Strategies to Address Educational Needs of Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the educational needs of students with hearing impairments, for this group has unique learning needs especially in relation to language acquisition. Throughout the course of history there have been two dominant approaches to deaf education, oral (speech) and manual (sign language). Despite conflicting opinions between medical professionals and educators in the field of Deaf education, current research suggests that flexibility and an openness to utilise a combination according to the individual needs of the students is the best approach to forming language proficiency. This paper will use these findings to suggest a holistic range of effective management strategies for educators, which target the physical, academic, social, emotional and communicative wellbeing of deaf students.