Hearing Impairment

IDEA defines deafness as a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification and that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Teaching Implications

A deaf or hearing impaired student will probably have a support worker of some sort with them. A BSL user will probably have an interpreter and a note taker with them, or a Communication Support Worker (CSW) who uses combination of signing and note taking to ensure the student is accessing the information. A hearing impaired student will probably have a note taker with them. This support will generally be arranged by the Disability Team, using an external agency for the sign language support, paid for through the Disabled Students’ Allowances. There is a shortage of BSL interpreters and CSWs it is therefore important to book services far in advance to ensure that all a student’s sessions are covered. Please note that the costs of a CSW or BSL Interpreter are high, thus it is essential that timetables are available as soon as possible and that changes are kept to a minimum.


It helps a communication support worker (CSW) if they can prepare beforehand. To communicate most effectively it helps if the lecturer can speak slightly slower than usual to give the signer a chance to comprehend the material, and then work out the most concise way of communicating to the student. However it is usually unrealistic to expect a lecturer to greatly reduce the speed of their delivery. For this reason it is essential for lecture material to be given to the CSW in advance of the session. The CSW is then able to prepare in advance by working out signing combinations and identifying any need for new signs.


The process of communicating for a deaf student is exhausting requiring intense levels of concentration for this reason it is important that there are regular breaks in the teaching to they can rest and regain optimum levels of concentration.
Generally the CSW will need to sit opposite the student. Usually this will mean they would need to sit at the front of the lecture theatre/teaching room. If you are working in a darkened room (e.g. if showing a video or slides) it will be difficult for the student to see the CSW so provision will need to be made for spot lighting.



Technology

An hearing aid is an amplification device, it makes sounds lower. Hearing aids can be worn behind the ear, completely in the ear canal on the body or incorporated into eyeglass frames.

Group Assertive Listening Device; can solve the problems caused by distance, noise, and reverberation in the classroom; Example: a radio can be placed between the student and teacher with hearing loss with the teacher wearing a small microphone transmitter often on the lapel near the lips and each child wearing a receiver that doubles as a personal hearing aid.

Cochlear Implants: by passes damaged hair cells and stimulates the auditory nerve directly. This implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.

Resources
http://education.gsu.edu/gatod/Resources/DeafStudents.htm

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-133574384.html
The Captioned Media Program provides a free-loan media program of over 4,000 open-captioned titles. Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, teacher-librarians, parents, and others may borrow materials. There are no rental, registration, or postage fees. Several hundred titles are also streamed on the CMP web site. In addition, the videotapes all come with ...

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~acad/text/hearing_disability.html#sect0
This site will give you and overview of the disabilities of hearinng impairment as well as some teaching strategies. It will also go into detail about how to be courtsey to deaf students in your classroom

Heward William L. Exceptional Children; An Introduction to Specail Educaation Ninth Edition
This resource goes into detail about the certain types of hearing loss. Technologies and suppoets.

http://www.ibwebs.com/hearing.htm
This site teaches you how to go about getting a therapists, clinics and schools providing auditory and oral programs