“Effective Teaching Strategies for Students with Hearing Disabilities in Schools”
Every child is unique, and students with special abilities need special care compared to regular students. Nearly 3% of students experience hearing loss, which can be a major problem for their academic development and learning capability. With a teacher proficient in sign language and the capacity to understand their needs, the method of teaching for students with hearing disabilities requires modifications to ensure hassle-free learning. Here, we have some concepts to give you an idea about the learning methodology for hearing disabilities.
Sign language and lip-syncing
People who are deaf speak different sign languages based on their country. The gestures or symbols in sign language are organized in a linguistic way, where each individual gesture is called a sign. Apart from sign languages, students with hearing difficulties mostly rely on lip-syncing to understand the word or phrase delivered by a person. If the pronunciation is not proper, it will confuse the students and block their communication with the teacher.
Background noise
Compared to hearing children, deaf children find it difficult to filter sounds, so any background noise is going to get mixed in with what the child is trying to listen to, making it harder for them to understand the sounds around them, especially if they are using any hearing aids. Hearing aids do not filter any distinctive sound. Rather they just amplify any available noise in the environment. Therefore, using hearing aids along with loud background noise will not help hearing-impaired students.
Visual aids and technologies
Even for students without any hearing difficulty, visual aids are beneficial. Writing down phrases, using pictures, videos, and slideshows not only helps deaf students to the maximum extent but also makes the class interesting for them. Many teachers are adopting modern and innovative techniques to enhance their method of teaching. The classrooms designed specifically for hearing-impaired students are equipped with Interactive White Boards (IWBs) and sound amplification systems to get knowledge more profoundly.
Conclusion
Innovative and special teaching methods help students to understand sounds, and they can develop their knowledge. The student needs repeated and consistent exposure to fully learn. For best results, parents and teachers should work together to provide the same methods at home and at school.