Hearing And Visual Impairment
Abstract
Today Instructors are charged with the duty and responsibility of teaching a diverse group of students. With some students having visual impairments and others affected by hearing impairments that not only have an impact on their developmental achievement but also on their academic achievement, it has become increasingly important that instructors arm themselves with a good understanding of the nature of these impairments.
Introduction
In order to come up with good educational plans to accommodate even those with visual as well as hearing impairments, educators have variously being called upon to familiarize themselves with the types, degrees and causes of various impairments.In this text, I look at the impact visual as well as hearing impairments on an individual’s development as well as academic achievement. I also describe how humans hear and see and discuss the legal and educational definition of both visual and hearing. Lastly, I come up with a lesson plan for a fictitious student having a visual impairment.
A description of how humans hear
Hearing is a process that involves the conversion of sound waves to neural signals after which the brain translates them into sounds (Heward 2009). Once they reach the middle ear from the ear canal, they trigger the vibration of the ear drum which triggers yet another set of vibrations in the middle ear bones. This is a reflex proceed that transmits the sound waves into the inner ear where the cochlea converts the sound waves into signals which the auditory nerve transmits to the brain.
A description of how humans see
The human eye is one complicated organ. It comprises of a cornea which basically helps the eye to focus. Behind the cornea is the iris which has a flexible round opening referred to as the pupil. The pupil is designed to either contract or expand in relation to the amount of light the eye is exposed to.A structure referred to as the crystalline lens which is situated behind the pupil is surrounded by some muscles known as ciliary muscles. These muscles are central to vision. The expansion as well as contraction of these muscles flatten or pull the lenses allowing the eye to focus on things. To see things from a distance, the ciliary muscles contract causing the lens to thicken (Gates 2007).Once light passes through the lens, it passes through the vitreous humor, a jelly like tissue and strikes the retina which is made up of several layers of light sensitive cells. It is these layers of light sensitive cells which include rods and cones that convert light into an electric signal for transmission to the brain via the optical nerve. The images we see are a translation of these electric signals by the brain.
Definition of visual and hearing impairment
Legally, hearing impairment is defined as the gradual of full decrease in an individual’s ability to understand or detect sounds (Heward 2009). The educational definition of hearing impairment according to IDEA is “a fluctuating or permanent impairment in hearing that has the ability to affect the3 educational performance of a kid.” There exist several types of hearing impairments. Some of the most common include conducive and sensorineural impairments. With regards to conducive hearing impairment, it is caused by an infection which causes an obstruction in the outer or middle or outer ear. It ranges from mild to moderate. Sensorineural hearing impairment is as caused by damaged sensory hair cells. It can also be triggered by damaged nerves in the inner ear.Legally, visual impairment is defined as “the partial or gradual reduction in an individual’s ability to see that cannot be reversed and that interferes with an individual’s ability to perform normal functions“(Holbrook et al. 2000). Academically, visual impairment is a serious and severe reduction in an individual’s ability to see that is irreversible and which if not considered in the class setting can result to a drop in academic performance (Heward 2009).A number of conditions can cause visual impairment. Some of these causes include visual field as well as ocular motor impairment. A reduction in the visual field means one cannot be able to see the average area a person with normal eyesight can see without tilting the head. The degree of this varies but a visual field of less than 20% is legally considered as blindness. Ocular motor impairment is as a result of difficulties in the motor control of the eye.
Lesson plan
Name of visually impaired student: Stephanie Miller
Grade of student: 2
Disability of the student: partial sight
Age of the student: 7 years old
Her strengths: Stephanie has a highly analytical mind and she is very good in mathematics. She easily solves math problems. She is also gifted in identification of isolated letters (enlarged) and follows directions with ease.
Her weaknesses: Stephanie experiences some difficulty in comprehension reading. In is good to note here that though Stephanie wants to learn Braille, her mother is indifferent with regard to this arrangement claiming it end up isolating Stephanie from the rest of the class.
Goals: the main objective here will be to come up with words where the students will be expected to list down a given number of words by engaging in letter manipulation. Examples include it, is, bet, bets, get, gets, kid, kids, kit, sit, site etc.
The materials and modifications required: I will require a board with a white background, a number of differently colored individual letters, a paper, adhesive as well as a number of pencilsFor the visually impaired student, I can incorporate adaptive materials. I can also get enlarged letters to ensure they are comfortable.The strategy in brief: using a variety of letters, I will write on the board and introduce a long word to the students. Using these letters I will instruct the students to come up with several words as I guide them. This will be designed in such a way that I will reveal the mystery word at the very end.The strategy in detail: once I write the letters on the board, I will give students time to observe them. I will then allocate individual lettersets to the students. For the visually impaired student, I will allocate an enlarged set of letters.
Using these letters, each student will be expected to come up with a variety of words. For every word I will offer a clue. For example for I may come up with the sentence “I live __ a house.”I can then look for a student with a correctly written word and request him or her to write it on the board. I will ensure the process lasts by varying the number of letters in a given word by simply incorporating additional letters in the word or deducting letters to come up with a new word. It is also very important to ensure that students remember that for proper nouns, they have to start with a capital letter availed to them. The child with the correct word and whom I will also select to go write the word on the board will also be reminded to capitalize proper nouns.At the very end, I will ask if anyone has identified our mystery word just before I cue the very last word. Any child who has come up with the mystery word will be clapped for by the class and requested to write it on the board. If no student has identified the mystery word by now, I will give out a hint to ease its identification. For example, I can say “the __ kept barking at me. But once it identified me it swung its tail excitedly.”
With all the words on the board, I will ask the students to help me spell them aloud. I will avail a personalized list that’s enlarged to the visually impaired student.
Activities: I will consider referring the students to a site that is particularly interactive. One such site thatprovides students with clues to unscramble letters from puzzles sourced from a wide variety of children’s books include; http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/wordwizard/
Assessment: in this lesson, assessment will be ongoing and it will include checking if the students have the words spelt correctly etc. as the lesson progresses, I will ensure that I ask the visually impaired student from time to time whether if he needs any kind of assistance.
Conclusion
It is important to note that a good understanding of the visual as well as hearing impairment is crucial for maximizing the performance of students with these impairments. A good understanding of the workings of the human ear as well as eye function helps the instructor to effect modifications beneficial to these students
References
Heward, W.L (2009). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education, 9thEdition. Pearson Education, Inc.
Gates, B. (2007). Learning disabilities: toward inclusion 5th Edition. Elsevier Health Sciences
Holbrook, M.C., Koenig, A.J. (2000). Foundations of Education: History and theory of teaching children and youths with visual impairments 2nd Edition. American Foundation for the Blind
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