How to tell if your student is comprehending class information or bluffing...

I get this question a lot, and it really takes a keen eye to figure out if the student is bluffing or is genuinely comprehending a teacher's verbal class directions/information. Here is one example.

Say there is a student with HL sitting in the 3rd row to the far left, right near where the teacher does the teaching from, and the teacher tells everyone to get their science books out and turn to page 24. You'll see one of two actions that lets the teacher know whether the student is bluffing or not:

1) The student automatically gets his/her book out and turns to page 24
2) The student looks around to the classmates before he/she begins to get science book opened.


Now, teachers, you'll be able to tell whether or not your student is bluffing.

Check out the link below. It came across my desk this morning and it has plenty of information on Deaf-Blindness. This is a good resource to have. 


http://www.scsdb.org/Page/488

Selective Listening

Good Afternoon!

Every now and then I have to get onto one of my students for using the "selective listening" tactic in the classroom, but there are times I tell my students to make exceptions, one of which happened today. For my readers-"failure" is a word that should be in all of your "selective listening vocabulary banks."

You know how it works-you tune it out because you don't want to hear it or do it. Don't listen when someone mentions the dreaded seven letter word. There are many good things to being deaf, and one of my favorites is I don't have to listen to that word-I can just turn my hearing aid off!

High Demand=High Quality

I was able to go to one of our middle schools today to help a teacher troubleshoot a personal FM sytems. While I was there, one of my students came in and I was able to witness this teacher's interaction with the student. This teacher held the student to the same level of demand as the rest of the classmates. It was evident that the teacher did not expect any less of the student because of the hearing loss. That's what I want to see, and that's certainly what all students need from all teachers. High demand turns right into high quality!

Cochlear Implant Delivery

Here is a picture of a cochlear implant (CI) that has its components labeled. The CI is different from a hearing aid in that it delivers sound to the brain bypassing the ear canal and via the cochlea. Here is another image that is helpful:



As you can see, the electrode is stimulating the cochlea directly.

Frequency Modulated (FM) System Vs. Yelling

This is a picture of a portable FM sound system that we use in our classrooms. A good question I came across today is, "how is the system different from just speaking loudly?" Great question and here is the simple answer...which may best be answered using the analogy of the tennis ball. Imagine if you just casually throw it from the front of your classroom all the way across to the other side of your class. Eventually gravity will take over and the ball will begin to sink. Sound waves are basically the same way aside from being distorted or reverberated (another post for another time). For instance, you might speak at a speech-to-noise ration of +15dB, which means your voice is 15 decibels higher than any other noise in your class (kids talking, HVAC unit, etc), from the front of your classroom. That same voice you used will only be a fraction of that once it reaches the back of the classroom. If you have a FM system, and it's positioned appropriately, you will be able to speak at a normal tone, and be 15 dB above the classroom noise throughout the entire room. Hope this helps. Feel free to email me with any additional questions.

Welcome to the 2014/2015 school year!

Welcome back! I'll be posting DHH information again this year. I hope to educate and encourage folks with hearing loss and folks interacting with them. Hearing loss is not an stumbling block, it's just another stepping stone in life with a wider gap. Fact is, the stone (representing your hopes and dreams) is still in front of you, it's just a little more work to get to it. Don't give up! Try harder and you'll reach it.