Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children make up a large portion of the special needs population in some school districts. The term “hearing impairment” in the public school system under IDEA refers to a hearing loss not covered by the definition of deafness. Being hard of hearing is not the same thing as having trouble with auditory or language processing. So let’s take a look at the commonly used apps that can help your deaf or hard of hearing child at home or school.
Smart Hands
This app is great for parents whose babies were born deaf/hard of hearing. This app is a dictionary of words that helps teach your child sign language and also includes videos demonstrating how to sign properly and you can save the video later.
Little EARS
This learning app that is mostly geared towards toddlers is great for children with partial hearing loss because it helps them with quizzing them about different sounds of objects.
Signed Stories
This app is great for reading stories to children deaf/hard of hearing. It is an animated children’s app that supports the common core curriculum, fairy tales, songs, nursery rhymes, and narration of music and sound effects.
ASL Care Bears
This app would be great for children who are deaf and struggle with self-regulating their emotions when trying to communicate with others who don’t understand them. This app is packed with over 400 signs and phrases related to feelings, hobbies, friends, family, and more, this app will keep your hands busy.
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Classroom Accommodations for Deaf Children
Over the years of teaching Special Education, I’ve had only had 3 students who had this disability on my resource caseload and they were a joy to have. Children with full or partial hearing loss need a lot of support inside the classroom and may also require some assistive technology to help them understand information inside the classroom. So let’s take a look at some of the accommodations that can be added to a child’s IEP inside the classroom.
Preferential Seating
One of my favorite accommodations inside the classroom is preferential seating is not only great for children deaf/hard of hearing but for all children with special needs. This accommodation helps the learner stay free of most if not all distractions because it puts them in the line of sight where they won’t see others distracting them from the teacher.
Eye Contact
When working with deaf children you always want to make sure that you’re providing eye contact at all times because they either are deaf or partially deaf. While using eye contact make sure that you’re in front in center of the child, or standing in the line of vision of wherever the child is inside of the classroom. That way they know that you’re speaking and signing to them when making eye contact to get their attention.
Voice Amplifier
This assistive technology is great for helping deaf children inside the classroom because it amplifies the teacher’s voice so that all students can hear including nondeaf students as well. Just check out this video below of how this teacher explains how she used the voice amplifier inside of the classroom.
Why Technology Resources are Beneficial in Classrooms
Overall as time and technology evolve scientists are looking at more ways in which to help the deaf community and parents of deaf children to live a successful life. Schools are finding more resources for children to become successful inside the classroom, whether it’s through modifications or accommodations for our learners. However, each child is different and requires a team of people such as the speech therapist, audiologist, and counselors to help these students inside their classrooms.
