Mainstream News Information about hearing loss for students, families and educators

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1 SPRING 2016 VOLUME 35, NO.3 Mainstream News Information about hearing loss for students, families and educators Friends Helping Friends in the Mainstream Sponsored by INSIDE THIS ISSUE Dear Wil It is important for the whole community within a mainstream classroom to work together to provide optimal access for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Taking the Scary out of Transition 5 Ways to Build Self-Advocacy in the Mainstream Classroom 37th Annual Conference on Mainstreaming Students with Hearing Loss Published by A typical morning in Mrs. Garsh s 2nd grade mainstream classroom in Needham, MA consists of a daily open share. During this time, the students sit in a circle facing one another in their rug spots and share about important topics. The students pass around what they call their micro-cup, which is constructed from a plastic cup and one of their classmate s personal Hearing Assistive Technology (HAT) microphones. The students raise their hands patiently to signal that they would like a turn sharing and are careful to speak one at a time, using the micro-cup. While this may appear to be a well-behaved group of students following the rules of the classroom, it is much more than that. It is a community of empathetic learners who are invested in creating a classroom equal for all. When a child who is deaf or hard of hearing is mainstreamed into a general education classroom, that student is often the only individual with hearing loss in the school. In most situations, these students who are deaf or hard of hearing are academically ready for the mainstream, but they don t necessarily have the skills to deal with the challenges of listening in a typical school setting with background noise, distance from the speaker, and lack of visual access. To make things more complicated, the students, teachers, and staff in a typical school setting, have limited understanding of the challenges of hearing loss and the accommodations necessary for access. Because of these challenges, it is important for the whole community within a mainstream classroom to work together to provide optimal access for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Mrs. Garsh s class figured out that by working together, they could overcome the challenges of hearing loss in their classroom and provide their classmate Lila with full access. Lila is a smart, bubbly, and confident student who wears hearing aids and a personal HAT system to help her access spoken language in the classroom. She has been mainstreamed since preschool, but developed a hearing loss when she was in kindergarten. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The majority of students in Mrs. Garsh s class were sharing the classroom with Lila for the first time this year. This provided an opportunity for the students who were in Lila s class in previous years to offer their expertise on how to support Lila in the classroom. This expertise was a benefit of the annual workshops on hearing loss provided by Lila and her teacher of the deaf. When I spoke with Mrs. Garsh s class this past January, I asked the students what they do to help Lila hear at school, and every student s hand shot up. Some of the comments included, We tap her to get her attention before speaking because she needs to read our lips, We make sure we are quiet so that there is less background noise, We make sure Lila has a spot at the front when we are watching videos and make sure the words (captions) are on. Another student included, We make sure Mrs. Garsh remembers to mute and unmute the microphone when she is having private conversations with other students. The whole class giggled at this comment since everything that is said into the unmuted microphone is wirelessly transmitted to tiny receivers on Lila s hearing aids. Lila raised her hand to share how her friends help, and without thinking, her classmates passed her the micro-cup. Lila said, I don t need this to hear myself! Again, the whole class laughed. Mrs. Garsh explained that at the beginning of the year, the class needed to have open shares about how peers could help one another. She regularly reminded them about necessary accommodations, but before long she recognized they didn't need prompting to help Lila. The class remembers to close the door to the classroom to keep out noise from the hallway, which can make a world of difference to Lila. The class has even begun reminding Lila to remove her personal HAT system at the end of the day since it stays at school over night. Although it may seem easy to implement these accommodations, it does take hard work and practice. Here are some strategies that can help you create equal access for students with hearing loss in the mainstream: 1. Talk openly and positively about differences. The more teachers are able to shine a positive light on differences, the more accepting students are about who they are. Students gain confidence and are willing to ask for help when they need it. 2. Share ways that classmates can help one another. When students recognize that their actions can either positively or negatively impact one of their peers, they are more likely to lend a helping hand. Creating a positive behavior system to reward students who are observed helping one another can encourage this. 3. Take time to ask the student with hearing loss what can help. It is important for students who are deaf or hard of hearing to develop self-awareness of their needs so that they can talk about what helps them. This can lead to more positive discussions on what type of support members of the class need and can lead to more positive outcomes. 4. Ask peers how they can help. Have open discussions about how students can help one another. Students often have new and creative ideas of how they can help their peers. Giving them the opportunity to share ways they can support one another is much more impactful than the teacher telling them what to do. 5. Incorporate accommodations into your daily routines. When accommodations are a part of your daily routine, they are always implemented. Some examples include, closing the door every time you enter the classroom, putting on closed captioning during videos, taking whole class listening breaks at the same time every day, and passing the microcup with the microphone when students respond. Mainstream News is published three times a year (fall, winter, spring) by Clarke Mainstream Services, Northampton, MA. Contact: Clarke Mainstream Services TEL/TTY FAX mainstream@clarkeschools.org Claire Troiano, DIRECTOR With a positive attitude about differences and encouraging a supportive community, all students are able to learn and grow. Read Mainstream News online at clarkeschools.org/mainstreamnews Mainstream News SPRING 2016

3 Taking the Scary out of TRANSITION It s hard to believe that the end of the school year is almost here. I am sure it seems like it was just yesterday that you ushered a group of new students into your classroom. The final few months of school can be so rewarding. Classroom routines are firmly established, your students are aware of your expectations and for the most part you know what to expect from them. You have seen growth and change in your students and you are excited to see them move onto greater challenges. But for parents, change and transitions common at the end of the school year can bring on an entirely different set of feelings. Transitions seem magnified when you have a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. While transitions can be good or bad, planned or unexpected, in all cases children and their parents are shifted out of their comfort zones and must re-examine how they fit into the new situation. The word transition often becomes intertwined with anxiety as students move through the education system and out into the world. There is so much to think about. Will therapy support remain the same? What will happen if there is a need to change schools or move to a different city? How will my child adjust to middle school? Our district has a new speech-language pathologist, will she understand my son? These are all questions parents may be asking themselves. What if there was a way to make transitions less about being scary and more about recognizing a growth opportunity? Here are some strategies you can pass onto your parents to help them with any upcoming transitions they might be facing. Prepare Yourself One of the reasons transitions are so scary is that we are afraid of the unknown. So, make the unknown known. Stand back and take a moment to acknowledge your worry and how you are feeling. When you are ready, figure out what it is you need to do to prepare yourself for the transition. Read books, ask questions, join a support group, spend time walking around your new neighborhood and find real information (engaging in gossip and rumors doesn t help). Do whatever it is you need to do to get your questions and concerns answered. Prepare/Involve Your Child As a parent of a child with special needs it is easy to become engrossed in advocating for their needs and forgetting to include them in the process. Of course, how much you involve your child depends on their age, but even the youngest child can be involved in transitions. After all, they are the one most directly affected. Some ways in which you can do this are to have your child: Visit the new school. Meet teachers/new team before the beginning of the school year. Either write down or tell you what they think their needs are. Attend IEP or team meetings. Nothing is Written in Stone Despite your best intentions sometimes things do not work out the way you planned. Maybe moving your child from individual speech therapy to group sessions was a move backwards for their confidence; or the support services at the college your child chose to attend are not working out as promised. But, and this is where preparing yourself comes into play, no matter what your original decision was, there is always an alternative way. Give it Time The world today is a place of instant gratification on demand movies and same day shipping are the norm. But, change takes time to adjust to and it is important that you give both yourself and your child the time needed to adjust to the change. It is unrealistic to walk into a new school, or to adjust to a new therapy schedule in the first week or two. Try to be patient and see how your child grows into the change. Develop a Support Network Change is the only constant in life, said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus; so you might as well get used to it. Transitioning is part of this journey that is called parenthood. So, find a group (or groups) that shares your experience. There is always someone out there who has gone through the very same situation that you are facing. Post a question to a Facebook group. Look for someone in your community that has experienced a similar situation. Ask your child s audiologist or SLP if they know a family that you can connect with. Find an organization that you can connect with. There is strength in numbers, and if you can enter a transition with others at your side, that will take a whole lot of the scary out of the change. Clarke Mainstream Services. All rights reserved. 3

4 5 Ways to Build SELF-ADVOCACY in the Mainstream Classroom Mainstream classrooms are busy places. The skills that are taught range from the kindergarten lessons of learning how to play nicely with others and how not to hurt people s feelings, to the more advanced lessons of solving quadratic equations, and writing formal research papers in high school. But one lesson that can get lost along the way is the teaching of selfadvocacy to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. While there is room built into the curriculum for students to memorize their multiplication tables, there usually is not much room to help them memorize the parts of their cochlear implant or hearing aids. Self-advocacy skills ensure that students have the tools necessary to speak up when something is bothering them, or if their needs are not being met, whether it is in the classroom or on the playground. WHAT IS SELF-ADVOCACY? Self-advocacy is the realization of strengths and weaknesses, the ability to formulate personal goals, being assertive, and making decisions. Self-advocacy also includes communicating your needs and making decisions about the supports necessary to meet those needs (Stodden, 2000). For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, self-advocacy becomes a critical component to their daily success in mainstream settings. Students who have well established self-advocacy skills are better prepared to handle transitions and are more flexible in responding to academic and social challenges. It is never too late to begin teaching these skills, but the earlier students are introduced to self-advocacy skills the more empowered they will be. BUILDING A SELF-ADVOCATE Self-advocacy is made up of multiple skills and strategies, such as: knowing strengths and weaknesses; learning how to explain hearing loss to others; taking responsibility for individual needs; knowing how to fix communication breakdowns; and building a support team. You don t have to worry about teaching anything extra in the classroom since many of these skills can fit into the lessons you are already doing. In most cases these lessons can be taught through role-playing, reinforcement, and helping your student find connections in their skills and knowledge. 4 Mainstream News SPRING 2016

5 1. Knowing Strengths and Weaknesses One of the first steps in building self-advocacy is helping students understand their strengths and weaknesses. As a learner it is important to know the areas in which you excel and those where you struggle. Talking about strengths is especially important for kids who are deaf and hard of hearing. We spend so much time talking about and working on areas of weakness (think IEP meetings, therapy sessions, etc.), that it s easy for kids with hearing loss to become stuck in the idea they are not good at anything. Teaching in a mainstream setting often means that students have a wide variety of learning styles and it can be beneficial to have all students work through and identify what their strengths and weaknesses are. Doing this as a whole class exercise can also help your student who is deaf and hard of hearing understand they are so much more than their hearing loss, and while it may have some impact in the classroom, it doesn t define or limit their learning. This can also lead to the realization that they have things in common with other students in the class. Spend enough time doing this exercise so your students are able to really reflect on what their strengths and weaknesses are. This can be done in writing journals, visual maps, drawing pictures, or simple lists. 2. Explaining Hearing Loss to Others Once your student understands their strengths and weaknesses as a learner, it s time to move on to how their level of hearing loss fits into the picture. This is powerful knowledge and begins to move students towards learning how to be in control of a situation and explain their needs to others when they need help. The more knowledge you can give a student the better. Information about type of hearing loss, degree of hearing loss, where they are on the speech banana and sounds they struggle with are all important aspects to consider. Kids should begin to start sounding like experts on their own hearing loss. For example, Alex, age nine, is a student in the Young Voices program, a collaboration between Clarke Schools and a Worcester, MA public school. He understands his hearing loss, the technology he uses and can easily share his knowledge with his classmates: Inside your cochlea there are hair cells. There are 20,000 hair cells. People who are deaf have less hair cells so they cannot hear. The sound goes into the microphone, then to the coil. Then to the implant because it sticks together. Then the electrode goes down to your cochlea. Then sound travels to the nerves. It goes all the way up to your brain. 3. Taking Responsibility for Needs Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need to be assertive in the classroom. It s not an option for them to sit through class with a battery that doesn t work, or to sit at the back of the room if all the desks near the front are already taken. This is where the knowledge your student gained identifying their strengths and weaknesses and understanding their hearing loss gets put into action. When a student who is deaf or hard of hearing understands their needs, they are able to ask for accommodations that help make sure needs are met. The easiest way to do this is to simply touch base with your students and ask them to explain what situations support their hearing and learning and which situations are more difficult. Help them come up with some things to do when their needs are not being met. This is best done during a one-on-one meeting with the child and should be done a couple of times during the year as needs are always changing. Even the youngest child is able to state when things are easier for them. For example, Isabella, age five, who is also in the Young Voices program, created a visual to share with her classmates about how to use the FM microphone correctly. She let her classmates know, Not too close to your mouth. Please don t shout into the microphone. It s easier to listen if you talk one at a time. By providing this groundwork in the elementary classroom, the transition to middle school and high school will be a little less overwhelming. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Clarke Mainstream Services. All rights reserved. 5

6 Clarke Resources Can Help Clarke has a variety of resources available to help support children who are deaf or hard of hearing in the mainstream setting. These include: Have you Heard? Welcoming a Student with Hearing Loss to Your School Community; 101 Ways to Encourage Self-Advocacy in Children with Hearing Loss; and Friends Like You (a children s book that raises awareness about hearing loss and promotes friendship in mainstream settings.) For more information go to clarkeschools.org/store. 4. Knowing How to Fix Communication Breakdowns Challenges often arise academically and socially when information is misheard in a classroom lecture, or a child misinterprets what was said in the hallway and feels they are the target of a joke. Part of self-advocacy is knowing what to do when breakdowns occur. One way to help your student with communication breakdowns is by making sure they have the language needed to ask for clarification when they need someone to repeat something. What is unclear? What can the speaker do to help? Is it clarification (I don t understand), or is it volume (I couldn t hear you because there is so much noise in here.) Lunch groups can be a great way for all students to practice their communication skills in a safe environment. Most lunch groups are facilitated by an adult and allow for focused discussion on specific topics or areas of concern. Students can learn to ask questions, answer questions, interject appropriately, initiate and terminate conversation and identify communication breakdowns. Having a place to practice means students have the chance to build skills and increase their confidence before they try these skills in the real world. Having these skills will allow students to respond appropriately in the classroom, on the playground or in the cafeteria when these difficulties arise. 5. Building a Support Team Self-advocacy doesn t mean students need to do everything for themselves, or that they are expected to know all the answers. One of the outcomes of students understanding their strenghts and weaknesses is that they learn how to ask for help. It is much easier to be a self-advocate when you know you have others you can turn to if you need help. One model you can use to help your student figure out how to build a support team is by asking these questions: what, who, where, when, and how. What does the student need to know (or receive) from others to accomplish their goal? Who is most likely to have what a student needs, and to have the power, knowledge or ability to provide it for the student? When is it most effective and appropriate to raise an issue? Where is this type of question or need typically addressed? For example, should it be discussed in class or after school? Should it be discussed privately or in public? How should students express themselves in different situations? How much detail and background does the other person need to know? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SELF-ADVOCACY IS BROUGHT INTO THE CLASSROOM? Christine Erikson, a Clarke mainstream teacher of the deaf in the Young Voices program, finds that when classmates are brought into the conversation a community of understanding and advocacy is created. All members of the classroom community are learning and involved in the process of understanding the needs of students that make up the community. Through learning about their hearing loss, management and understanding of equipment, problem solving and repair strategies, students are able to pass on their knowledge to others and advocate for their needs in and out of the classroom. Sources: Stodden, R. A., (2000). "The Study of Postsecondary Educational Supports: A Formative Approach to an Emerging Area of Study." Published in the National Review Forum Briefing Materials. March 9-10, Center for the Study of Postsecondary Education Support, Rehabilitation Research Training Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa. 6 Mainstream News SPRING 2016

7 Pass It On: Teacher to Teacher Don t let all this hard work slip away over the summer break! Make sure self-advocacy continues by creating resources that travel with your student. Here are some ideas: 1. Have your student write a letter or put together a presentation (see below) for their new teacher before the start of the year. Suzanne Raschke, teacher consultant for DHH in Midland County, Michigan, says, I have my students write the information they feel is important for their new teachers to know in terms of what helps them access the curriculum and what their needs are. I really feel they are ready to transition when they are confident in their self-knowledge and self-advocacy. 2. Equipment breakdowns are frustrating. A troubleshooting book can be a helpful resource. The book lists steps the student can take independently before approaching a teacher, is customized according to the age and needs of the student and is updated every year as the student becomes more responsible. Some examples to include would be: synching hearing equipment to the FM system; how to inspect hearing equipment; how to check batteries; how to check for dirt in ear mold; and how to reboot a device. Sample Slides from Student Presentations KIDS CORNER Wil is a sixth-grade student who has a strong interest in helping others learn about hearing loss. This issue s focus is all about creating a school environment where students have the opportunity to speak up for what they need, whether that is in the classroom or on the playground. But, despite all the knowledge and tools that you might have, it can still be difficult to speak up and let someone know that you are having difficulties hearing them. When there is a breakdown in communication, it s important to tell the other people involved. Most of the time they have no idea something is wrong unless you tell them. Wil offers some great advice on a couple of reallife situations that may have already happened to you at your school. Dear Wil, Sometimes my hearing aid batteries die at really bad times, like at recess, on field trips, or even at my friend s house. It makes it hard to be a part of what s happening. What can I do when this happens? My suggestion would be to bring spare batteries with you when you can in case this happens. I bring extra batteries to keep in the locker room during my basketball games. If you get caught without an extra battery and your hearing aid or implant battery dies just make sure that you let your friends know and ask someone to repeat information for you. The pass-around microphone for my FM system is broken. I really depend on it for some of my classes, especially when kids are reading aloud. How can I make sure I still get all of the information in class? Wow, that must be really hard. My suggestion would be to have the teachers repeat short pieces of information (like kids questions or answers to problems). If it s reading from a textbook you could have someone tell you what paragraphs to read and read them on your own. You could also try asking the teacher to do the reading through the FM until the pass-around microphone comes back. Most teachers will probably do this for you. You could always ask your speech teacher or teacher of the deaf to help you talk to your teachers if you re nervous. Do you or your students have questions for Wil? Please send them to mainstream@clarkeschools.org. Clarke Mainstream Services. All rights reserved. 7

8 45 Round Hill Road Northampton, MA Clarke Mainstream Services Program provides professional support through consulting and itinerant teaching services to students with hearing loss, their families and schools. Mainstream Services is a program of Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. Clarke teaches children who are deaf or hard of hearing to listen and talk. Boston Jacksonville New York Northampton Philadelphia clarkeschools.org Mainstream News Mark your calendars! This issue sponsored by Oticon, Inc. 580 Howard Avenue Somerset, NJ pediatrics@oticonusa.com Clarke Mainstream Services' 37th Conference on Mainstreaming Students with Hearing Loss "Speaking Up for Self-Advocacy" OCTOBER 13 & 14, 2016 Marriott Hotel, Springfield, MA This conference offers educational support and information, helping parents and professionals gain the knowledge they need to foster success with the children and teens they work with. We hope you will join us! The second day of the conference features the 14th annual "Making Connections!" program designed for students with hearing loss who currently attend a mainstream school in grades Adults who are deaf or hard of hearing design and facilitate the program and serve as role models to the students who attend. Visit clarkeschools.org/mainstreamconference for more information.