Unfortunately, deaf children often have a disadvantage when it comes to education. Unless they attend a school that is only for deaf children, it can be difficult for them to keep up in an educational environment that is geared toward children that can hear. So, how do we improve this education system for them?
What is the Project to Improve Deaf Children’s Education?
In South Africa, there is a project that was created to raise money for the Phonak Roger digital learning system to be installed in classrooms. With this system in place, deaf children are able to hear clearly, allowing them to learn at the same pace as other students.
This system works by streaming the teacher’s voice directly to each deaf student’s hearing devices, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. The sound will come through clear, allowing these students to improve their speech understanding skills. By donating to this project, more schools will be able to give deaf students the equal education that they need.
How Can We Help?
To help with this project, all you have to do is donate and spread the word. The more people that know about these ways of helping deaf children, the easier it will be to address their education needs. Even if you cannot afford to donate, you can still make others aware that this learning system exists. More schools should be open to using this type of device in their classrooms, so spread the word to hopefully make it possible.
What Other Ways Can We Improve Their Education?
This project is just one way to improve the education of deaf children, but there are lots of other ways to help out. There are ways that we can help them without even needing to raise a lot of money. Currently, many deaf students need interpreters by their side to help them follow along in a class full of hearing kids, but this is not always the best option. This is because not only do interpreters need to be hired, but they also can take away from that child’s classroom experience. With an interpreter constantly following them around, they may feel out of place and not get to be as independent as they wish.
In order for teachers to make learning easier for deaf kids, they need to emphasize visual learning. They should take extra time to show their classes how to do projects and assignments instead of verbally explaining things. Therefore, even if the deaf students are having a hard time following what the teacher is saying, they can still see what they’re doing which is greatly beneficial to them.
Also, sign language should be used as a more common lesson. Schools should offer some sign language classes along with their foreign language courses. Even though picking up a new language is difficult, if more people at least learned some basic signs, then they would be able to better communicate with deaf students. Teachers should also take the time to learn some basic signs too.
Conclusion
While the Phonak Roger digital learning system is definitely one way to help deaf students in the classroom, there are many other simple ways that those around them can help to make their education experience even easier.
Deaf students usually have to make compromises to allow hearing people to understand them, so why shouldn’t hearing people have to ever compromise for deaf students? Deaf and hearing students should meet in the middle so that all students and teachers can learn to communicate more effectively.
