SHIFTING GEARS

I have discussed at length how difficult it is to get a diagnosis of hearing impaired when your child is not profound or severe, though a delay in diagnosis caused language and learning delays just as severe.  I have also discussed the many other diagnoses that are likely crossed in the pathway to finally recognizing the hearing impairment.  However, I have yet to discuss how to help these children overcome their disability in terms of education; which is my current topic of interest in seeking to help my children.  Considering a healthy child, diagnosis is probably of little value, except when education enters the picture.  So if I did not discuss the help these children require to succeed educationally, I might as well not write down these experiences.


To address this, I have decided to first tackle  the realm of mathematics.  Right now I am reading a book entitled "Teaching Mathematics to Deaf Children" written in 2004 by Terezinha Nunes, PhD from Oxford University.  In reading the title, do not be misled by the term 'Deaf'.  As I have read the book, it is clear to me that the British refer to all levels of hearing impairment, even the most mild cases, as 'Deaf'.  When I seek out information I am most interested in literature written after  2003, because this is when the guidelines for hearing impairments changed dramatically.  This book is up to date. 


The great thing about this book is that it is a compilation of researches with Hearing Impaired children from which are derived appropriate methods in teaching these children. For me this is fantastic as it will be time saving.  I am very research driven.  I have found that researches tell you the collective experience of the average child in the same circumstance. Being that there has been a great call to make sure that evidenced based methods and materials are used in all special education programs regardless of the disability, this book will be a great source. Having all the studies in one place will make it much faster and easier to discover what methods are appropriate for my children. 


The posts to follow will discuss what I find as I read this book.