Hearing Impairment, Essay Example

Definition:  The term hearing impairment refers to individuals who have any degree of hearing loss which impedes their ability to act/interact in a traditional way.  This can refer to people who are either deaf (profound hearing loss which cannot benefit from amplification) or hard of hearing (ranges from mild to severe and can benefit from amplification).  Children with hearing impairment may qualify for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (National Association of Special Education Teachers, 2007).

Causes:  Hearing impairment can be either acquired (loss occurred after birth due to illness or injury) or congenital (loss was present at birth).  Acquired hearing impairment is most commonly caused by exposure to noise, infection, head trauma, and childhood diseases.  Congenital hearing impairment can be caused by pregnancy complications/infections and hereditary factors (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2010).

Prevalence:  The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (2010) reports that more than 12,000 children are born with a hearing loss.  Profound deafness occurs in approximately 4-11 children out of every 10,000.

Classroom Accommodations:  Hearing impairment does not affect a child’s intellectual abilities, but such children may need special accommodations to best fulfil their academic potential.

Classroom Environment:

• Minimize extraneous classroom noise
• Modify classroom seating in circular position to facilitate lip-reading

Teacher Presentation/Strategies:

• Use facial expressions, body language when appropriate
• Avoid speaking while writing on the board
• Keep presentation style at modulated pace

Materials:

• Printed copies of overhead and teacher’s notes
• Write out special announcements, assignments

Assessments:

• Repeat or write out directions
• Allow for audio amplification/captioning of instructions
• Test in small group setting
• (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2010)

 References

National Association of Special Education Teachers. (2007). Hearing impairment. Retrieved from http://www.naset.org/hearingimpairments2.0.html

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2010). Deafness and hearing loss. NICHY Disability Fact Sheet 3. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/hearingloss