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Portrait of a Learner 9-12

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Portrait of a Learner 9-12 > Factors > Hearing

Hearing

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Students with hearing loss who have inadequate access to language and community support may lack critical early learning experiences, which can lead to difficulties developing early precursors to Communication skills (including foundational phonological skills). In addition, although learners with hearing loss may sometimes feel isolated due to a lack of supports, when provided with the support they need they can readily engage with their community and in their learning.

Main Ideas

Hearing is measured as the ability to perceive sound in the typical human range of approximately 20 - 20,000 Hz. Hearing loss typically impacts high frequency speech sounds (e.g., /sh/, /s/, /f/, /th/) more than other frequencies. .

Children with hearing loss often lack access to a sufficiently supportive early language environment. This can lead to a lack of early language exposure, increasing children's risk of missing sensitive windows for development that can make some concepts harder to grasp. A lack of support in early language exposure may occur both because hearing loss and other Auditory Processing issues can take upwards of five years to diagnose, and also because the vast majority of children with hearing loss (up to 90% or more) are born to hearing parents who do not speak sign language. This means that many caregivers struggle to provide a supportive early language environment for their children with hearing loss. Added supports down the line at home and at school can help counter a lack of early language exposure.

Students with hearing loss may learn sign language as their primary communicative language or as supportive Communication access. Hearing aids and cochlear implants do not always completely restore hearing or support full language comprehension, and individuals using such external aids may sometimes wish to remove or switch them off. Therefore, students with hearing loss can benefit from learning sign language even if they have access to external aids. Furthermore, research suggests that “bilingual” or “bimodal” education in both sign language and written text may also lead to the greatest educational benefits. Approximately 77% of deaf students learn in general education classrooms; educators can help support students with hearing loss through relationship-building (providing critical Social Supports), and can scaffold engagement though multiple modes of Communication.

Learn More

  • Variability among Deaf Learners: Free webinar with experts discussing how to design learning environments for deaf and hard of hearing students
  • A guide written by researchers presenting science-supported methods for caregivers to support Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.

View Measures and References

Research-Based Strategies For This Factor

Drawing

Encouraging learners to draw as a form of synthesizing key concepts and to explain their drawings in the classroom, can support the development of Core Academic Literacies, especially when solving complex problems across content areas.

Mnemonic Device

A mnemonic device is a creative way to support memory for new information using connections to current knowledge, for example by creating visuals, acronyms, or rhymes.

Multimodal Teaching & Learning

Multimodal teaching and learning provide opportunities for students to engage with the same content through different sensory modalities, such as visual, auditory and tactile.

Strengths-based Approach

A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole learner, in order to empower them to flourish.

Communication Boards

Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.

Gestures

Using motions to explain new concepts or ideas supports the ability to process new information and to convey thinking and conceptual understanding.

Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Self-advocacy is the ability of an individual to understand and effectively express and assert their own rights, needs, desires, and interests.

Family Engagement

Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.

Translanguaging

Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.

Mnemonic Device

A mnemonic device is a creative way to support memory for new information using connections to current knowledge, for example by creating visuals, acronyms, or rhymes.

Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice requires students to access information, or get information “out” from Long-term memory in order to support better retention and understanding.

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