Vacationing by Teaching Only Six Students a Day

Ecstatic are teachers who are informed that their class would only consist of six. But a lady instructor of the hearing impaired program has her work cut out for her. Thanks to a three year federal grant, her six students aged from 5 to 15 are given the opportunity to engage in a program done by the local special education cooperative. Efforts made by the coop extend to 19 school districts allowing for learning disability classes.

Profoundly deaf are four out of the six students with two who are hard of hearing. Needing special assistance because of a decibel loss of 60 or less are the hard of hearing who can function in regular classrooms. On the other hand, the profoundly deaf have a loss amounting to 90 decibels or more. For someone in this position, special learning methods are highly necessary. In the class for the hearing impaired, all students have their own hearing aids depending on their capacity and hearing needs.

By making use of a special audio device the students are able to hear what their teacher is saying. There are 83 radio frequencies on which the phonic ear system operates. Children make use of receivers and the teacher uses a microphone to send out any kind of instruction through these. Through the different frequencies, the teacher has the ability to talk to the class as a group or to one child at a time.

It has been said by the teacher that the facility traveled to by the students for 11/2 hours is quite spectacular. Much expense has been encountered with everything being specially crafted. The carpeted room is full of visual aids and audio equipment and includes a complete kitchen. The kitchen serves as a guide for language learning through recipe interpretations.

We do nothing without language, because the greatest obstacle the students must overcome is language, she says. 10,000 times is the number of repetitions needed for a word to be retained. It is natural for some to find it boring but these students require this. Objects and descriptive words can be taught with the assistance of sight for the hard of hearing. There are words which have little meaning though like time, tomorrow, yesterday, and today.

In teaching there are a lot of teaching methods. In order to give a total communication learning experience, the teacher stresses the need for both signs and speech. They are also being taught about lip reading so that the students can comprehend by watching one's lip movements. What is favored is the oral teaching method and so the students are expected to communicate verbally as well. Without the need for different communication practices our society may begin to accept these children easily.

Using the sense of touch in teaching is another method referred to as the tactile method. A student will touch the throat and feel the tongue of the teacher to understand the g, s, or th sounds. According to the teacher, a student's hand in her mouth in this case is part of her daily routine at work. Learning pertains to spelling, math, grammar, and social studies. When the student is prepared to be integrated into other classes in the school system, he may study speech, gym, auto mechanics, music, typing, and home economics. Attending the class is a matter of being 18 years old and younger.

Her drive to help the hard of hearing may pose a number of questions. Even with numerous questions she immediately provides reasons for her career choice. She says that when she was five, it was discovered that she suffered from a hearing loss herself. No cartilage was in her ears and her eustachian tubes were closed at birth. Fortunately for her and all the people she has helped, her problem was correctable by surgery. Considering hearing loss in children, she already knew what career path she will be taking as early as the fifth grade.

Studying in a college in Illinois, she now carries a special education degree. Other than a certificate in learning disabilities, her stint at a Florida university earned her degrees in deaf and elementary education as well. Working as a teacher in a school for the deaf in Fort Lauderdale, she arrived in Southwest Kansas two years ago. Because of how the phonic ear system functions, every sound is transmitted to the students' ears and so they listen to everything she says and considering the kinds of tasks she is required to accomplish every single day this is such a desirable thing.

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