Supporting Your Deaf Child’s Education

Most people don’t understand that deafness is a disability, seeing it as hearing aids being akin to wearing glasses. However, deafness by definition is a disorder that affects the ability to hear and it can vary in severity from person to person. Some people need basic hearing aids where others require the assistance of cochlear implants. For adults, deafness can come about because of loud noise and exposure to trauma. For some children, it’s something they are born with, or it can be caused by an illness in their childhood.

If you are lucky enough to have a child, and that child is born hard of hearing, it can feel complex. As a hearing parent, you may not have much of an understanding of deafness and what it’ll mean for you as a family. That doesn’t mean that you can’t learn. You’ll need to get up to speed on leveraging technology with hearing aids so that your child is exposed to both medical technology and gets the most from the digital world at the same time. The biggest hurdle for parents is what comes at school: understanding how their children can learn in school is important and the most reassuring thing to note is that – like any disability – children can and will be supported while they learn. 

Every child deserves the best when it comes to their learning and your child – disability or not – is no different. The good bit is in figuring out that there is plenty that will be in place to support your child while they are learning. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the best ways that you can support your child’s education and help them to learn to their fullest capacity.

• Classroom support. Deaf children without any further intellectual disorders or deficits often find that the supports available to them in the classroom are more than adequate. They can be placed in front of the board or where the teacher sits to speak, so that they can effectively read lips when needed. A part of their classroom support is a teacher who understands the need to be flexible in the way that they communicate.
• Additional teachers. Some children with disabilities have additional one-to-one teachers and support in the classrooms and some deaf children really benefit from having concentrated support and attention from a teacher’s aide. In most cases, you can hire a teacher’s aide who understands signing and how to communicate with deaf children. The appropriate communication techniques and an acoustic system to support it will help!
• Visual information. Speaking with their school about the provision of visual communication tools will help your child to feel better supported in their education. It’s important that you are able to see where they are seated in the classroom so that you can make sure that they can see any visual content available to them.
• Better technology. When it comes to leveraging technology with hearing aids, sound-enhancing technology is used in many different places and can provide real support to your children. As children grow older, the ability to interpret and produce language is easier with enhanced hearing technology. They need as many accommodations to make life easy as possible and if you can speak to your audiologist about the best technology for their hearing needs, you’ll find it much easier to support your child.
• Get the help of a tutor. If you can find a tutor who understands sign language that your child uses, they will be better supported. Tutoring services can work for children of all hearing levels, not just hearing children.
• Special education settings. Even if your child is hard of hearing, as it’s considered to be a disability, they may fare better in a special education setting rather than a mainstream school. Deaf children need specific accommodations and appropriate education comes with that. They may prefer to be in a setting where there are other deaf or hard of hearing children just like them. Knowing that they have peers just like them can really help them to settle in and want to learn.

The deaf and hard of hearing communities rely very heavily on their culture. Families supporting families matters and if you use these tips you’ll be able to give your children the right opportunities from a very early age. This will help them to form friendships and bridge the communication gaps that trigger them. Once you put the right supports in place, your child will thrive even more than they did before!