Williams,+Lacey,+Hearing+Impairment




 * Something that you want us to know about you**: Something I feel like everyone should know about me is that I am hearing impaired and wear hearing aids. Understanding and knowing how to communicate are high on my list of important abilities I feel like all people should have. Being hearing impaired makes communicating with me sometimes difficult and I feel that if everyone knows this about me it is one step towards better communication.


 * Explain your education and career goals:** When I first started college my goal was to become a nurse. I already had over five years of experience in the field and it seemed like the next logical step. I finished my prerequisites and was ready to apply to the program, but I had doubts. My heart was not in it so I did some soul searching. My searching lead to teaching and teaching has strengthened my passion for helping others. Growing up with a disability has lead me on a journey with the desire to connect and help others, children especially. I feel that my own disability has given me a deeper understanding to what another might be experiencing in a similar situation. I want to use my life's experiences to become a special education teacher.


 * What brings you joy:** The number one source of joy in my life is my daughter, Sophia. I wasn't sure I would have children and she as been the best thing that ever happened to me. Other things that bring me joy are my family, friends, reading, photography, being outside, laughter, and sunshine.


 * What is your greatest fear about being a teacher:** My greatest fear about being a teacher is failing a student. I feel like so many of my teachers failed me and I don't ever want to do this to a child.


 * Did you ever experience a time when something was extremely difficult to learn? Explain that time and how it made you feel:** Being hearing impaired most learning came difficult to me. I feel like I had to work twice as hard as everyone else to reach the same goals. This felt frustrating and unfair. It was hard sometimes to not give up.


 * How might this piece of your history help you connect to students with learning differences:** I feel like this piece of my history directly connects to students with learning differences. I feel that they might have an easier time relating to me and talking to me because I've been there already. I feel that this part of my history will also give me more patience and understanding to what they might be feeling or experiencing.


 * What do you want to gain from this course**: What I want to gain from this course is a deeper understanding of the exceptional child. I want to know what an inclusive classroom looks like and what are the strategies used. Also, because I want to be a special needs teacher I hope this class gives me a better understanding of myself. I know that being a special needs teacher is not for everyone and I want to be one hundred percent sure that this is the path I want to take in my education.


 * Topic Introduction: Hearing Impairment**

Hearing impairments range in severity from mild to moderate to severe to profound, with the greatest educational distinctions occurring between hard of hearing and deaf. Individuals classified as hard of hearing can hear speech tones when wearing hearing aids, whereas persons who are deaf cannot hear even with hearing aids. The age that a child loses hearing affects the degree of language delay and development. Children who are born with deafness have congenital hearing losses and more difficulty with language development than those who acquire deafness after age 2. Individuals with slight losses may not have difficulty in most school situations. Individuals with mild losses may miss up to 50% of classroom discussion if voices are faint or faces cannot be seen. Individuals with moderate losses may be able to hear loud voices within 1 foot from the ear, and speech is likely to be impaired. Individuals with profound losses may hear some sounds, but are more likely to sense vibrations, and may rely on vision rather than hearing as a primary vehicle for communication.

Causes of hearing impairments include heredity, prenatal infections such as maternal rubella, ear infections, meningitis, head trauma, prematurity, and oxygen deprivation during birth. Impairments can be conductive, meaning the outer or middle ear along the passageway is damaged; sensorineural, referring to inner-ear damage; or they can be a combination of the two.


 * Why I selected this topic of research:**

The choice to research hearing impairment was a personal one. Although, I've lived my whole life hearing impaired I felt like there was still much I could learn. I feel like the better I know myself, the better teacher I will become.


 * The Top 5 Things Learned While Researching:**
 * 1) Encouraging a child to develop self-advocacy skills is one of the most important life skill an educator can do. A child that is confident enough to communicate their needs to others will find success in their life. This skill extends not only to children with exceptionalities, but all children.
 * 2) When teaching a child with a hearing impairment it is pertinent that you have their attention and are facing them when you are speaking to them.
 * 3) The importance of hearing is often under-estimated largely because, for the most part, it is an invisible disability. The lack of understanding of hearing loss is further compounded by the tendency to classify the ability to hear into two categories: hearing and deaf.
 * 4) Even though deafness and heard of hearing are considered "low incidence" disabilities, studies have shown that some level of hearing loss will effect 14.9% of school aged children. When middle ear infections are included in this equations, one in three children will have some type of loss on any given day.
 * 5) As much as 90% of what a normally hearing individual learns is from overhearing conversations, with only 10% from direct instruction. Because of this D/HH children miss out on practical knowledge needed to make progress in both the school environment and the community. Children who have a hearing loss will need to be taught directly many of the skills that other children learn incidentally.


 * Resources:**

====This website has an amazing amount of resources for educators, a child with an hearing impairment, and their parents. It's based out of Colorado, and it is a network of families, professionals in all related fields, institutions of higher education, service providers, and consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing. There are downloadable documents an educator could use in their classroom I found to be very valuable such as the advocacy form, the self-advocacy skills inventory (a type of assessment) and a "one-stop" guide to accommodating and understanding hearing loss in your classroom- []====

====National Association of the Deaf: this is an advocacy cite for the deaf. It provides information about the rights you are entitled to if you are deaf or heard of hearing. It also has educational information, interventions for infants and toddlers, and sign language information.====

====American Sign Language University: this is a website that provides information and resources to help you improve your signing for students and teachers. It has several different learning strategies including written instructions, pictures, and videos with real people signing each individual word. It has a dictionary and free lessons.====

====Hear-it: this is a wonderful website full of information about children with hearing impairments. There are articles for parents and educators that provide various different information including; information for parents if they think their child has a hearing loss, tinnitus, what to ask the doctors, what to do in the school, the process of getting hearing aids, the different kinds of hearing aids.====

//5 out of 5 stars//
====Hands & Voices: is a website which is intended to raise positive awareness of the Deaf Community, highlighting cultural and linguistic (American Sign Language) aspects of the Deaf experience. The specific link below takes you to a resource page with a number of apps for iphones or other smartphones including deaf and hard of hearing related apps, communication apps, SLP specific apps, alphabet recognition/vocab/language apps, listening skills, phonics, and reading. Many of them are free, but most you have to pay for.====

====Raising Deaf Kids: this website has a lot of information about children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Most of the information is about helping parents understand their child's deafness and showing them how to help their child succeed. There is a large section on children who are deaf and have other disabilities. The site is also translated into Spanish.====

====Pepnet2: this is a website dedicated to improving post-secondary outcomes for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, including those with co-occurring disabilities. The website has a lot of information and it's a little hard to navigate, but if you take some time you can find resources for parents, students and teachers.====

[|PEPnet2]
//5 out of 5 stars//

Described and captioned media program: this website is funded by the US Department of Education and provides free-loan described and captioned educational media is available to students who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing, visually impaired, or deaf-blind. This educational media is made accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing via captioning and to the blind and visually impaired via description. With over 4,000 titles available.

[|Described and Captioned Media Program]

//4 out of 5 stars//

Oregon's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services: this website provides resources for individuals with hearing impairment specific to Oregon.

[|Oregon's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services]