Hearing Impaired Children Able To Go To The Ordinary School

People always think that children who were born with hearing loss definitely mute. They also were being associated with sign language as their method of communication and only competent to go to the special school.

Those stigma should be change especially in these technology era where by all sophisticated devices has been created and innovated to help children with hearing impairment. They also can be train to talk and able to go to the ordinary school.

How Hearing Impaired Children Are Listening?

Hearing impaired children able to listen after wearing the Hearing Aids (HA). HA amplified environmental sounds to make them hear the sounds clearly. But some of them still can’t listen clearly even after fitted with HA. Those children had other choice by using Cochlear Implant (CI).

How Hearing Impaired Children Learn To Talk?

HA and CI are not a magic tool that can make all the hearing impaired children talk immediately after wearing it. But they need to be train to listen and talk by Speech Language Therapist (SLT) frequently by using Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) technics as one of technics or methods.

AVT is one of the technics can be used to train them to listen without visual cues. They have been trained in the suitable situation and method as below:

• Parents and / or SLT sat beside the better ear
• Talked near to the HA’s or CI’s microphone
• Talked as usual / no need to scream or used loud voice
• Reduced environmental sounds
• Used different intonation to attract attention
• Used acoustic highlighting technics to help child understand the targeted words example: “take the ball.” the word ball have been stress out in the sentences

Hearing impaired children also follow the same listening and talking development of ordinary children but their chronology age are different. Please refer the stages of listening and talking from baby to children age 6 years old as below.

Parents and caregivers has been trained to conduct therapy session with their own children. This is because they are the main person who are close and spend almost of their time with the children. Continues and effective therapy able to help children to talk and communicate with family members and community.

Parents and Family Support

Parents and family members take a big role to ensure either their children can achieve success or failure. Only parents with high motivation and has vision will be able to train their children to talk and then go to the ordinary school.

Parents and family members need to trust the children’s ability and need to give them support in whatever situations that they face either success or failure.

Parents can give booster to their children and increase their spirit to achieve success in the future with any worrying.

Tips For Teachers

Each student in the class is under teacher’s responsibility. They can’t take for granted in aspect of education especially for hearing impaired children who are place in their class. There are some tips that can be used by teachers to help hearing impaired children in ordinary school:

• Place hearing impaired children at front row and near to the teacher
• Teachers need to wear FM System to make sure the hearing impaired children able to listen their voice clearly in learning situation
• Teachers need to face the hearing impaired children while communicate with them
• Avoid walking while teaching if not wearing FM System
• Reduced background noise in the class (example : put curtain in the class)
• Write down instructions on the black board to help the hearing impaired children in understanding the instructions

Paradigm Transformation

Nothing is possible to achieve if we are confident and try our best to get whatever that we want. Its same goes to the children. If they are fitted with hearing aid or did cochlear implant and trained with Auditory Verbal Therapy since childhood, nothing possible for them to go to the ordinary school and compete with other children.

Actually this thing already approved. There were teachers with hearing impairment who are able to teach in ordinary school without anyone noticed about their disability. This showed that they also can live as other people if got early intervention.

But there still some people who ignored and looked down to hearing impaired children capabilities. Come forward together and do paradigm transformation with full confident that children with hearing impairment are not mute and they also can go to the ordinary school. They are not burden to our country and one day they also can be a contributor in civilization.

References

1. Carol Flexer, Denise Wray (2001), Recommendations For Teachers in the Regular Classroom
2. Warren Estrabrooks (2008), Auditory-Verbal Practice
3. Winifred H.Northcott (1994), Curriculum Guide, Hearing Impaired Children (0 – 3 Years Old) And Their Parents