NAME: Brianne Krakovsky TOPIC: Deaf
Use this template to organize your work for the blog assignment. You MUST turn this sheet in as well as post your research on the blog.
Question
Answer (including fully cited resources)
How is your disability defined by the federal and state laws? (Consider federal education laws such as IDEA & NJ spec ed code.)
Both deaf and hard of hearing, under IDEA 04’, belong to one special education group called “hearing impairments”. Specifically, the federal government defines deafness as:
A hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, which adversely affects a child’s education performance.
What are the developmental characteristics of persons with this disability? (cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and levels of functioning.)
People who are deaf have a profound hearing loss, which causes a delay in some developmental areas. Children who are deaf do not develop language at the time that they developmentally should. This delay in language development drastically affects an individual’s cognitive and social skills. Some of the common characteristics that we see in these areas include the low reading levels among deaf people. A reading level for a deaf high-school does not reach a level where a person can be considered literate. (put in a citation). It is shown that being deaf drastically effects reading and oral communication. Socially, the Deaf will learn ASL, and use this as their form of communication. ASL stands for American Sign Language. It is a complete and complex language, and it is not a translation of the English language. ASL is the language of the Deaf community and the main factor in the Deaf culture. Deaf people consider themselves part of the Deaf community. Deaf community considers being deaf as part of their culture, and it drastically effects the lives of these individuals. The Deaf community considers themselves a minority. To them, deafness is not a disability, but something that brings them together.
Someone who has hearing loss can be at a different level then others. No one person is the same in their disability. When talking about hearing loss (deafness), we need to consider three areas for the degree of loss: age, when the loss occurred, and the type of hearing loss. There are two general types of hearing loss: Conductive hearing loss and Sensorineural hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss would not be the most common type form of loss for a deaf person. A deaf person would probably have a Sensorineural hearing loss. This type of hearing loss involves damage to the inner ear, or auditory nerve. Sensorineural hearing losses are harder to correct, being that individuals are able to hear different frequencies at different intensities. The degree of the hearing loss would be at profound, in order for a person to be considered deaf. A profound hearing loss is when assistive learning devices alone enable the individual to understand oral information. Finally, the last factor we have to consider is the age of onset. If a person is prelingually deaf, then they have not developed any oral language. They were deaf before this was able to happen. Being prelingually deaf drastically affects their ability to communicate with others and learn academic subjects. Another form of onset is postlingually, which implies that a person was able to develop oral language before becoming deaf. This allows people to retain their abilities and communicate orally with others.
If you were a teacher in a general education classroom, what information and strategies would help you best support a child with this disability? This would include academic and social support.
I would want to make sure that I am providing this student with the best LRE that I possibly can. The first thing I would do in my classroom includes assessing and learning about the child’s disability. I would want to know the severity of it, and what exactly his/ her abilities are. This would also involve learning the rights and laws that apply for this particular student. Also, I would be talking with past teachers to see what academic strategies he/she has used, and what worked best for them. I would then try to implement some of those strategies in my classroom.
In order to make the deaf student and the non-deaf students comfortable in my classroom, I would want everyone to learn some general ASL signs. I would also try to learn as much ASL as possible. By learning ASL, communication will flow more easily in my classroom. It will lessen the communication gap between the orally and non-orally speaking students. This, in turn, can also support the student academically. If I am able to sign while I teach, then the student can follow along more easily with the lesson. To supplement my signing, I will find out if the student is legible for a translator in order to direct more attention to him/her. Turning to the SLP that is assigned to the school would be a good way of learning about activities and ideas that foster better speech and language. Additionally, I will make sure that I use all the resources available to me to supplement the students learning.
What resources would help you as a teacher to serve this child? (websites, agencies, people within your school, curriculum materials: 2 or 3 line description for each resource is required.)
An educational program should be made including the services of an audiologists, SLP, interpreters, teachers of the deaf, and possibly OTs and PTs.
This group of people, along with others that are closely involved with the child, will help make an educational program for the student. They will all have a say in the child’s IEP, and will be the ones who actually carry out his/her educational program.
A main resource that will help me as teacher would be the child and his/her parents. We want to know what works best for the student, and what he/she would like in the classroom. The only way we can find out the best things for the student is to talk to the student themselves and their parents. They will be an essential part in developing an educational program for the disabled student.
http://www.state.nj.us/education/lrc/info.htm#infoserv
This website is the official state of New Jersey department of education website. Within the website, you can find information about Learning Resource Center’s (link above). A LRC is a service that is provided for teacher that releases a report twice a year. The report gives out information and activities that are relevant to teachers and parents with disabled children. Some of the things that LRC offers are workshops, training institutions, and assistive technology. They also offer a service where they will bring the material to your school.
http://www.ed.gov/searchResults.jhtml
This is a website that is offered from the U.S. department of education. The website is useful for finding information that will support the children in your classroom. Specifically, I found teacher resources within the website. Also, there is current news available on the website. All these things are helpful for teachers to visit frequently in order to keep up with what is going on in the educational world.
http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddhh/index.html
This link will bring you to an area on the web were you can contact and learn about the Division of Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The DDHH advocates for an estimated 720,000 Deaf or hard of hearing people in New Jersey. It advocates in settings such as social, legal, medical, educational, and recreational. This Division offers many helpful things for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
Work Cited
Mayberry, R. I. (2002). Handbook of Neuropsychology (Vol. 8, 2nd ed.). Elsevier Science B.V. Retrieved November 25, 2007, from informaworld.
(2006). Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.state.nj.us/education/lrc/info.htm#infoserv.
(2006). Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddhh/index.html.
(n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.ed.gov/searchResults.jhtml
Smith, D. D. (2007). Intorduction to Special Education (6th ed.). MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
1 comment:
Both of the disabilities I was assigned are completely different and are cauterized differently as well. Deafness, according to IDEA ’04 deafness is called and classified as “hearing impairments.” However, ADHD is classified as a behavioral disorder. Deafness is defined as a hearing impairment that is so severe the chills is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, which adversely affects a child’s education performance. Where as children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) act without thinking, are hyperactive and have trouble focusing.
The development characteristics or symptoms are also very different. Deafness has several warning signs that include delay in some developmental areas, children do not develop language at the time that they developmentally should, and with the delay in language development it drastically affects an individuals cognitive and social skills, also there are low reading levels among the deaf. Where as students who suffer from ADHD you have a hard time focusing or paying attention when completing a task or assignment, has a hard time completing assignments at home or school without jumping from subject to subject, loses or forgets things easily, is easily distracted no matter what the activity is, has difficulty paying attention to close detail, and has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
The classroom strategies are also very different, because many students who suffer from deafness will not be in a mainstream classroom, where as child with ADHD are in inclusive classrooms with modification. Some of those modification might be a shorter test or assignment to insure the student complete the work at hand; or be taken into a resource room with less distractions and people to complete assignments and projects, and get more one on one time to help the student focus more and stay on task. However someone who is deaf and in a mainstream classroom I would want the students and myself as an educator to learn ASL so we could easily communicate with the student. Also get the student an interpreter or audiologist. Also, regularly work the student’s IEP to make modifications to assignments and teaching styles to better accommodate the student.
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