Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, specially designed instruction for children who have mild to profound hearing loss or who are deaf. Deafness can be defined two ways, audio logically and culturally. These differing perspectives on deafness often conflict, and they help explain some of the heated controversies that have affected the field of deaf education throughout its history.

Physical, medical, clinical, and educational definitions of deafness and hearing loss are similar. They are based on audiological measurements of an individual’s ability to hear sounds of different levels of pitch and loudness. Specialists compare these measurements with average hearing levels to determine the extent of an individual’s hearing loss.

People are referred to as hard of hearing if their hearing levels are low enough to interfere with basic activities—such as schooling—but not so disabling that they cannot understand speech. Those who have difficulty understanding speech, even with hearing aids, are called deaf. Cultural definitions of deafness, on the other hand, emphasize an individual’s various abilities, use of sign language, and connections with the culturally deaf community. This perspective of deafness does not compare hearing levels. Instead, it views deaf people as being as capable as hearing people, different in the language they use, but not disabled.

Deaf and hard of hearing children often benefit from modifications in their educational environments. Because most children learn the language of their parents simply by hearing it, some deaf and hard of hearing children may struggle to learn spoken languages such as English and may have difficulty speaking clearly. Difficulty with spoken language may also make learning to read and write more challenging. Many of these problems can be avoided by recognizing a hearing loss when it first appears—often right after birth, if the child is born deaf.

If specialists determine hearing loss in a child, changes should be made in the child’s environment to make language accessible to the child at a very young age. Depending on the type and extent of the child’s hearing loss, these environmental changes might include teaching the child’s parents and other caregivers to use sign language or to use cued speech, a system of manually “cueing” sounds that are not visible for speechreading (lipreading). It also might include the use of hearing aids to make speech loud enough for the child to understand it, or surgery to insert cochlear implants, devices for receiving and transmitting information about sounds to the brain. For many deaf and hard of hearing children, however, the discovery of their hearing loss is not early enough to prevent some delay in their acquisition of language. In addition, hearing aids and cochlear implants may not convey sound well enough for some deaf children to understand speech.

Approximately 61,000 deaf and hard of hearing students receive special education services in the United States. Children who are hard of hearing usually attend regular classes in their community schools. The modifications in their education may consist of small adjustments, such as sitting in the front of the classroom where it is easier to hear and to speechread the teacher. Hard of hearing students might also have a person take notes for them in class. Education for hard of hearing students sometimes includes supplementary services, such as speech therapy to help the children speak more clearly and tutoring in subjects in which the children missed information because they could not hear it.

Many deaf children also attend their neighborhood schools. They may be in regular classes with many of the same services provided for hard of hearing students. They also may have sign language, cued speech, or oral interpreters who translate what their teachers and classmates say. (Oral interpreters mouth what others say to make it easier to speechread.) Some deaf children may attend regular elementary and secondary schools that have special classes with teachers who use sign language or cued speech. These classes may offer more individualized academic content than regular classes. About 20 percent of deaf children attend special residential schools. The staff and students at most of these schools all use sign language. Many deaf students believe that they have a fuller social life in this type of school, because they can communicate easily with many other students.

Public education for deaf and hard of hearing children in the United States began in about 1800. The first permanent school for them used sign language for instruction. This school was established jointly by American educator and minister Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was hearing, and French educator Laurent Clerc, who was deaf. During the 19th century, more and more deaf children were identified and the number of special schools for deaf students increased. At the same time, increasing numbers of hard of hearing children who attended community schools were identified.

Many of the special schools for deaf children used sign language for communication and instruction. After the founding of the first schools for the deaf in the 19th century, educators, parents, and students began debating the best methods for teaching deaf students. Some people believed that using sign language inhibited the ability of deaf students to learn English. They advocated that teachers emphasize speaking, speechreading, and the use of whatever hearing the child might have. Others argued that sign language provided a means to make learning academic content and English easier for deaf students.

By the early 20th century, the advocates for speech and auditory training prevailed, and the use of sign language in schools declined. By the 1970s, however, many schools began developing programs of “total communication,” a method of speaking English and using sign language simultaneously. Educators now debate whether total communication or the use of American Sign Language (ASL) exclusively is most effective for teaching deaf children. ASL has a grammar system so different from English that both languages cannot be used simultaneously. However, supporters of ASL instruction believe that it provides the best medium for presenting academic subjects to students who cannot hear spoken languages. In addition, advocates believe that instruction in ASL builds deaf children’s self-esteem and helps them to become successful adults who also are members of the culturally deaf community.

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