Presentation Handout- Sensory Disabilities

Kara Gudmundsen, Sarah Cook, and Chelsea Pratt

Hearing Loss
Communicating Effectively:
Educators use simple techniques in the classroom to make learning easier, such as buddy
systems and providing context and repetition.
Auditory Approach:
-Binaural hearing aids
-Acoustically tuned earmolds
-FM Units
Oral Approach:
-Using amplified sound and residual hearing
-Encourages the individual to speak and be spoken to
-Emphasises a need for people with a hearing loss to function in the hearing world
Manual Approach:
-The use of signs to teach children who are deaf to communicate, commonly using
American Sign Language (ASL)
Total Communication:
-A communication approach that uses elements from oral, manual, and other techniques
-Simultaneous use of both sign and speech

Vision Loss
The term vision loss includes the individuals who have never experienced sight, those
who had normal vision prior to becoming partially blind, and those who experienced a gradual or
sudden loss of sight.
Hyperopia (Farsightedness):
Individual can clearly visualize objects at a distance but cannot see them close range.
Myopia (Nearsightedness):
Individual can clearly visualize objects close up, but not at a distance.
Astigmatism:
Individual sees unclear, distorted visual images.
Cataracts:
Lense of an individual's eye becomes opaque, resulting in severely distorted vision or
total
blindness.

Tips for the General Education Classroom Teacher:

1. outline schoolwork on paper or the whiteboard so the student with a hearing loss
can see it
2. remember that students with hearing loss dont always know how words fit
together to make understandable sentences
3. Help students develop skills by always writing in complete sentences
4. have the student with a hearing loss sit where he or she can see the rest of the
class as easily as possible
5. collaborate with specialists in hearing or vision loss and other school personnel to
help students adapt to subject matter in your classroom
6. become aware of the needs of students with a hearing or vision loss in your
classroom and with the resources available for them
7. use diagrams, graphs, and visual representations whenever possible when
presenting new concepts to a student with a hearing loss
8. maintain positive and ongoing contact with the family
9. encourage peer support, an effective tool for learning, in the classroom setting
10. help the student with a hearing or vision loss become involved in extracurricular
high school activities