Teacher Inservice

1. Teacher Inservice Presented by Diana Bratlien Fall 2002 and beyond…

2. About the Inservice • Project title • So you have a Hard of Hearing Student in Your Class…Now What? • Intended Audience • General education teachers who currently have hard of hearing students in their classrooms. • Goals and Objectives • Understand Social-Emotional Impact of Hearing Loss • Understand Hearing Loss Levels • Develop an Empathy towards those with a hearing loss • Understand Academic implications

3. Abstract This presentation was designed to ease general education teachers’ fears over working with students’ who have a hearing loss. In addition, it was designed to help teachers develop an empathy towards working with hard of hearing students. As any inservice, this is a work in progress. It is meant to be presented repeatedly to schools each year as more teachers have mainstreamed students who are hard of hearing. The notes on the bottom of the slides are functional notes and meant to be guidelines for you as you present. Some notes may be altered depending on the age levels the general education teachers work with. Currently, the notes are divided for two individuals since it has been presented by a partnership of Teachers for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

4. My Hearing Loss by a former student of Bemidji Area Schools I feel, I wish, I could hear everyday. I feel that I could hear more, Including sounds I have never heard. I feel lonely, I wish I could have more friends. I wish I wouldn’t be picked on. I want to be treated like everyone else. You can’t change it, And you sit there waiting for a possible Miracle, breakthrough. My life is full of sadness.

5. So You have a Hard of Hearing Student in class… Now…what?

6. Our Goals today… • Understand Social-Emotional Impact of Hearing Loss • Understand Hearing Loss Levels • Develop an Empathy towards those with a hearing loss • Understand Academic implications

7. Are You Lucky Enough to Need Glasses? Lens Crafters ad 2002

8. Are You Lucky Enough to Wear Hearing Aids? It just doesn’t have the same ring to it…

9. Social Stigmas • Weight, attractiveness, etc. • Race • Gender • Vision Loss • Hearing Loss

10. VISION PROBLEMS? AIRPLANE

11. HERE ARE SOME GLASSES… AIRPLANE

12. HEARING PROBLEMS?

13. Here is a Hearing aid…

14. Understanding Hearing Loss • Conductive Hearing Loss vs. • Sensorineural Hearing Loss

15. Conductive Loss • Hearing loss would show a flat line • Hearing aid turns all sounds up the same degree (like a radio)

16. Sensorineural Loss • Loss shown all over audiogram (may be sloping, rising, or curved) • Hearing aid amplifies sounds we need and sounds we don’t need.

17. Sensorineural Loss • Loss shown all over audiogram (may be sloping, rising, or curved) • Hearing aid amplifies sounds we need and sounds we don’t need.

18. Sensorineural Loss • Loss shown all over audiogram (may be sloping, rising, or curved) • Hearing aid amplifies sounds we need and sounds we don’t need.

19. Sensorineural Loss • Loss shown all over audiogram (may be sloping, rising, or curved) • Hearing aid amplifies sounds we need and sounds we don’t need.

20. Special education Criteria • First and foremost…an audiologist has tested the child and found a hearing loss that verifies one of the following…

21. Special education Criteria Continued • A 20 decibel or greater loss in both ears • Or….. • A 45 decibel or greater loss in one ear.

22. Levels of Hearing Loss • Mild • Moderate • Moderate to Severe • Severe • Profound

23. What is normal hearing defined as? • Students can detect all speech sounds (whispering, etc.) • On your sample handout… they would have a -10 decibel (dB) to +15 dB hearing range.

24. How is a minimal hearing loss defined? • Students may have difficulty hearing faint or distant speech. • Peer conversation and teacher instructions presented too rapidly, particularly in noisy classrooms, are likely to result in missed information. • Loss is between 16 to 25 decibels.

25. What is mild hearing loss? • mild = small…so it doesn’t affect them right? • Student may miss up to 50% of class discussions. • Students will require the use of a hearing aid or personal FM system. • Loss is between 26 to 40 decibels on your handout.

26. What is a moderate hearing loss like? • Classroom conversation from 3 to 5 ft. away can be understood if they know the context. • Hearing aids and/or personal FM systems are essential. • Specific attention directed at language development, reading and written language. • Loss is between 41 to 55 decibels.

27. What is a moderate-severe loss? • Without amplification students can miss up to 100% of speech information. • Full time use of amplification is essential. • They will probably require additional help in all language based academic subjects. • Loss is between 56 to 70 decibels.

28. What is does it mean to have a severe hearing loss? • Students can only hear loud noises at close distances. • They require individual hearing aids, intensive auditory training and specialized instructional techniques in reading, language, and speech development. • Loss is between 71 to 90 decibels.

29. So what’s a profound loss then? • These students rely on their eyes and not their ears! • Usually a candidate for signing systems and specialized instructional techniques in reading, speech, and language development • A loss of 91 decibels or more is described as profound. They are Deaf.

30. How about some empathy? Insight to some of the questions you’re dying to ask.

31. The Why’s

32. Why isn’t speech/lipreading enough? The Why’s

33. What we really said… • Zoo • Fondue • Six • Nest • Car

34. The Why’s • Why can’t I just talk louder? • It seems like talking louder would help…however, studies show that talking louder only increases vowel energy and not consonant energy. • Ironically, yelling increases audibility but not intelligibility.

35. The Why’s • Why do I have to wear a microphone if I have them sitting in front? • Children who are hard of hearing internally distort sounds. • They need speech 10 times louder than the background noise.

36. Answers to your test • Bath • Pearl • Sour • Mouse • Learn • Wheat • Vine • Tape • Hedge • mood

37. Actual Spelling test of Hard of Hearing Student

38. Classroom Teacher Study • Study says…half of teachers thought hearing loss and academic problems were not linked. • Teachers accused students of daydreaming because they participated most of the time. Study by Ross, Brackett, and Maxon 1991

39. Facts on the impact of hearing loss on Education • Students with a hearing loss are generally 2 grade levels behind in their reading comprehension.

40. 15-26 dB loss 27- 40 dB loss 41-55 dB loss 56-70 dB loss 1.2 year delay 2.0 year delay 2.9 year delay 3.5 + year delay Language delays based on levels of hearing loss

41. Unilateral losses • Almost 50% of children with at least a 30 dB hearing loss in one ear, have failed one or more grades…or are receiving support services.

42. Classroom noises • In a typical classroom…the noise levels can reduce the student’s ability to understand to 60% or as low as 27% without appropriate acoustics (ex. carpet, etc.)

43. Won’t a student tell the teacher if they’re not hearing everything? • The problem with “not hearing so good” is that you don’t hear what you don’t hear and you don’t know that you didn’t hear because you didn’t hear it! • So even if a teacher asks, “Are you hearing me?” They will almost always say “yes!”

44. Comments made by Local Teachers…

45. “I don’t think she needs the speakers, she hears me fine.”

46. “I have a loud voice…I don’t need the microphone.”

47. “She just has selective hearing and hears when she wants to.”

48. “He hears me all the time when I call his name and I don’t have a microphone on.”

49. Some points to ponder…

50. Would you take away a person’s wheelchair if you knew that they could crawl without it?