and this negatively affects comprehension, especially as concepts and vocabulary become more abstract. One approach was the use of pre- and postteaching activities to supplement daily lessons and help make the content accessible. Preteaching essential vocabulary and concepts assists the students in establishing the knowledge base needed to understand new information. Postteaching was used to review key concepts, clarify misconceptions, organize information, and expand students’ knowledge of the content or skills emphasized during the lesson.
- Experiential Ladder of Learning- Central to learning is the quantity and quality of experience that we have in childhood and throughout life. Those experiences help shape our intelligence, character, and interests. Many students who are deaf or hard of hearing grow up in homes where they are overprotected, and so they miss mediated experiences. Humans represent the experience of the world through three modes: (1) symbolic (words, language); (2) iconic (pictures, charts, graphs); and (3) enactive (experience). The Experiential ladder of Learning is a useful framework for planning units of study and learning activities. The ladder can be used to help identify alternatives to using lecture, discussion, or assigned reading for assisting students to understand concepts and course concepts.
Resources
- http://www.kidshealth.org- This is an amazing website with wonderful facts, knowledge and tips on who to deal with a child/student who is deaf or has a hearing impairment for any parent, teacher or caregiver.
- http://www.listen-up.org- This website is great, it has information, programs, activities, and all the knowledge you need to help with all types of hearing impairments.
- http://www.mrdr.com.au- This website is very helpful in understanding what the causes are for hearing impairment and what exactly it is and does.
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