Hearing+impairment+&+hearing+loss+support

=The Shepherd Centre - //Support for children who are deaf or have a hearing impairment//=

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//"The Shepherd Centre teaches deaf and hearing impaired children how to listen and speak so that they can reach their full potential in the hearing world" .// (quoted from the Shepherd Centre website: [|www.shepherdcentre.com.au], 2011).=====

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The centre mainly works with children during their formative years of speech and language development (0-5 years old) and prepares children for their transition into school, aiming for mainstream inclusion for the majority of the children.===== It relies mainly on donations to operate.

**//What services does the centre provide?//**
The Shepherd centre has several Programmes:

This Programme focuses on Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) and hearing technology to help teach children how to listen and speak.
 * =====﻿EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAMME=====

A support Programme in relation to cochlear implants, in collaboration with Sydney Children's Hospital
 * COCHLEAR IMPLANT PROGRAMME ("FIRST SOUNDS")

An intensive, week long workshop which is designed for families who live overseas or in remote areas. It includes ongoing correspondence support.
 * RESIDENTIAL WORKSHOP PROGRAMME

The support provided by the organisation includes assessments, regular sessions to attend for the families, Individual planning and documentation and reviewing of progress, weekly organised playgroups and parent information meetings with a variety of topics (eg scool readiness, behaviour management, etc).

//How can this service be used?//
This is a valuable specialised centre to access for the early childhood (Pre- schooling) community, and can be used by families with concerns about their child's hearing. It provides expert advice,assessment and support to the family, and could provide useful information to childcare educators in relation to how best support and work with the child in preparation for school.

More information, including contact details of the various centres can be found on: [|www.shepherdcentre.com.au]

(Ref: [|www.shepherdcentre.com.au])

The website for **The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training** (ADCET) describes the organisation as providing “information and resources to support the work of disability practitioners in the postsecondary education and training sector.”

I have found a fact sheet on their website: Teaching & Assessment Strategies for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Students
The fact sheet has very clear information regarding:


 * The range of hearing impairments
 * How the learning process of students with hearing loss can be affected
 * Teaching Strategies
 * Assessment Strategies

Once having read the document, I believe a clear understanding of teaching strategies to assist hearing impaired students is created.

The following link will take you directly to the fact sheet:

=== // Teaching & Assessment Strategies for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Students //. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training website: [|**http://www.adcet.edu.au/**] ===

= = =__ Department of Education- Tasmania __=

This website is an excellent resource teachers can use in their classrooms. By having this website handy, teachers who may have students with a hearing impairment in the classroom have a great range of strategies on hand. This website is based on the Tasmanian curriculum and is used by many educators to help with the education of their students. The strategies listed on the website range from everyday strategies to more specific strategies for more specific problems. For example:


 * Everyday strategies:**
 * Face the student, and be at eye level if possible
 * Dont shout- sound gets distorted,
 * use visual prompts
 * Dont cover your mouth
 * Whole class discussions should be done in a circle

This website also looks at strategies you can do as a whole class, Student to Student, Teacher to Student, to help foster independence, social Inclusion & any special education differences.

This website is a great resource for teachers to use to try out a range of strategies until they find the ones that best suit their students. I would use this website to gain background knowledge on your students impairment in order to get the best for them as an individual.

[|Department of education on Hearing impairments]

O'Halloran, K. (2002). Tasmanian Curriculum: Strategies for working with children who have a hearing impairment. Retrieved on July 18, 2011 from []


 * SIGNED STORIES**

Unfortunately students with a significant hearing impairment can often be excluded from active and interesting literacy lessons due to lack of resources available to the teacher. Signed Stories is a FREE website that uses British Sign Language (BSL) to sign the story as it's being read. It is a visual, print, text and sign resource all in one.The website has designed and produced a large variety of popular children's stories that are read and signed at the same time. The variety of books can be accessed through particular themes (such as fairy tales) or through particular age groups (such as baby/toddler), however, many of the stories found on Signed Stories are commonly used or seen within school classrooms and libraries. The Signed Stories website also provides teachers with useful resources and information that will assist them in the planning and preparation of their lessons and literacy content so as to effectively involved all students. I would use and recommend using this website as a basis for many literacy lessons for various grades and ages.

N.B: The signed language used in Signed Stories is British Sign Language (BSL), however, it is a very similar (not exactly the same) to the Aulsan sign language used in Australia. I would advise checking with both the student and the student's parents prior to use to determine whether BSL is appropriate and understandable for the student with the hearing impairment.

ITV SignPost. (2008). //Signed Stories//. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from itv: http://www.signedstories.com/index.cfm