The Identity And Self-Concept Of The Deaf Person

“About 6,000 individuals have had cochlear implants, since the late 1980’s. The cochlear implant is the first, and still the only neural prosthesis that is aiding a significant portion of a disabled population” (Hear). If a child is born deaf they are usually implanted young because doing so will help them have a greater chance of being on grade level in school and not have such a large learning gap. “The earlier a deaf child receives a cochlear implant, the better the child’s speech development” (Hear). Speech development is very important to young children because they need to know how to communicate with teachers and classmates.

Auditory Verbal Therapy is a spoken language intervention that requires teachers and parents to work closely together. AVT’s intervention encompasses a range of techniques, philosophy, goals and strategies in order to create the best and most effective outcome for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing child. A principle of AVT is ‘to promote education in regular schools with peers who have typical hearing and with appropriate services from early childhood onwards’. (www.agbellacademy.org/principal-auditory.htm). This principle is part of the long term goal that is put in place for children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing to grow up to become independent and active members of the mainstream society.

I feel that young Deaf /hard of hearing students being taught by a Deaf teacher or a child of a Deaf adult (C.O.D.A) teacher is very important because ASL is the first step to learning English and becoming bilingual. According to the article Why Schools for Deaf Children Should Hire Deaf Teachers: A Preschool Issue By Courtney Shantie and Robert Hoffmeister, the authors state “This paper will focus on

This means that the Deaf student most likely knows English and can speak. This can occur in Deaf children who are born into Hearing families, because the hearing parents want their child to experience what it’s like to hear. Again, this conflicting view mostly revolves around the half-full and

Deaf Education1 Coping with and Understanding the Deaf Student What is deafness? There are many definitions to the word "deaf." According to Stephen P. Quigley and Peter V. Paul in their book Language and Deafness (1984), "a child is considered deaf if hearing impairment is so great, even with good amplification, that vision becomes the child's main link to the world and main channel of communication." This is a general and relatively vague definition. Other definitions are based on the degree of hearing loss in terms of decibels (dB) ranging from mild to profound hearing loss.

"Visual language with its own grammar and syntax that is completely different from English"(Rouse and Barrow). American Sign Language is important to deaf people. ASL is how deaf people communicate back and forth from hearing to non hearing people. It is critical to deaf people and their ability to function. Sign Language interpreters are essential for helping deaf people function from day to day life.

They are connected through a tightly knit Deaf community that claims American Sign Language (ASL) as their language. Often, these individuals or those prescribing to these ideals choose for their child to use ASL and not mess with the burden and expense of a hearing aid or similar device. Within this culture, there is often the issue that they “don’t see themselves as disabled and view implants [and other assistive listening devices] as an attempt to ‘fix’ something that isn’t broken” (Davies, 2005, p.2A). The primary use of ASL is said to provide the greatest understanding and communication access for those individuals within the Deaf community as well as a great sense of comfort and belonging, opposed to feelings of “discomfort.

Teachers Options There are many options open to teachers of deaf children in a variety of situations. In teaching deaf and hard of hearing children there is such a wide range of children, each with their own abilities. Each child also has a different family situation to take into account. Some children come from deaf families, some they are the only deaf family member, and some have no support from their families because they are deaf. There are also students that have family members that make an effort to learn how to best communicate with them, while some do only what they must to communicate the needed information.

A behavior that a child may learn would be sign language. Sign language is a branch of communication caused through parenting that serves cognitive, linguistic, and social functions (Marschark 23). Other characteristics of children with deafness can be that they have tried to use hearing aids or have done some sort ... ... middle of paper ... ...aling with it as a part of your life. Children usually born with deafness are attributed with this severe form of hearing loss. Other ways to deal with deafness can be treated orally by surgical procedures or medications to help treat the disability.

My concern for Michael is what educational and/ or aural rehabilitative approaches might help him achieve the most progress with his current amplification. In hearing impaired children with cochlear implants is oral-communication an effective approach for facilitating language? Oral-communication is used by people with normal hearing, as well as some hearing impaired individuals. A child with a hearing impairment speaks their messages and will use auditory information and speechreading to receive a message. Oral communication is a multisensory approach since it uses both auditory (hearing) and visual cues.