The deaf-friendly teaching environment

Deafness, whether it’spermanent or temporary,mild or profound, can create abarrier to pupils accessing teaching and learning. We examine howyou can makeyour learning environment deaf-friendly.

There arearound 50,000 children identifiedas deaf in the UK, butasmany as eight out of ten children will experience atemporary deafness or will losetheir hearing at some point during childhood. Ayoung child with milddeafness,such as glue ear, can miss up to 50 per cent of whattheirteacher is sayinginabusyclassroom

The National Deaf Children’sSociety uses the term‘deaf ’torefer to all types of hearing loss from mild to profound. This includes deafness in one ear or temporary hearing loss such as glue ear.

The support youprovide for deaf pupils through your everyday teaching canmake abig difference to how they experience their education and their mentalhealth. Deaf young people have told us that teacherswith good deafawareness were able to support themtoaccess all elements of thelesson and feel included in the schoolcommunity.

In arecentsurveywe conducted, eightout of ten teachers agreed thata module on deaf awarenessshould be included in theirInitial Teacher Training. Thisiswhy we’ve produced acollection of deaf-friendly teaching and learningresources for anyone workingineducation who has adeafchild or young person in their setting (https://bit.ly/3U6PXbp).

Here’s asummary of how youcan create a deaf-friendlyteaching and learningenvironment.

Eachdeafchild usesa range of strategies to help them understand andbeunderstood. Manyuse visualcuestosupport their understanding, including somenatural gesturesand signs, butothers rely on their residual hearing and hearing technology,ora combinationof both. Take the timeto find out whatworks for them by asking themortalking to theirfamily

Your voice is clearestwhen you’refacing adeafpupil and, crucially,they’ll also be able to see your facial expressions and lip patterns.Don’tcover your mouth whenyou’retalking, turn awayorstand in silhouette. If you’re working with young children, getdown level with them andmake sureyou attract their attentionbefore youspeak.

EMMA FRASER

Emma Fraser is the teacher of the deaf with the National Deaf Children’sSociety, the leading charity for the UK’s50,000 deaf children. She has worked for over 20 years in education as ateacher,SENCO and specialist teacher for a local authority.Emma is involved in awide variety of projects, including training and resources for mainstream teachers, specialist advice to schools, services and organisations and support and information for the families of deaf children. People seeking advice or support can call the freephone helpline on 0808 800 8880, or for more information visit www.ndcs.org.uk

Trytotalkata normal pace and normal volume and don’t forgetto pause. If you’regoing to change the subject, letthe pupilknow Think about the vocabularyyou use andifit’snew or unfamiliar,check they’veunderstood –and don’tforget to repeatothers’ contributions.

Different learningspaces willhave different listening environments.It’s agoodidea to use drapesand softfurnishingstoprevent echo If possible,divideup openplan spaceswithdividersand think about potentialnoise sources,suchasopen windows or otherclassrooms. Making sureother pupilsare quietbefore youdeliverkey informationwill alsohelp

Deaf childrenuse arange of technology to help them hear speech, but personal hearing devicessuchashearing aids can never restorefull hearing and workbest at aclose range. Young children maynot tell you if their technologyhas stopped workingorisnot properlyplaced

Take the time to checkinwiththe pupil abouttheir hearingtechnology before your starttotalk, andifthe pupil alsousesanadditional listening device suchasa radio aid, find out how they’d like to useitwithyou.

Deafchildren can learnjustlike their classmates butsometimes they may need extra help withtheir language. Breaking information down into manageable chunks, showing as well as saying, writing down new vocabulary or key information, or reducing the complexityofyour language, can allmakea bigdifference.

Deafchildren tellustheyare often exhausted by the end of theday, fromtrying so hard to make sense www.nasen.org.uk of everything that’s saidaround them.Think about how youorganise your lesson or schoolday,build in regular breaksand allow the pupil to signal when they need some down time. Groupwork canbeespecially challenging,so encourageother pupils to be deafawaretoo, talking oneata time andsignalling before theyspeak.

As with so many things,a little deaf awareness cangoalongway The measures youtake to understand and accommodatea deaf child’s hearing needs in theclassroomcan make ahugeand lasting difference