Download Deafness and Hearing Impairment

Raise awareness of Deafness and Hearing Impairment
(DHI) between 4 – 8th May 2015!
We will be presenting a stand at Northwick Park Hospital on
Wednesday 6th May (11:30-1:30) to raise awareness about how to
support communication development for deaf children – please
feel free to visit us if you would like to! There are loads of things
you can do in school to help us raise awareness of deafness and
hearing impairment.
DID YOU KNOW????
 There are over 45,000 deaf children living in the UK.
 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.
 1 in 1000 children are born with a severe-profound loss.
 It’s estimated that at any one time, 20% of children in reception
have a temporary hearing loss.
Why not display this information sheet in your staff room?
See pages 9 - 12 for activities to try at school. Speak to your
School’s Speech and Language Therapist for more information.
1
What do you know about deafness?
Deafness and hearing impairment are the umbrella terms used for
anyone with a hearing loss. Below we have explained some of the
terms you might hear people talking about:
Conductive vs. Sensorineural
A conductive hearing loss is when there is a problem (e.g. blockage,
such as glue ear) in the middle or outer ear. This stops the sound
waves from being able to pass to the inner ear, and therefore creates
a hearing loss.
The result of this type of hearing loss is that sounds become quieter,
although not usually distorted. Depending on its cause, a conductive
hearing loss can either be temporary or permanent.
A sensorineural hearing loss is when there is damage to the hair cells
in the inner ear (i.e. cochlear or hearing nerve).
Sensorineural hearing loss not only changes our ability to hear quiet
sounds, but it also reduces the quality of the sound that is heard,
meaning that individuals with this type of hearing loss will often
struggle to understand speech.
2
Degrees of Hearing Loss
Please ask your
speech therapist
to explain the
‘speech banana’ to
you in more detail.
Mild: people with a mild hearing loss, cannot hear sounds that are
quieter than 25 – 40 dB. This includes things like leaves falling, ticking
clocks and a tap dripping. They may also have difficulty hearing
quieter sounds, such as ‘f’, ‘th’ and ‘s’.
Moderate: people with a moderate hearing loss, cannot hear sounds
that are quieter than 40 – 70 dB. This includes things like babies
crying and hearing noises in different rooms. They may have
difficulty hearing a variety of speech sounds, depending on the type
of loss.
Severe: people with a severe hearing loss, cannot hear sounds that
are quieter than 70 – 90 dB. This includes things like a telephone
ringing, dog barking and a piano playing. They will have difficulty
hearing all speech sounds.
Profound: people with a profound hearing loss, cannot hear sounds
that are quieter than 90 – 120 dB. This includes things like a
helicopter or aeroplane, and a music concert. They will be unable to
hear any speech sounds.
3
Cochlear Implant vs. Hearing Aids
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that
provides a sense of sound to a person
who is profoundly deaf. It consists of:
 Microphone: which picks up
sound from the environment
 Speech processor: filters the
sound and sends this to the
transmitter via a thin cable
 Transmitter: a coil held in
position by a magnet placed
behind the ear; transmits the
sound signals across the skin to the internal device
 Internal device: changes the signals into electric impulses and
sends these through an internal cable to electrodes in the
cochlea (inner ear)
 Electrodes: send the sound to the brain through the auditory
nerve system
A hearing aid is an electronic device which amplifies sounds to make
them louder. This consists of:
 Microphone: receives sound waves and converts the sound
waves to electrical impulses
 Amplifier: sound waves are amplified with the aid of the power
supply
 Receiver: converts the electrical impulses back into sound
vibrations
4
How do you know a child is having difficulty hearing?
 Doesn’t respond when name is called
 Appears to miss key information in
the nursery/classroom setting and
always asks for repetitions
 Watches what others are doing
before doing it themselves
 Talks too loudly or too softly
 Appears inattentive
 Reliant on visual cues (e.g. may
look at your mouth when you are
talking)
 Difficulty with language
 Difficulty with speech sounds
What does the Speech and Language Therapist do?
Speech and Language Therapists assess and manage the speech,
language and communication needs for people with deafness and
hearing impairment (DHI). Speech and Language Therapists are part
of a multi-disciplinary team who support children with DHI.
Audiology
Parents
GP
SLT
EP
School
staff
Deaf
Child
Teacher of
the Deaf
Paediatrician
5
What can we do to help?
Teachers should be
aware of
Slower language
development, both
spoken and written with
reduced vocabulary and
understanding of words
and concepts
Listening skills
Attention and concentration
Literacy skills, including
grammar
Working memory
Teaching, learning and support
strategies
Know the child’s language level
Ensure effective use of hearing
technologies
Create a good listening environment
Provide focused, individual/small group
programmes as required
Provide pre- and post-tutoring as
required for new topic areas
Adhere to good practice when
communicating with deaf children
Involve parents/carers in providing
additional language practice
Ensure effective use of hearing
technologies
Create a good listening environment
Ensure children establish good
phonological awareness
Ensure effective use of hearing
technologies
Ensure pace and length of learning
sessions are appropriate for the child
Use visual cues to support teaching
points
Create a good listening environment
As above plus additional tuition
Differentiated curriculum
Use specific programmes, resources and
strategies to aid the learning of deaf
children
General classroom games, such as
guessing hidden objects from
descriptions; pairs matching, etc.
6
Auditory memory
Processing time
Incidental learning
Social skills
Self-esteem
Learning style
Difficulties in following
group conversations
Phonological awareness training and
training in synthetic phonics, using
particular strategies that support deaf
children
Learning rhymes and listening to stories
Ensure child has heard the task/request
Give more time to process information
Create opportunities for 1:1 and small
group work in good acoustic conditions
Ensure peers are deaf aware and can
communicate with the deaf child
Provide small group work requiring turn
taking under the supervision of an adult
Ensure access to extracurricular
activities
For older primary children, focused
group work on dealing with/taking
responsibility for their own deafness
Ensure that disabilities including
deafness are included in the PSHE
curriculum
Use specific resources e.g. NDCS’s
Healthy Minds
Praise appropriately and genuinely,
describing exactly the reason
Generally helpful to use multi-sensory
approaches
May need to allow additional time to
ensure mastery of new
concepts/learning
Ensure members of the group are deaf
aware
This table is taken from the NDCS publication ‘supporting the achievement of deaf children
in primary schools’. For more information, please visit:
http://www.ndcs.org.uk/family_support/order_and_view_our_publications/suppachieveprimary.rm
a?utm_campaign=Membership&utm_medium=login&utm_source=login
7
Environmental and Communication Strategies:
 Attract their attention by gentle tapping, waving or using lights
 Maintain eye contact
 Try to keep background noise to a minimum - hearing aids
amplify all sounds, not just your voice.
 Try not to stand in front of a window or bright light. Your face
will be in a shadow, so the deaf person will not be able to see
your face clearly to read your lips.
 Try not to cover your mouth or eat when speaking
 Speak a little slower than normal but maintain a natural
rhythm. Don’t exaggerate mouth movements.
 Make sure that, if you change the topic of conversation, the
deaf person is aware of it.
 Try not to shout. Shouting distorts the face and makes you look
angry. Others will turn round drawing attention to the deaf
person.
 For a sign language user, gesture is very important but, again,
don’t exaggerate this.
 If the deaf person doesn’t seem to understand what you are
saying, try to re-phrase it. Keep your English plain and use
short, clear sentences.
8
How can you raise awareness of DHI in your setting?
Creating opportunities for open discussion about deafness and
hearing impairment will support deaf awareness in children. Below
we have listed some activities which may facilitate these
conversations in your setting.
Activities you can carry out in class:
1. Make listening fun!
Try to listen for sound vs no sound:
 Musical instrument: Children move
around to the sound of a musical
instrument (e.g. tambourine). They sit
down (musical chairs) or stop moving
(musical statues) when the music stops.
Make the periods of silence between the
sounds longer and longer. If you want to make it harder, ask
the children to act out a specific animal when the music stops.
 Musical instrument: once children understand stop/go, you
can use instruments to practise loud/quiet – if the tambourine
is beaten loudly the children stamp, and if it is quiet the
children tip toe etc.
 Full and empty containers: have a set of full and empty
containers, with different items inside the container. Can the
children sort the containers into noisy and quiet?
9
Discriminating sounds:
 Animals: Make or play different animal noises, and see if the
children can tell you who you are acting out.
 Environmental noises: Play noises from different environments
(e.g. car, jungle, seaside) and guess where the noises are from.
 Guess the voice: Ask a teacher to stand behind a sheet or
curtain during assembly, and say a sentence – see if the
children can listen carefully and guess who the voice belongs
to.
2. Fun activities you can use to talk about deafness and hearing
impairment
 Design a hearing aid: Use the outline of a hearing aid and ask
the children to colour and design their own hearing aid – you
could even give a prize for the best design in assembly (see
page 12 for a readymade work sheet).
 Make your big listening ears: Cut out and colour some ‘big
ears’ and attach these together using a paper strip – while the
children are making their ears, you can talk about the
importance of using our ears for ‘listening’ and what it means
to be a good listener (see page 13 for a readymade worksheet).
 Role play area: why not adapt your ‘doctors’ role play area to
talk about ‘audiology’ (or the ‘ear doctor’) and how we need to
check our ears are working properly.
10
Name:
Date:
Design your own Hearing Aid!
If you had a hearing aid, what would you like it to look like? Design
your own pattern!
11
Name:
Date:
12