1. I read the article about deafness and hearing loss.

I remember I watched one video clip

about deaf society, and after watching the video I realized that people with deafness and
hearing loss are not able to hear, but they develop other abilities that make up for their
hearing loss. I think as an educator, it is also important how we can help children with
deafness or hearing loss. Educators need to have a high expectation toward those children
and find the ways that can help them to take advantage of their other strengths. From the
article, when a child has a hearing loss, it requires immediate attentions since language and
communication skills develop rapidly in early childhood, especially before the age of 3. That
is why it is important to find their disability as soon as possible. The sooner they get services,
the better they will turn out.
2. I also read the article about how to teach students who are hard of hearing. While I was
reading some teaching tips for those students, I realized that many of them are meant to
help ELS students as well. For example, teachers should not speak while writing on the
blackboard or teachers face the class and speak naturally at a moderate pace. English is
my second language and I have benefited a lot from the teachers who use those tips so I
know that ELS children will also benefit from the teachers who use those strategies. Also,
when there is a student with hearing loss, classmates are required to learn some ways of
helping children with hearing loss fully participate in the class. For example, when they do
group activities, they can point out who is speaking in group discussions or they can show
their note taking so that children with hearing loss can catch up with what they have missed.
3. Children with Auditory Processing Disorders, also referred to as Central Auditory Processing
Disorders, struggle to process and make meaning of sounds. They dont have a hearing
impairment but they have problem with understanding the sounds of spoken language, not
the meaning of whats being said. There are several accommodations to help those children.
Seating children with APD in the front of the room and away from distractions can help them
focus, and closing doors and windows minimized outside noise can help them as well. As a
teacher, it is very important to understand the different disabilities because without knowledge
about APD, children with APD can be misunderstood since they dont have hearing
impairment.
4. I wondered how children with visual impairment learn since I personally am a very visual
learner so it was hard to imagine someone learning without visual input. According to the
article, hands are a primary information-gathering tool for children with visual impairments
along with the senses of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Since children with visual impairment
cannot capture the whole of an object immediately, they need to work from the details up to
build an understanding of the whole. Basically, instead of using vision to learn, they use all the
other senses to explore the world. This fact got me thinking about how we teach children
without visual impairment. I think we should offer children more opportunities to use and
develop their different senses other than vision. When children are encouraged to use various
senses when they grow, they will be more likely to turn out better learners who can fully use
their five senses.
5. Children with autism may have a dysfunctional sensory system, which may be the underlying
reason for such behaviors as rocking, spinning, and hand-flapping. The thing I learned from the
reading is that sensory integration focuses on three basic senses-tactile, vestibular, and
proprioceptive. We have one child with autism in our preschool lab and he often wanted to
chew something, press against wall and carry something heavy. At first, since I didnt know
about proprioceptive sensory integration, I didnt know how to properly help him. However,
after I learned about it from my peers and the professor and also read the article about it, now
I feel more confident to help children with sensory integration issues. One thing I should
remember is that anytime the child reacts negatively to the input, the activity should be
stopped since there is no one solution even between children with the same disability.