Instructional Strategies for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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Instructional Strategies: Ways to work with students

• Pair with another student to help with extra explanations/ repeating directions.
• Use provided FM equipment and check to see if it is working optimally. The microphone for the FM should be placed about 5 inches under the teacher’s chin and away from jewelry.
• Be flexible: allow student to work with audiovisual material independently and for a longer period of time. Especially if they are taking notes from a film with closed captioning, they miss information when they look down to write.  
• Oral lectures presented at normal speech, do not talk quickly.
• Make sure you have student’s attention before speaking. A light touch on the shoulder, a wave, or other visual signal will help.
• When working in groups, remind students to speak one at a time.
• When students are in small group, situate the group with the student in one of the four corners to reduce the amount of classroom reverberations.
• Do not seat the student facing bright lights or windows, where a glare or strong backlighting will make it difficult to see the faces of others.
• When a sign language interpreter is being used in the classroom, make sure the interpreter has an opportunity to complete the message before moving on to the next point.
• Enhance speech reading conditions (avoid hands in front of face, mustaches well-trimmed, no gum chewing).
• Face student when talking, do not present your back so they can see your face. 
• Hold papers below jawline, so that student may see your facial expressions and lip movements for clues as to what you are saying. Present information in simple structured, sequential manner. (Step-by-step directions.)
• Look directly at a person during a conversation. Face the class while speaking; if an interpreter is present; make sure the student can see both you and the interpreter.
• Speak clearly, without shouting. Do not exaggerate mouth movements or shout, as this may cause distortion of the message through the hearing aid and cause greater difficulty to the student.
• If you have problems being understood, rephrase your thoughts. When the student says “what?” they often missed a key word, not the entire sentence. Writing is also a good way to clarify.
• Repeat the comments and questions of other students, especially those from the back rows; acknowledge who has made the comment so the student can focus on the speaker.
• Do not assume the student is receiving the information accurately.  The student is hearing with more effort than a child with normal hearing and is hearing via a degraded auditory signal.  They may have difficulties distinguishing words.
• Educational interpreter (ASL, signed English, cued speech, oral)

When in doubt about how to assist the student, ask him or her.


Information for this page was gathered from these websites:

http://manual.abedisabilities.org/guide/hearing-loss-and-deafness/instructional-strategies

http://sds.ucsf.edu/sites/sds.ucsf.edu/files/PDF/hearing.pdf

http://www.nr.edu/cdhh/pdfs/handbookfaculty.pdf

http://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/impact-on-listening-and-learning/accommodations

http://www.dcmp.org/ A rich source for captioned teaching materials at no charge is the Captioned Media Program (CMP) Funded by the U.S. Department of Education the CMP can be found online at http://www.cfv.org. You can browse their catalog online or request a printed copy. Simply establish your own individual account and make your requests online.]