Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

The terms, "deaf" and "hard of hearing" both denote hearing loss; the term "deaf" signifies a more severe degree of hearing loss. Although the word is used inconsistently, "deafness" usually denotes "the inability to hear and understand any speech".

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing vary widely in terms of the cause and the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset of hearing loss, educational background, language and communication methods, and how individual members within the community feel about their hearing loss. Some deaf or hard of hearing students prefer to identify themselves as members of a linguistic and cultural minority group, while others may identify themselves as students with a disability. The ways in which students identify themselves reflect and shape their educational and communication experiences although for some, there are conflicts between the two. Across the United States, several languages and communication forms are used commonly by students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Speech reading has generally been viewed as a way to other forms of communication. Even for individuals who are deaf and fully proficient in English, speech reading can be difficult and tiring. Only about 40 percent of sounds are visible on the lips, and some letters are phonetically very similar (e.g. 'p', 'b' and 'm'), requiring a certain amount of guesswork. New or unfamiliar words are difficult to lip read, and sudden changes of topic can be difficult to follow. Still, most audiologists recommend that people of all ages who have any degree of hearing loss learn how to lip read as a supplementary communication method.

Total communication is a philosophy that advocates for signs being used in conjunction with speech. Children are exposed to sign language, speech reading, oral speech, body language, and the use of amplification. This approach is considered to create a "least restrictive" learning environment for the child, who is considered then free to develop his or her own communication preferences. In contrast, other people believe that the total communication approach can prevent children who are deaf from developing fluency in either English or ASL because they focus exclusively on neither.

The bilingual-bicultural educational approach is modeled after programs for English language learners. The philosophy of these programs is that children should develop communicative competency in two languages through a solid base of instruction in their first language. For deaf or hard of hearing students in the United States this means developing language at a young age in ASL so that skills learned in ASL can later transfer to the learning of English. At the same time, students are taught to be comfortable functioning in both the deaf or hard of hearing and the hearing communities. To those ends, bilingual-bicultural programs teach parents and caregivers ASL so that adults can give children the maximum amount of comprehensible input and foster cognitive development that is needed for literacy. However, bilingual-bicultural education is a relatively new phenomenon, and limited numbers of students are being educated through this model.

Use of residual hearing and cochlear implants. Many students with hearing impairments have some residual hearing and use hearing devices to communicate. These individuals focus on improving their access to sound and the development of several sound-related skills through speech therapy, speech reading, and cued speech. Literacy skills are partially developed through analysis of sound .Cochlear implants, which are relatively new technology that have only been in widespread use since the 1990s, are surgically placed in the inner ear where sounds are converted to neural signals. The implant receives signals from an external device which stimulates electrodes in the cochlea. Geers concluded that the effectiveness of cochlear implants is related to the age of the individual at onset of deafness, the residual hearing before the implant, and a child's learning environment. Children with cochlear implants who were born with severe to profound hearing loss are not as likely to achieve the kind of proficiency in spoken language as their hearing peers , but can focus on developing skills that enable them to take full advantage of the sound they are able to access.

Although cochlear implants have been effective for both adults and children, controversy remains in the deaf community whether implants are appropriate for all deaf children. On the one hand, for those in favor of cochlear implants, they give children access to education and social contacts in the hearing community. Those opposed to cochlear implants, on the other hand, worry that children with implants may be at risk of negative health-related side effects, and could be excluded from receiving other traditional accommodations and services in school.