Students With Hearing Losses By Alice Ann Darrow

790 Words2 Pages

With around 70,000 special education students with hearing losses in the US it is no wonder that teaching these students the art of music has become an important opportunity within their education (U.S. Department of Education). According to Darrow and Heller (1985) as well as Solomon (1980) the history of education for students with hearing loss extends over a hundred and fifty years. These students have every right to music education classes and music instructors need to understand their unique learning differences and similarities to those of the average typical (mainstreamed) student to ensure these students have a successful and comprehensive learning experience. Despite this, there are still plenty of roadblocks, one of which may be some music instructor’s lack of effective practices and methods to successfully teach to the student’s more unique needs. Alice Ann-Darrow is a Music Education and Music Therapy Professor at Florida State University. Darrow’s article “Students with Hearing Losses” focuses not only on the importance of music education for these students but it is also a summarized guide of teaching suggestions containing integral information for the unique way these students learn. Darrow advocates that music education is just as important for students with hearing loss as it is for those without. Students with hearing loss often have just as much a desire and interest to learn music as any other student and should not be withheld from the opportunity to explore and learn about this field. Darrow states that one of the most important adaptive strategies for teaching students with hearing losses is “the use of visual and tactile aids.” It is also mentioned that “special attention should be given to [appropriate] am... ... middle of paper ... ...o account that much of the evidence is the author’s own works, that a bias is present. Darrow strongly believes in the integration of students with hearing loss into the music classroom. She does however point out opposing views and successfully dismantles them with strong and sound reasoning. One of the points Darrow makes is that many people believe that music is a “hearing value” and that the ability to make discriminations about what a person might hear is solely a function of hearing, when in reality it is actually a function of listening. “Listening is a mental process; hearing is a physical process,” states Darrow. The music learning environment is a great place for these students to develop their listening skills. “The development of good listening skills allows students with hearing losses to use their residual hearing to the maximum extent possible” (Darrow)

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