Hearing and Visual ImpairmentsBy: Katie Park and Megan Wagner

What is a Hearing Impairment?As defined by IDEA: •“an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.”

•Deafness is defined as “a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification.”

•12,000 babies in the US are born each year with a hearing loss•Profound deafness occurs in 4-11 per10,000 children

• (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010).

Types of Hearing Impairments• Conductive hearing losses• Sensorineural hearing losses• Mixed hearing loss• Central hearing loss

• Sound is measured by:• Intensity/Loudness • Pitch/Frequency

• Hearing loss and deafness can be:• Acquired- occurred after birth• Congenital- present at birth

Characteristics • Does not respond consistently to sounds or

to his/her name• Asks for things to be repeated consistently• Delay in developing speech • Turns the volume up unnecessarily loud

Treatment Options:

• Depending on what is causing the hearing impairment, a doctor can: • Remove dirt, wax/treat an infection• Damage or structural problem with inner ear (eardrum)

can be fixed with surgery• Hearing aid- amplifies sound• Cochlear implant-send sounds directly to the auditory

nerve

Accomodations/ModificationsHearing loss or deafness does not affect a person’s

intellectual capacity or ability to learn, however, special education services are typically needed :

• Regular speech, language, and auditory training from a specialist

• Instruction for the teacher and peers• Assistance of a note taker• Amplification systems• Captioned videos• Favorable seating in the classroom• An interpreter for those who need sign language• http://www.myparentlinks.com/Resources_For_Families.html

MedicationsThere are no medications that can improve or fix

someone’s ability to hear

Interesting Researchhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehw2geAe9dw

What is a Visual Impairment?• How IDEA defines a Visual Impairment: “…means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.”Approximately 11.4 million Americans are blind or visually impaired, according to the World Health Organization.

Types of Visual Impairments• Legal blindness: A level of visual impairment that has been defined

by law to determine eligibility for benefits. It refers to central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the best possible correction, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less.

• Glaucoma Disease: Which the pressure of the fluid inside the eye is too high, resulting in a loss of peripheral vision. If the condition is not diagnosed and treated, the increased pressure can damage the optic nerve and eventually lead to blindness.

• Cataract: A condition in which the lens of the eye, which is normally clear, becomes cloudy or opaque. Cataracts generally form slowly and without pain. They can affect one or both eyes. Over time, a cataract may interfere with vision, causing images to appear blurred or fuzzy and colors to seem faded. Most cataracts are related to aging.

• Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP): Condition associated with premature birth, in which the growth of normal blood vessels in the retina stops, and abnormal blood vessels develop.

Common signs that a child may have a visually impairment:• Eyes that don’t move together when following an object or a face• Crossed eyes, eyes that turn out or in, eyes that flutter from side

to side or up and down, or eyes that do not seem to focus• Eyes that bulge, dance, or bounce in rapid rhythmic movements• Pupils that are unequal in size or that appear white instead of

black• Repeated shutting or covering of one eye • Unusual degree of clumsiness, such as frequent bumping into

things or knocking things over• Frequent squinting, blinking, eye-rubbing, or face crunching,

especially when there’s no bright light present• Sitting too close to the TV or holding toys and books too close to

the face• Avoiding tasks and activities that require good vision

Treatment Options:• Antibiotics or antiviral drugs to help treat infections• Corrective lenses (glasses) or contact lenses.• Patch therapy• Surgery to remove cataracts• Laser surgery or cryotherapy (freezing) for retinopathy• Occupational therapy• Vision aids• Orientation and mobility training (O&M) which helps your child learn such

things as:• sensory awareness: gaining information about the world through

hearing, smell, touch• spatial concepts: realizing that objects exist even if not heard or felt, and

understanding the relationships which exist between objects in the environment• searching skills: locating items or places efficiently• independent movement: which includes crawling, rolling, and walking.

Classroom Accommodations/Modifications • screen magnification or reading software• text to speech software• Voice recognition software• Provide notes, handouts, assignments and other printed

material by audiotape, in Braille, or with magnified print and enhanced images;

• Carefully describe important visual occurrences of learning activities

• Verbally spell any new or technical words. This will help not only the student with visual impairments, but also other students

• Use real objects for three-dimensional representations when possible

Accommodations/Modifications Continued..• Allow the student to use a tape recorder for recording

lectures, class discussions, and presentations• Clearly present assignments and their goals to students

during review time• Review assignment instructions orally• Flexible time on exams and assignments• •Alternative testing such as oral tests Audio book• Flexible seating (i.e. in front of the class or by the board)• •Breaking lessons into smaller pieces• •Brailed lesson materials• •One-on-one assistance (help from paraprofessional)• •Note-taking support Assistive technology

The I-pad Helping Visually Impaired Read• http://

www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-03-07/iPads-helping-visually-impaired-read

Hunter

Hunter’s Diagnoses• Septo-Optic Dysplasia: A disorder of early brain

development. *Occurs in 1 in10,000 newborns*

-Cause unknown. Most likely a combination of genes and environmental factors.- 3 Characteristics:1. Underdevelopment of optic nerve2. Abnormal formation of structures along midline of brain. (Left hand)3. Pituitary hypoplasia

• Hypopituitarism: Pituitary gland doesn’t produce normal amounts of some or all hormones. (Medication & Growth Hormone Shot)

School Environment

• Testing: Teacher reads the test verbally to Hunter

• In regular classroom for Science, and Social Studies

• Physical Education: Stays with class, but has adaptive PE teacher

• Pulled out: Reading and Math-Braille

• Swimming• Spelling: Same list as class,

but Hunter has to know how to spell each word how to spell it in regular braille, and then contracted braille.

Activities• Drums• Piano• Guitar• Miracle League• Horseback Riding• Singing the National

Anthem: Loggers Game, Freedom Fest, and Onalaska Fireworks

• Outdoors/ Boating• Recording• Sounds

Questions

*What are three accommodations a teacher could use in their classroom for a visually impaired student?

*What are two signs that indicate a student might have a hearing impairment?

• http://www.who.int/feature/factfiles/deafness/08_en.html

• http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment#types

• http://www.news-medical.net/news/2004/11/01/5943.aspx

• http://www.afb.org/default.aspx• http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/hearingloss

RESOURCES