Hard of Hearing Classroom Settings

Special Education: Hard of Hearing Classroom Settings (Option B)

The Classroom

Students with hearing problems or hard of hearing students need fewer distractions in visual environments to concentrate on what their teacher is instructing and see the sign language. Moreover, there should be less background noise and auditory distractions. For that, classroom seating should be circular or horse-shoe seating so that students could see each other and the teacher while communicating (Guardino & Antia, 2012).

The teacher’s desk should be in a position where she could interact with them more easily, which might be in the middle of the classroom or the seating of the children. The teacher should not turn her back on the students to be visually attentive to her and see what she is teaching for better comprehension. The children’s access to materials can be anywhere in the room, but they have to be well-organized. As mentioned earlier, the visual distraction needs to be minimized for hard of hearing students.

The types of accessible materials can be papers, colors, markers, crayons, and other supplies within the classroom. Areas of work and play should be separate; for example, the area of work would be their specified seats where they would read and write, while the area of playing should be a separate corner in the classroom where playing things. Some stories reading books for recreational time should be placed. This can be a designated area on the carpet in the corner of the room with a small shelf for books and toys. Sitting together on the carpet would encourage class engagement and better visuals while communicating. Display of student’s work can be on the opposite side of the wall where the whiteboard is placed so that when students are looking at the board, they should not be visually distracted by looking adjacent to the charts. When charts would be on their backs, they would be more focused on the teacher’s lecture on the board.

The lighting should not be too high or too low; too much lighting creates glittering in whiteboards, which is a visual distraction for students, while low lighting would impose low attention. Appropriate lighting would be conducive to accurate speech interpretation. Acoustics play an important role in engaged learning for hard to hearing students since noisy environments would make them struggle to understand their teacher. Sound absorption materials should be installed in the classroom so that level of background noise should be reduced, and a better understanding of teacher’s sentences should be promoted. Curtains or pictures on the windows can be installed if there are direct facing windows in the room (Deafness Forum of Australia, 2020). Chairs should have rubber on the tips of their legs for noise reduction. Also, students should be situated far from noise-producing equipment within the rooms to decrease background noise.

Compared to a typical general education classroom, the seating arrangement can be traditional (grid type), where students can see the teacher from anywhere. Noise and light reduction is not a problem. Access to materials can be anywhere within the classroom but within reach. The teacher can have her desk in the corner or the middle.

The Students

When designing an ideal classroom for deaf or hard of hearing children, the number of girls and boys and their age can be any. For example, in this case, if we idealize the classroom for grade 3 students, aging 7-9 years, and equal inclusion of both genders, then the options can be limitless. Coordination of students would be maximum in horse-shoe or circular seating since the teachers would also keep them engaged in activities. The teachers can design activities, and the leader of activity can then be identified based upon the fast learners within the class.

Communication, including formal and informal talking, cannot be completed without using words and sentences, and for hard of hearing students, smooth face-to-face communication is mandatory. Full conversational pragmatic skills are hard to acquire by the hard of hearing children and make more frequent requests for clarifications (Jeans, Nienhuys & Rickards, 2000).

Appropriateness of responses would be clear once the distractions in the classroom are less, and students would be able to listen better to their teacher. It is also studied that for better social interactions of hard of hearing children, especially with their hearing peers, it would be better to make use of interventions like co-enrollment and social skills training (Xie, Potmesil & Peters, 2014). Attention span, range, and interests would be maximized for the same reason. The teacher should plan problem-solving activities, and according to one research, keyword teaching strategy in reading and modified reciprocal teaching were effective in boosting the overall reading performance of such students (Al-Hilawani, 2003).

Problem-solving in math is interesting to integrate within the classroom educational program since hearing impaired students use the same strategies as the hearing students. For that, they use their fingers to solve math problems (Pagliaro & Ansell, 2012). This indicates that language instructions should be clear and hold a critical position in procedural learning. Minimizing listening fatigue would be crucial. Thoughtfully planned breaks in communications during the day would lessen their background noise and avoid them from becoming aggressive or argumentative in behavior.

Compared to a typical general education classroom, these considerations are not of utmost importance since listening fatigue and sign languages in determining engagement activities are generalized in such settings. Co-enrollment and social skills learning would not be required.

Program Development

As mentioned above, the types of lessons taught in the class of hearing-impaired students would be formulated by the teacher, especially in English, where keyword strategy and modified reciprocal teaching were effective. Changing classroom setting and providing more options for group learning can increase motivation in such students, and academic engagement can be high (Guardino & Antia, 2012).

A more favorable and motivational climate can be made by engaging these students in answering different questions about the lesson or engaging them in in-class activities. The stimuli presented should be mainly visual so that picking of cues with picture understanding should be enhanced. Perceptual distractions would be minimized with visual stimuli; in other cases, phonological units may depend on an acoustic, tactile, or orthographic factor (McQuarrie & Parrila, 2009).

Individual differences might be present if the students belong to diverse backgrounds. Also, if they are aware of disability, they would already be aware of the social exclusion from the normal children group and belonging to a special group of only special children (Most, 2007). They would be working in groups and would make friends among themselves. Hence, individual differences might be eliminated. The teaching and learning principles that would be effective for such students can be reading and processing strategies and development of English syntax (Power & Leigh, 2000). Making the general students learn the sign languages would also help in learning and communication of hard of hearing students.

When compared to a typical general education classroom, sign language learning would not be required. Picking of stimuli with visual interpretations would not be essential. Changing the classroom setting for academic engagement and motivation would not be an issue.