It Takes Teamwork: Mainstreaming Children With Hearing Loss
When the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) was passed in 1975, it paved the way for children with hearing loss to receive the same educational opportunities as their peers. Since then, the number of children with hearing difficulties attending public schools has increased exponentially, with 75 percent of hard-of-hearing children now mainstreamed into public schools. Roughly half of those children study in hearing classrooms.
A child who is deaf or has hearing loss will have additional educational requirements that need to be met. Let’s take a look at some of the professionals who work in collaboration with each other to facilitate the success of hard-of-hearing students. Knowing about the role each specialist plays will help you to feel comfortable and confident interacting with staff and advocating for your child.
An Essential Team
Certified educational interpreter (CEI): The role of the CEI is to ensure communication success at school, and these interpreters generally sit with students during class and make sure the teacher’s spoken English is translated into ASL (American Sign Language) for the student when necessary. The exact role of a CEI changes from student to student, according to each child’s specific needs and their Individualized Education Program (IEP). This interpreter plays a valuable part in making sure the hard-of-hearing child thrives in the classroom.
Teacher of the deaf: Part teacher, part counselor, this staff member helps with the personal, social, and intellectual development of the student by facilitating language acquisition and communication skills. Also known as a “hearing support teacher” this specialist works closely with students, staff, and the administration, and communicates with parents regarding each child’s educational progress. They can also help students with amplification issues when needed, by ensuring their assistive listening device system (FM, infrared, telecoil, etc.) is working properly.
Educational audiologist: Educational audiologists have a broader and more extensive role, overseeing school-based hearing-screening programs and promoting healthy hearing. However, with regards to the individual student with hearing loss, their role becomes more focused. They communicate closely with the teacher of the deaf, with the goal of ensuring all individual listening devices and audiological equipment are adjusted and working correctly, and they make recommendations taking into account the results of hearing evaluations.
Speech-language pathologist (SLP): Otherwise called a speech therapist, a speech-language pathologist works along with the school audiologist to gain understanding into how each student is doing with their listening devices (e.g. cochlear implants). If the school does not have an educational audiologist, the SLP turns into the lead staff member to work with children who have cochlear implants, and with the child’s clinical audiologist to see how the device is influencing language advancement. Speech-language pathologists likewise create communication and linguistic objectives for every student so they can accomplish a level of verbal communication, keeping pace with their hearing peers.
Case manager: Frequently the essential contact for guardians, it is the obligation of the caseworker to administer all parts of the child’s mainstreamed instruction. They are in charge of making sure the student’s IEP is followed closely and that every exertion is made to help the student accomplish their objectives.
What If Your Child Has Difficulty Hearing?
If a diagnosis of hearing loss is troubling or overwhelming to you, remember that there are more support networks and resources accessible to your family now than at any other time. The educational opportunities for children with hearing loss have progressed significantly since 1975, and getting familiar with your child’s educational team will help to give them every opportunity to reach their highest potential and have a bright future.
If you think that your child may have hearing loss, the most important thing to do is to schedule a visit with us at Desert Valley Audiology for an evaluation.
Desert Valley Audiology.
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