Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

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Students Who Are Hard of Hearing

People who are hard of hearing usually do not learn sign language, but instead use amplification devices such as hearing aids to communicate. Sometimes errors occur in written language that are reflective of the hearing loss. For example, if a person does not hear high frequency sounds, he or she will not hear the "s" sound and it may, therefore, be more difficult to master the rules of grammar related to forming plurals. This may be evident in written language.

Students Who Speechread

Hearing children pick up language passively through interactions with parents and incidental learning. If a child is deaf, even if he or she speechreads, communication must be more deliberate. For people who are born deaf, language acquisition will be delayed and this delay may impact fluency later in life.

Implications for Reading Comprehension

Because of the delay in language acquisition or the fact that English is the student's second language, general comprehension may be below that of hearing peers. The student may be less familiar with English idioms or figures of speech. Idiomatic expressions are usually learned through incidental learning. These students also may be less familiar with concepts or subjects outside their realm of experience. For example, phrases that were heard on television prior to captioning, like "plop, plop, fizz, fizz" or references to radio programs or musical instruments, may require additional explanation for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing.