Supporting Students with Hearing Loss Presenters: Susan Reese Pippa May

Helping a child who has a hearing loss is challenging work. Unless the child has a significant loss (severe or profound), there is the great possibility that one might assume that “they seem to hear just fine. They respond to me when I ask questions or talk to them”. That is a comment often stated by teachers, special education staff member and parents, and it is understandable. However, we’re here today to challenge that thinking and provide you with ways to check that statement and to raise the bar regarding our expectations for what they hear, how they hear, and what we can expect from them. Overview

Mild hearing loss?

To help us briefly step into the world of hearing loss, I challenge you to take a pair of earplugs and wear them for at least 10 minutes during this presentation. Monitor your behavior and any strategies you might use to compensate for the MILD hearing loss you have given yourself. You may remove them after 10 minutes. And, feel free to keep them for hearing conservation purposes…when you might be exposed to loud noise in the future. Challenge

Audiology 501

Audiograms

●Pure tone averages (PTA)- average in decibels of the thresholds for pure tones at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. In general, the pure-tone average should approximate the speech reception threshold. (MediLexicon International Ltd © ) ●Speech reception thresholds (SRT) - the minimum intensity in decibels at which a patient can understand 50% of spoken words; used in tests of speech audiometry. (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.) Important Audiogram Terms

The purpose of this evaluation is to determine how listening abilities are affected by noise, distance, and visual access in an individual’s natural listening environment. The FLE can also be used as a validation tool to demonstrate the benefits of hearing assistance technology. It is designed to simulate listening ability in situations that are more representative of actual listening conditions than can often be replicated in sound booth assessment. (Revised 2011 by C.D. Johnson. Based on Functional Listening Evaluation by C.D. Johnson & P. Von Almen, 1993.) The Functional Listening Evaluation

Build listening skills at all times! Utilize the auditory channel. Technology, technology, technology! Hearing aids and/or assistive listening devices... Strategies 501

...are so important! If a child has them, please make sure that they are in good working order.

o Hearing aid tool kit o Ling 6-sound check (aah, ooo, eee, sss, shh, mmm) o Functional directions - auditory only

●Responses should change over time. ●Useful to get additional information from a child - why s/he answered the question as they did ●Examples: * Children’s Peer Relationship Scale * The Secondary School Survey * Self-Assessment of Communication-Adolescent (SAC-A) * Listening Inventory for Education - Revised (LIFE-R) Another Strategy - Child Self-Assessments

Formal: ●Observation Checklists ●Equipment Use Checklists Informal: ●Walk-by observation ●Within sight of the child Observations are critical. How are you going to maximize your time with your child/student and use teachable moments to educate? Strategies Continued...

●Preferential Seating ●Check for understanding of ANYTHING using open-ended questions (i.e. announcements) ●Noise reduction ●Gain child’s attention prior to speaking and continue to do so during communication interaction ●Increase visual supports and decrease visual distractions; make eye contact often ●Enhance speech-reading opportunities –hands and objects away from mouth ●Use captioning ●Repeat what others have said ●Point out who is talking during a group discussion ●Other? Accommodations:

●Child ●Parent(s) ●Teachers ●SLP or other Special Education Staff Member(s) in the Building ●TOD or Hearing Specialist ●Audiologist The Essential Team

Questions/Comments?

Thank you for participating in this presentation. We hope it was valuable for you!

●MED-EL Corporation, USA 2511 Old Cornwallis Rd., Suite 100, Durham, North Carolina Phone , Toll Free: (888) MED-EL-CI ( ) ●Phonak LLC 4520 Weaver Parkway, Warrenville, IL Phone 1: , Phone 2: ●Building Skills for Success in the Fast-Paced Classroom: Optimizing Achievement for Students with Hearing Loss by Karen L. Anderson, PhD & Kathleen A. Arnoldi, MA For providing valuable resources and supplemental materials to help make this presentation more engaging and interesting. Special Thanks to:

Thanks for watching!