Understanding How The Student With A Hearing Loss Can Succeed In Your Music Class Maureen Butler Lake Drive School mbutler@mtlakes.org
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hings have changed considerably in the twenty-one years that I’ve been teaching music to students with a hearing loss. Advances in technology and the growth of the auditory/verbal approach, accompanied by the increasing desire of families to have children educated in their home district, are among the factors that have strongly impacted the world of deaf education. Twenty years ago, most of my students wore analog hearing aids and used sign language, and only a handful were fitted with a cochlear implant. Today, we see children with digital hearing aids, some with bilateral cochlear implants (one on each ear), and some with one implant and one hearing aid (bimodal stimulation). Additionally, the students may or may not use sign language to communicate. Music teachers have been feeling the impact of these trends, and are seeing a growing number of students with the latest hearing technology in their classes. For example, you may have been asked to wear FM transmitters that send your spoken voice directly to students’ assistive devices, and you may have noticed different external devices being worn by some of your students. But you may have questions about how everything works and how we can ensure that our music classes are as accessible as possible to our students. Understanding Different Degrees Of Hearing Loss In general, people who have a mild or moderate hearing loss are typically labeled hard of hearing. They most likely will have hearing aids that, together with their own residual hearing, give them access to most of the sounds heard throughout the day. Children who have severe to profound hearing loss have historically been classified
as deaf. Most babies born with this degree of hearing loss are now being surgically fitted with cochlear implants. Understanding Terminology What’s the difference between deaf and hearing-impaired? You might have used both these terms, and depending on with whom you are speaking, you could be right or wrong. For example, the term hearing-impaired, when first used, seemed to be a sensitive and “politically correct” term when it came into use. However, because it focuses on impairment, on something that is “not right,” it is not the preferred terminology. Members of the Deaf community (note the capital D) have a strong sense of Deaf culture. United by a language (sign language), social beliefs, traditions, history, arts, and shared experiences, people who are Deaf do not see their inability to hear as a disability, but rather as an identity in which to take pride. Conversely, many parents want their babies to get cochlear implants and become part of the hearing world, so they may not want to label them as deaf. Then again, other families (interestingly, most deaf children are born to hearing parents) combine the best of both worlds and give their children the benefits of Deaf culture and the latest cochlear implant technology. As you can see, the terms used reflect the perspective of who is using them. When you interact with your students and their families, follow their lead when deciding what terminology to use. Understanding The Technology The newest digital hearing aids represent a significant improvement over the older analog hearing aids, since they can filter out certain frequencies and amplify oth-
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ers. Additionally, they can be programmed for various listening environments and to focus on sounds from a particular direction. Through the years, I’ve noticed a big change in the abilities of my students who wear hearing aids as they develop musical listening skills. Cochlear implant (CI) devices consist of both internal and external components. You’ve probably seen the speech processor
It’s important to remember that hearing aids and cochlear implants do not correct hearing in the same way that eyeglasses correct vision.
that is worn behind the ear; it receives and digitizes sound into coded signals. The parts you cannot see are those that have been implanted surgically. The implant, embedded under the skin behind the ear, receives FM radio signals transmitted from the speech processor. It in turn delivers those signals to the electrode array that has been inserted in the cochlea. The auditory nerve fibers are then stimulated and send the aural information to the brain. FM transmitters help students get greater access to your voice. The student wears an FM “boot” attached to their hearing aid or cochlear implant. The transmitter itself can be clipped to your belt or waistband, or hung around your neck, and is connected by a wire to a small lapel microphone. In this way your voice is amplified above the other sounds in the classroom that might make it difficult for your students to hear you. The transmitter may be synchronized with a “pass-around” microJANUARY 2016
