Hearing and Vision Impairments

1. Hearing and Vision Impairments

2. Defining Hearing Loss • Dear and hard of hearing describes hearing loss • Unilateral or bilateral • IDEA defines deafness as a hearing impairment that is so severe that the student is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification and that adversely affects the student’s education performance • The severity of hearing loss is measured through decibels (dB) • Deaf=70-90 dB • Harding of hearing =20-70 dB • Congenital deafness is a rare condition • Deaf community prefers term “deaf child” to hearing impaired

3. Determining the Causes • Congenital • Acquired • Genetic causes • Prenatal causes • Hypoxia • Rubella • Other illnesses • Premature infants • Postnatal causes • Bacterial meningitis • Acute otitis media (ear infections) • Postlingual casues • Trauma to skull, excessive noise

4. Determining the Presence • Diagnostic Assessment • Screen all newborns for hearing loss before 1 month of age • Evaluate all infants who screen positive before 3 months of age • Early interventions (initiated before 6 months) • Medical personnel • Otologist (physician) • Audiologist (measures hearing) • Hearing aides Cochlear implants

5. Big Issues • Cochlear implant • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECT6FY4cby0&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfQhyy6c7Y&feature=related

6. Determining the Nature of Specially Designed Instruction and Services • Educational evaluation • How hearing is tested • Audiometer • Audiogram (behavioral) • Typanograph • Speech audiometry

7. Vision Impairment • Defining Visual Impairments • Two different definitions • Legal definition • Based on acuity and filed of vision • IDEA definition • Low vision • Functionally blind • Totally blind

8. Characteristics • Incidental Learning • The way sighted children naturally learn about their environment • Lack of incidental learning skills can impact the development of motor, language, cognitive and social skills • Limitations in range and variety of experiences • Limitations in the ability to get around • Limitations in interactions with the environment

9. Determining the causes • Congenital vision impairments • Occur at birth or before vision memories have been established • Adventitious vision impairments • When a person has had normal vision but then acquires a vision loss

10. Determining the presence • Determining how a student uses vision • FVA • Provides more concrete information about a student’s vision that may help in making IEP decisions • Determining the appropriate reading medium • Finding the appropriate learning medium (learning medium assessment) • Braille, print, audiotapes, and access technology • Allows the IEP team to know needed accomodations

11. Determining the Nature of Specially Designed Instruction and Services • Expanded Core Curriculum • Compensatory and Communication Skills • Social and interaction skills • Orientation and mobility skills • Informal assessments should include the student’s ability to function independently • Assessments should include the age-appropriateness of tasks • What are the student’s peers doing? • Determine skills typically learned through incidental learning, analyze task involvement, and begin teaching these tasks earlier • Avoid making assumptions about a student’s previously acquired learning