Deafness And Music: Can Vibration Be Used When Playing Music Together?

Performing music or singing together provides people with great pleasure. But if you are deaf (or hard of hearing) it is not always possible to listen to other musicians while trying to sing or play an instrument. It can be particularly difficult to perceive different musical pitches with a hearing aid or other hearing-assistance device. However, the human body can transmit musical sounds to the brain when vibrations are applied to the skin. In other words, we can feel music. Our research has identified a safe way for deaf people to hear musical notes through the skin of their hands and feet. We have shown that vibration allows people to safely feel music on the skin. This approach allows people to identify a musical note as being higher or lower in pitch than other notes, and it helps musicians to play music together.

Early Intervention to Preschool Transition for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing: A TEAM Approach

Parents, teachers, and administrators report concerns and challenges related to the transition from early intervention (EI) to preschool for children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing. The goal of the current article is to assist teachers, administrators, and specialists involved in the transition of a young child who is deaf/hard-of-hearing from EI into preschool. The TEAM approach involves Transition planning, establishing an Educational team, determining and providing appropriate Accommodations, and Making connections for continued success. Although the TEAM approach may apply to all young children transitioning, the focus of this article is on addressing the unique needs of this particular population. Recommendations and resources are provided.

Examining Fatigue for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Through Universal Design for Learning

In current educational contexts, Deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students are being educated in inclusive classrooms. However, academic and social outcomes for these bilingual or multilingual students remain highly variable indicating that meeting the needs for students who are D/HH continues to be challenging for many educators. Many D/HH students are reporting high levels of fatigue throughout their school day. To ensure the diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students are being met, a more flexible approach needs to be considered to address barriers described by D/HH students. As such, the authors use the Universal Design for Learning framework to discuss fatigue for students who are D/HH in inclusive contexts, particularly those who are bilingual/multilingual.

Wholistic Planning and Literacy Assessment for Bi/Multilingual and Bi/Multicultural DHH Students

This chapter presents Hornberger's *continua of biliteracy as a comprehensive and wholistic examination of diverse deaf and hard-of-hearing students' multilingual and multicultural abilities. The continua consist of four domains—development, content, media, and contexts—through which biliteracy is acquired. The continua are described then applied to three diverse immigrant DHH students and their families who are from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Chile. This results in unique insights into the students' current skill development and future needs including attainment of a positive dual minority identity and optimal academic skills. The final section utilizes the continua with a miscue analysis of an African American eighth grader. Miscue analysis provided a naturalistic, language-neutral means of assessing reading skills and identified a number of strengths not previously observed. This combination of tools more thoroughly examines the positive and negative influences on diverse DHH students with sensitive and insightful approaches for optimizing their educational experiences.

Demystifying Deafness

Most deaf children in the United States are not educated in specialized schools for the deaf but in public schools. This has had a detrimental effect on these students because many public-school teachers misunderstand deafness and are unable to adjust their teaching strategies to address the needs of this population. The mission of this chapter is to educate teachers on deafness and how to better teach and relate to a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. Specifically, this chapter will provide pertinent information for helping teachers better understand deaf and hard-of-hearing students as well as provide evidence-based practices and teaching tips that can be utilized in the classroom with this group.

Deaf Culture in Inclusive Schools

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the culture of students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing within the broader context of inclusive schools, specifically as demonstrated though their learning experiences, socialization, and identity issues in such an environment. The chapter will include qualitative data in the form of observations and in-depth student interviews to allow the reader insight into the shared cultural model of students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing. The goal is to provide a holistic picture of cultural phenomena through the points of view of d/Deaf and hard of hearing students themselves. The description of the culture of this group of students may prove useful in shaping effective inclusive environments for students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing.

Inclusion and Exclusion

In this chapter, the authors explore the practice of inclusion as it relates to the education of deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) students. Using the current situation in Jamaica as a microcosm, it is argued that for this specific population of students it may be necessary to reframe and redefine the notion of inclusion more broadly. For example, the authors argue that as a result of the specific cultural, linguistic, and academic needs of d/hh students, a more traditional approach to inclusion may in fact result in isolation and less access to content and skills. Inclusion that considers how deaf education classrooms may include accessible language, the Deaf community, families of d/hh children, and Deaf role models may be more appropriate for this population.

Family-Centered Intervention for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners

This chapter explores principles of family-centered listening and spoken language (LSL) intervention, research, and best practices for children who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) using multiple spoken languages and their families. Children with any degree/type of hearing loss who are in environments where multiple languages are spoken are referred to as deaf multilingual learners (DMLs). The language landscape for these children is varied. Some DMLs acquire a first language (L1) at home and are exposed to subsequent spoken languages in school or community settings; others are born into families where multiple languages are spoken from the beginning. While the chapter focuses on a framework of family-centered intervention applied to language development for DMLs whose families have selected LSL outcomes, the principles discussed broadly apply to DMLs using varied language(s) or modality(ies). Through analysis of best practices for interventionists and case studies, readers will understand bi/multilingual spoken language development for children who are DHH.