Hearing Imapried Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hearing Imapried - Essay Example ‘Hard of hearing’ is a term referring to a person who has some degree of hearing loss but is able to function in the hearing and speech modalities either with or without the use of assistive listening devices such as hearing aids. ‘Deaf’, on the other hand, is a term used to refer to people who have a greater degree of hearing loss, use sign language as their primary means of communication, and are in some manner affiliated with the Deaf community. Thus, deafness may be viewed as a condition that prevents an individual from receiving sound in all forms. In contrast, a child with hearing loss can generally respond to auditory stimuli, including speech (â€Å"Deafness†, 2004). Section 504 of IDEA states, â€Å"No otherwise qualified individual with disability in the United States †¦ shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance† (â€Å"Exceptional†, 2007). The problem undertaken in ensuring this law is complied with enters when one begins to look at the various characteristics of hearing loss and deafness and attempts to incorporate alternative learning strategies into the classroom are made. People who are deaf or hard of hearing use one of three main approaches to communicate. These include the oral approach, the manual approach and the total approach. The oral approach makes heavy use of speech and reading skills to communicate with others and generally has a tendency to remain close to the familiar. The manual approach uses sign language only as a means of communicating and is generally used by people who are completely deaf or well integrated into the Deaf community. Total communication refers to the use of a combination of the oral and manual approach to communication, including the use of informal gestures and written or spoken words. Certain