Culture of Deaf Students (Essay Sample)

Culture of Deaf Students
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Culture of Deaf Students
The deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) learners have unique needs that sometimes are not adequately met by the educational curriculum. From data collected by Clerc Center for the period between spring of 2010 and winter of 2011, 85 per cent of 775 research respondents attested to having worked with DHH children (Szymanski, Lutz, Shahan, & Gala, 2013, p. 1, line 17). This, therefore, means that the DHH population forms a major demographic category thus should be given due consideration in all matters concerning the community, education included. The educational curriculum should be designed such as to sufficiently meet their specific needs to facilitate quality learning. This paper discusses how the culture of the DHH affects the curriculum.
The standard curriculum is designed with teaching-learning taking place to large extent through the spoken word. Teachers mainly give instruction through the spoken word which is inaccessible for many DHH children even with developments in assistive technology (Humphries, et al., 2014, p. 1, line 11-13). The curriculum needs to be adjusted to include more of other modes of learning such as learning by doing to ensure that DHH learners become more engaged in the learning process. It has been proven that learning takes place best when the learner is actively involved. The DHH learners need to have access to communication modalities in the educational setting and beyond. Hearing aids, cued speech, cochlear implants, sign language, oral interpreting, and other ways of facilitating communication should be incorporated into the learning process extensively (Szymanski, Lutz, Shahan, & Gala, 2013, p. 4, line 14-21). The learners will in this way be actively engaged in the learning process. Assistive technology can also be used to enhance access to information in the classroom.
Language development is a critical matter in cognitive abilities of DHH learners. Before the age of five, children must be exposed to an accessible language on a frequent and regular basis to facilitate their development of full language competence (Humphries, et al., 2014, p.2, line 2-5). Deprivation of language leads to various cognitive deficits since language is the mode of transfer of information. The curriculum should for this purpose, introduce sign language in the educational curriculum from an early stage; preferably before five years of age. In so doing, the learners become proficient in a language that they will have to use for their entire learning lives.
The educational curriculum guides the learning instructor on the expectations to have during teaching-learning process. For the DHH, the expectations cannot be expected to be similar to those for hearing learners. The mode of giving instruction is different, but the outcomes are similar. The outcomes notwithstanding, the process as guided by the curriculum is different. Often, educators set low expectations for this cadre of learners forgetting that their only challenge is in hearing and not cognition (Szymanski, Lutz, Shahan, & Gala, 2013, p. 3, line 44-49). Hearing challenges should not compromise education quality. The DHH learners should be provided with the tools and opportunities to encourage successful achievement.
An important factor to consider in improving learning outcomes for...