Professional Development Course on Catering for Diversity in
English Language Teaching
ENG5315
The Characteristics of Diversity
Session 6
Hearing and visual impairment:
Characteristics and impacts upon language
learning
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
1
Hearing impairment
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
2
Hearing impairment and
deafness


The term ‘hearing impairment’ is a generic
term used to describe all hearing loss that is
severe enough to negatively impact a
student’s education (Cartledge, Gardner, &
Ford, 2009).
Deafness is defined as ‘a hearing
impairment that is so severe that the child is
impaired in processing linguistic information
through hearing, with or without
amplification’ (IDEA, n.d., cited in National
Association of Parents with Children in
Special Education [NAPCSE], 2004-2007).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
3
Types of hearing loss


Conductive
Abnormalities in the middle or outer
ear.
Sensorineural
Hearing loss occurs in the inner ear,
often involving damage to the nerve
fibres.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
4
Degree of hearing loss


Mild
The child hears nearly all speech, but may
mishear if not looking directly at the speaker.
Moderate
The child will have great difficulty in hearing
without a hearing aid anyone speaking who
is not very close by. He or she may well rely
on lip reading and visual cues to aid
understanding.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
5
Degree of hearing loss


Severe
Not able to cope without a hearing aid.
The child needs to use visual cues such as
lip reading and body language to gain
information.
The child’s spoken voice may be
comprehensible.
Profound
The child will probably use a hearing aid but
will rely on visual cues and/or sign
language to communicate.
The child’s own voice may seem
incomprehensible to those not used to it
(East & Evans, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
6
Characteristics of hearing
impairment



Speech and language development show
signs of delay.
The child has trouble following directions
and often looked confused and bewildered
(Boyles & Contadino, 1997).
The child will become tired easily because
of the need to put extra effort into listening
(Brown, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
7
Nature of the problems of
hearing impaired students:
Listening



The hearing impairment interferes with the
child’s ability to imitate speech patterns
(Boyles & Contadino, 1997).
Hearing loss affects the ability to hear
vowels or consonants.
For those with a moderate hearing loss,
effective communication skills are possible
because the voiced sounds of
conversational speech remain audible but
they cannot hear unvoiced sounds
(Gargiulo, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
8
Nature of the problems of
hearing impaired students:
Listening

Other problems:
 There may be some auditory confusions
of some words such as between mouth
and mouse.
 The child would have missed the
consonants that mark tense, possession
and number (Brown, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
9
Nature of the problems of
hearing impaired students:
Speaking




Problems with proper stress
Voice problems
The hearing impairment interferes with the
child’s ability to imitate speech patterns
(Boyles & Contadino, 1997).
In group discussions, the child may not be
able to locate quickly who is talking and the
pace can sometimes be too fast for him or
her to process the information received
(Brown, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
10
Treatment

For most hearing-impaired students, a
hearing aid is a critical element in their
rehabilitation and education.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
11
Strategies to support children
with a hearing loss




The hearing-impaired child should be
seated close to the teacher and away from
background noise.
For children with unilateral loss, establish
which is the child’s better ear and seat them
to the best advantage.
Face the hearing-impaired student when
speaking and be sure that the student is
looking at you.
It is especially important for the teacher to
remember not to talk while facing the board
and not to cover his or her mouth with
papers and/or books when giving
information to the class.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
12
Strategies to support children
with a hearing loss




Provide written instructions.
Write key words, new topics, etc. on the
board.
Speak clearly.
Avoid exaggerating the lip patterns when
speaking in class (Brown, 2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
13
Strategies to support children
with a hearing loss



Rephrase and restate instructions and
direction.
Increase visual information.
Use visual aids when possible (Gargiulo,
2006).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
14
Just for fun!!

Auslan - Signbank
http://www.auslan.org.au/
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
15
Activity

Let’s take a look at the following table:
1
2
3
4
5
1
A
B
C
D
E
2
F
G
H
I
J
3
L
M
N
O
P
4
Q
R
S
T
U
5
V
W
X
Y
Z
Acknowledgement: Dr. John M.G. Lian, Faculty of
Education, The University of Hong Kong
16
Activity

Now, try to translate the following
message:
54 34 45
34 52 15
32 15
34 33 15
14 34 31 31 11 42
Acknowledgement: Dr. John M.G. Lian, Faculty of
Education, The University of Hong Kong
17
Visual impairment
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
18
Definition of visual impairment

The term ‘visual impairment’ is used to
indicate a continuum of loss of sight and
includes blindness.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
19
Categories of visual
impairment


Totally blind
Totally blind means the learner receives no
useful information visually and therefore
must use other senses to acquire
information and learn.
Low vision
Learners with low vision are able to learn
primarily through sight and then enhance
that information through their auditory nad
tactile senses (Cartledge, Gardner, & Ford,
2009).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
20
Characteristics of visual
impairment







Abnormal eye movements
The child may complain that things appear
blurred or words move about on the page
Sensitivity to sunlight or bright light (Boyles
& Contadino, 1997)
Watery eyes
Eye fatigue (Gargiulo, 2006)
Continual blinking or rubbing of eyes
The child holding a book at an unusual
distance
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
21
Characteristics of visual
impairment




Frequent headache or dizziness
Clumsiness, bumping into furniture, etc.
Failure to respond appropriately to gestures
unless addressed directly by name;
inappropriate response to nonverbal
communication
Difficulty in copying from the board,
confusion between similarly shaped letters
or words (East & Evans, 2006)
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
22
Nature of the problems of
visually impaired students:
Speaking


An important aspect for a pupil with visual
impairment is learning such skills as looking
at the person being addressed when the
pupil himself or herself is speaking.
Turn-taking skills in conversation and
discussions, which are helped by visual
clues about body language, may be
unavailable to the pupil with visual
impairment.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
23
Nature of the problems of
visually impaired students:
Reading

Students with visual impairments have
more articulation problems than their
normally sighted peers (Mills, 1983).
The greater articulation problems in
students with low vision than in those totally
blind may be due to the fact that they may
be relying on their vision to imitate the lips
and tongue movements to form words,
while those without sight must rely on
hearing alone (Harley, Truan, & Sanford,
1997).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
24
Nature of the problems of
visually impaired students:
Writing




Handwriting of a pupil with low vision may
be untidy (Farrell, 2006).
The student may space letters unevenly
within words.
The student may appear to ignore the lines
on the page altogether and produce letters
that either are suspended above the line or
fall on or below the line seemingly at
random.
The size of the letters may also vary within
the same word (Harley, Truan, & Sanford,
1997).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
25
Strategies to support visually
impaired children






Use the child’s name to get attention.
Looking at him or her may not be enough.
Allow the child to sit at the front of the class
or near to the board.
Provide the child his or her own copy of the
text where possible.
Allow extra time for finishing tasks.
Short tasks are preferable to long,
sustained sessions.
Because the pupil with impaired vision will
tire more quickly than his or her peer.
Enlarge the text.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
26
Strategies to support visually
impaired children




Avoid italic scripts.
Lower case script is easier to read than
capital letters.
Shorter lines of text are easier to follow
(East & Evans, 2006).
Provide a variety of experiences.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
27
Teaching strategies: Reading

Most children should be able to use
materials for normally seeing children if
enlarged or recorded on cassette tapes
(Harley, Truan, & Sanford, 1997).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
28
Teaching strategies: Writing



Use markers with bolder and darker strokes.
Use wider line paper.
Word processing offers students who are
blind or low visioned an invaluable tool for
improving their writing skills (Harley, Truan,
& Sanford, 1997).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
29
Materials and devices for
children with limited vision

Closed circuit television (CCTV) / Video
magnifier
Books or pictures are placed under a small
camera and can then be enlarged on the
accompanying television screen.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
30
Materials and devices for
children with limited vision


Felt-tip pen
Magnifiers
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
31
Materials and devices for
children with limited vision


Talking computers
Braille
A system of reading that incorporates six
raised dots to form letters, words, and
sentences.
Braille is used by individuals who do not
possess adequate vision to read large print
efficiently.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
32
Materials and devices for
children with limited vision

Braille notetakers
Portable devices that can be used to take
notes in braille (Hallahan & Kauffman,
2003).
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
33
References
Blind Childrens Center. (1993). First steps: A handbook for
teaching young children who are visually impaired. Los
Angeles, Calif.: Blind Childrens Center.
Boyles, N. S., & Contadina, D. (1997). The learning
differences sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House;
Chicago: Contemporary Books.
Brown, W. (2006). How to understand and support children
with hearing difficulties. Cambridge [England]: LDA.
Cartledge, G., Gardner, R., & Ford, D. Y. (2009). Diverse
learners with exceptionalities: Culturally responsive
teaching in the inclusive classroom.
East, V., & Evans, L. (2006). At a glance: A practical guide to
children’s special needs. London; New York: Continuum
International Pub. Group.
Farrell, M. (2006). The effective teacher’s guide to sensory
impairment and physical disability: A practical strategies.
London: Routledge.
Gargiulo, R. M. (2006). Special education in contemporary
society: An introduction to exceptionality. Belmont, Calif.:
Thomson/Wadsworth.
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
34
References
Hallahan, D. P., & Kauffman, J. M. (2003). Exceptional
learners: Introduction to special education. Boston, MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Harley, R. K., Truan, M. B., & Sanford, L. D. (1997).
Communication skills for visually impaired learners:
Braille, print, and listening skills for students who are
visually impaired. Springfield, ill.: C.C. Thomas.
Harrington, J. D. (1976). The integration of deaf children and
youth through educational strategies. Why? When? How?
Highlights, 53, 8-18.
Haynes, W. O., Moran, M. J., & Pindzola, R. H. (2006).
Communication disorders in the classroom: An
introduction for professionals in school settings. Sudbury,
Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Miller, O. (1996). Supporting children with visual impairment
in mainstream schools. London: Franklin Watts.
National Association of Parents with Children in Special
Education. (2004-2007). Exceptional children and
disability information. Retrieved April 3, 2008, from
http://www.napcse.org/
Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English,
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
35