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Children with Hearing Impairment
Points to remember when designing resources or delivering sessions.
- No two deaf children are the same.
- Deafness often has the greatest impact on language development.
- Deaf children may not hear all the words that are spoken and they may not hear all the individual sounds in any one word.
- Deaf children may have a limited vocabulary because they do not hear different words.
- They may also have difficulty when one word has several meanings.
- Remember a child with impaired hearing may:
- not be able to hear enough to make sense of what is said
- think they have understood fully and not realise that they have missed out on important information
- misunderstand what is said or written.
How can we help children with impaired hearing ?
There are a number of questions to consider.
- What method of communication do they use?
- Do they wear hearing aids or have a cochlear implant?
- Do they use a radio aid?
When leading a session you may be asked to wear a radio microphone.
To aid understanding make sure that you:
- are facing the child with a hearing impairment when you are speaking
- speak clearly and reasonably loudly, but do not shout
- point to an object or display when you are discussing it
- use your hands to help to describe things.
Download
National Deaf Children's Society for publication Deaf Friendly Teaching. (PDF, 1.12MB).
Useful Websites
All the links below will open in a new window. Close that new window to return here.
National Deaf Children's Society for more information.
RNID working to change the world for deaf and hard of hearing people.
Milestones (Hampshire County Museums Service) website incorporates British Sign Language.
Access for Deaf People to Museums and Galleries: A Review of Good Practice in London. This free
54-page Arts Guide is clearly written with lots of useful and pragmatic advice on how you can make
your venue more deaf people friendly. The guide includes plenty of examples, recommendations and
quality standards to look at and use. Email Deafworks for your free copy at
general@deafworks.co.uk.