Hello everyone! Today, I'm going to share four tips for teachers of children who
are D/deaf or hard of hearing. I also want to share some tips of what to look out
for to identify a child that could possibly have a hearing loss. I'm so glad
you're here today. My name is Emily. I have a bilateral, moderate to severe
congenital sensorineural hearing loss it means that I have a hearing loss in
both ears it's moderate to severe which means I start hearing at the sound of a
vacuum cleaner. I've had this since birth and I want to share my experiences with
you. I am so glad you're here. Please take a moment to like this video and share
with me in the comments below of where you're watching this video from today! I
know that people watch my videos from all across the United States and all
across the world! I'd love to hear where you are from. I hope you stick around to
the end of this video because if you do I'm going to share two more resources
that can be helpful to teachers and educators of the D/deaf and hard of
hearing. Here we go, here are four tips for teachers of the D/deaf and hard of
hearing children. Number one, understand that you may be asked to come to IEP and
or 504 meetings. IEP and 504 meetings have been mandated by the various laws
that have been passed since 1973 and 1975 these laws ensure that children
with disabilities receive the help that they need in the classroom to be just as
successful as their peers who do not have disabilities these plans usually
take place once a year maybe twice a year depending on what needs to happen
and they are different. A 504 an IEP plan are two different things. I'm going to
share a link down below by the nonprofit organization Understood. They have an
excellent video that explains the difference between the two but all you
need to know on these two things is that if you are informed that you have a hard
of hearing or D/deaf student in your class you will be attending a meeting a 504
and/or IEP meeting with parent a counselor district representatives and
whoever else needs to be involved to make sure that this student gets the
help they need the help set forth in these meetings could be anything from
custom homework dates custom test dates, equipment needed in the classroom
interpreters needed and things like that due to these laws typically the expenses
are not covered by parents but the school and the school district themselves the
school should receive additional funds from the state to be able to cover these
expenses and create an equal learning environment for all students the next thing to keep
in mind is visuals because D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students don't have
their ears they rely heavily on visual cues so it's really important that you
pay attention to visuals in your classroom and what I mean by this is
pay attention to the fact that if you have a D/deaf or hard of hearing student it will
help them to be in the front of the room or to have their seating place in an
area where you are often talking and speaking with your face out be aware
that any sound that you can help add visual cues to will greatly assist a
D/deaf and hard-of-hearing child you can help add visuals to sound in a variety
of ways for example you can grab students' attention before talking you
can ensure that when you're talking you do not face the whiteboard but that you
are always facing the students particularly the student with who is
D/deaf or hard of hearing this also includes writing down as much of
material as you can for example writing diagrams or writing due dates on the
board just any important information you don't want someone to miss be sure that
it's written down so that the student can see that. Also, captions for videos
are extremely helpful. Captions are visual scripts of what's being said that
can help a student be able to follow along in a video. Number three if you
restructure group activities to be more friendly for the D/deaf and hard of
hearing student or students in your class, this helps immensely. When I was
little in elementary school, in middle school, and in high school, it was always
so hard for me when we did classroom group activities. Particularly group
activities and small groups with the rest of class there, it got so loud and so
noisy I couldn't hear what my class was saying I couldn't participate and
therefore I couldn't learn in those group environments. It made it very
difficult for me, so a solution to this problem is that my group or a couple
groups can go out into the hallway of the classroom, if possible, I'd be able to
work out there in a quieter environment. Another option is to just have a whole
class work on the activity together or split the class into two groups so the
groups are bigger but less people are talking all at once. In addition to this,
also keep in mind that group activities like popcorn reading are very difficult
for children. Popcorn reading is when one child
read in a book or a playwright and then call on another child to randomly start
reading as a D/deaf or hard of hearing student this was extremely difficult for
me because even though I was paying attention I would get lost I didn't know
where they were and I would just pray that no one called on me. There was one
instance in a class where I had a friend that would cough and say where we were in
the script or the book so that when it became my turn I would be able to just
read it and figure out what was going on. I think everyone in the class understood
what he was doing but for me it was a lifesaver because it was always the
worst to say like "I'm so sorry I really don't know where we are." it's not that I
can't pay attention and the fact that I just can't hear the last eight students
that read so popcorn reading is really difficult. I'd say stay away from that. As
a teacher you can read it or if a student is reading have them stand up
and read and make sure that you can see their mouth because again it's those
visual cues that help the D/deaf and hard of hearing students. Number four and
probably the most important resource is utilized technology the IEP and the 504
plans will help you understand what technology your school and your school
district has available for this child or children but understand that you as a
teacher can utilize technology in your own classroom at no expense to you some
of these apps or things that you can use include assistive learning devices. These
should be covered by the school and the school district. This could be a
real-time captioning system. So for example, a child will have an electronic
device in front of them and as you speak it will transcribe what you are speaking
right then and there. So adds the visual element to the sound element for the
child. Next, FM systems. Again these would be
covered under the IEP and 504 plans. What this is is, you would wear a microphone
and the student would have a speaker whether it would be in their hearing
aids or on their desk this speaker would amplify the sound making it easier for a
hard of hearing student to understand. There are also incredible devices such
as Roger mic, that are like a pen, and that also is a microphone that can go
straight to the students' hearing devices. Other forms of technology that you can
use that you probably already have in your classroom, include overheads, projectors,
and like I said earlier, captions for videos, the whole overarching goal of
this is because the student is D/deaf and hard-of-hearing, consider any and all
ways that you can make sound information become visual information. So there are
those four tips if you have any questions or comments about what I
covered please ask me in the comments below I will just answer based on my own
personal experiences. I am NOT a professional I'm not an educator or an
audiologist in any way but I'm a student who's gone through this through pre-k
elementary school middle school high school and college and all of my
experiences are very different and I would be happy to answer any questions
that you may have. So another thing that I want to cover in this video is just a
couple pointers for teachers in order to detect possible hearing losses in their
students so because you're a teacher it is most likely that you will spend more
waking hours with the school children than they will spend with their parents
so it's highly likely you may notice a hearing loss that parents will not
notice ways to notice the hearing loss include the following one if you have an
electronic device or TV or video playing or sound playing and the student asks
you to turn it up when it's already kind of loud that's an indicator that maybe
their ears aren't able to hear the volume as normal hearing people are. Next
simply not responding when you call on their name could imply that they
probably don't hear you this could you know sometimes in a child this is hard
to gauge because you're not sure they're being unruly and not paying attention
but gauge them based on their behavior and if they seem to sincerely just not hear
you then that may be an indicator of hearing loss. Next, if you notice the
child watches other children closely and tries to mirror their expressions or
they're just a little delayed in their reactions that is another indicator that
they could have a hearing loss because they understand that they're not hearing
so they again, rely on the visual cues of their peers around them to be able to
feel in touch and on cue. Other things include academic issues this could mean
not turning in homework in time or realizing that a test was that day that
they didn't know or doing very badly on spelling tests. I struggled with all of
these. There were days where I showed up to class and did not realize that
something was due because I never heard that it was due so writing due dates on
the board can prevent this. Spelling tests were really difficult for me
because the teacher would say the word and I thought I heard another word and
then I couldn't I was like "Wait I didn't study this word, did I study the wrong list?"
so then I was writing down words that didn't even exist on the spelling list
for that week it was a struggle but I was glad that we figured out oh she's
not hearing it right and so we just had to find out that I had to have a
separate meeting with my teacher and we would just do the spelling test
separately during recess I was bummed and I had to miss recess but it helped
me understand the words and I was able to repeat the word back to my teacher
after they said it and write it down and then the last two things are difficulty
paying attention students who can't hear they have a difficult time paying
attention just because when they can't hear they don't feel involved they just
start thinking about other things. It's hard to pay attention. And then the last
thing is speech and language issues. If you notice that the child is not saying
things right or the consonants are left off at the end of the words or their
vowels are jumbled this could be because they're not hearing those phenomes
properly and this could be an indicator of hearing loss. If you notice it right
off the bat, take a couple days to really gauge it and see if it is an issue and
then you can notify parents and then pull them in for parent-teacher
conferences and just let them know know that some parents may be in denial of
this kind of news that's normal every parent wants their child to be perfect
but you as a teacher can do your best to help D/deaf and hard of hearing children.
So there you have it, I hope those tips help! I want to hear if they help down
in the comments below! I'm sure you have more questions for me so please don't
hesitate to ask them I want to hear them in the comments below and as I promised
at the beginning here are two resources online that you can't use to find more
resources so for pre-k and kindergarten children one of the best resources I
have found is hearingfirst.org. hearingfirst.org is really unique
because they focus on listening in the spoken language so the oral side of
hearing loss and helping children communicate orally which is
predominantly used in public mainstream schools the next resource is
successforkidswithhearing loss.com. This is an awesome resource and they
have a specific teacher and educator packet that you can choose to buy or
download. I'll include the link in the description below. Again, they're all
about children with hearing losses they're always releasing excellent
content for supporters and educators of children with deafness and hearing loss.
I hope all of these resources have helped you today as a teacher you have
such an amazing potential to bless the lives of all your students and especially
the students where D/deaf and hard-of-hearing because when you do
those little things to help the sounds become more visual you will help them
feel that extra little love that other people just don't understand and it will
mean the world them. I have so many teachers that I look up to and love
because they went the extra mile to help me in my education. They helped me fight
against all odds to graduate with a bachelor's degree in advertising so
thank you, thank you, thank you to all of my wonderful teachers and thank you for
being such an excellent educator by watching this video and trying to do
your best. You are amazing! I hope you have an absolutely wonderful
day if you can do me a favor and hit the like button and subscribe down below. I
hope to release more excellent content and I'd love to hear if you have any
other videos you want me to do for you, I want to hear it in the comments below. I
hope you have an awesome day and I'll be in touch soon! Have a great day!