Classroom learning is challenging for me.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Individualized Educational Plan (IEP)
I lived in the United States until I was seven years old. I benefited greatly from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that says that every child with disabilities has the right to an education. I also benefited from having an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) from when I was born until I was around five years old.
All IEPs are different. Mine provided specially trained speech therapists and professionals who teach deaf and hard-of-hearing children in San Francisco Unified School District and the Los Angeles Unified School District to help me to learn to speak properly. Since speech develops when a child hears words spoken, and I am hearing impaired, I am grateful that I was able to have specialists help me in my language development.
Due to my hearing impairment, my classroom teachers in the US usually wore microphones and used sound systems. That would help me hear what was being taught.
I am extremely grateful that, though I am hearing impaired, like most people with microtia / microtia atresia, I was able to learn to speak when I was little with the help of a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). Understanding different types and causes of hearing impairment and deafness can help one understand why kids with different types of hearing impairment can benefit from different teaching approaches.
Sign Language
Although I am able to communicate by talking, I am also learning American Sign Language (ASL). Currently, there is a movement to try to designate ASL as a second language and increase its adoption and usage. That is laudable and important. For some deaf children, ASL is the best (and perhaps only) option for learning and communicating. I strongly support the teaching and embracing of ASL for deaf and hard of hearing children.
I also think that there are multiple teaching approaches that should be supported for deaf and hard of hearing children. Children should be supported in their learning without being forced to learn using one specific method versus another.
Children with disabilities should not be forced
to learn in a way that is not beneficial to them.
Academics Now: Having a Hearing Impairment in Schools Outside of the US
I am a junior in high school now, and I'm in an International Baccalaureate Programme. I enjoy learning and am basically a nerd. I take Higher Level (HL) Chemistry, HL Physics, HL History, Standard Level (SL) Mathematics, SL Language Arts (English) and SL Spanish. I love these subjects, but the learning can be fast, furious and intense.
There tends to be a fair amount of "background noise" in the classroom. People may be talking. A fan or air conditioner may be running. People may be walking around to pass in their papers or go to the restroom. Frequently the teacher walks around and has his or her back to me and is talking to the other side of the classroom. Finally, the teacher may not be talking loudly enough or may not be speaking clearly. For all of these reasons, I have a hard time hearing and understanding what is being taught in the classroom.
Balancing Self-Advocacy and Independent Learning
Every kid is unique and is going to have a different way that he or she learns best. I learned at an early age to advocate for myself. What that meant was communicating with teachers and letting them know that I am hearing impaired.
Currently, I don't live in the US, and so the accommodation I get for my hearing impairment is sitting in the front row.
Although I sit in the front row, sometimes I still can't hear that well, and I don't want to slow down the class by making the teacher repeat everything. I've learned that some teachers get annoyed when I ask for clarification, and the last thing I want to be doing is annoying the teacher.
Note that some of these challenges that I face might not exist if I were in a US classroom. Due to the existence of IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans), it might be easier for deaf or hearing impaired students to learn in the US than outside the US, as there is legally-mandated support for students with disabilities in the US - but that is not the case in many other countries.
On the one hand, I want to advocate for myself and ask for help in ways that are easy for teachers and the school to accommodate. On the other hand, I want to be culturally sensitive, don't want to slow down the class and/or annoy teachers. Also, so long as I am learning, I do not want to distract from the class's overall learning. I try to strike a balance between self advocacy for classroom learning and independent learning.
There is a good research paper (cited under "Resources") that is worth taking a look at. In the experiment, 12 children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and 12 controls were spoken to, and (not shockingly), the group with UHL performed lower on various tests that required the students to listen and understand what was being taught in a classroom. The students with UHL also reported having difficulty hearing, too.
Self-Help Strategies for Learning
Since I was twelve years old, I learned to read the textbook in advance of class. I also do a lot of outside research, looking up YouTube videos on the topic that is going to be taught and reading related material online. I also do all of my homework in advance of the class. Having a grasp of the subject matter in advance of the class makes it a lot easier for me to figure out what the teacher is saying during class. The class serves mainly to reinforce what I already learned on my own. While this may seem like a lot of work, I actually think that it's a good habit - even if you don't have microtia.
Other than sitting in the front row and asking that the volume be turned up in listening comprehension tests, I do not request any accommodations for taking tests or exams in school or outside of school (e.g., standardised tests like the SAT or academic competitions like Olympiads).
I never ask for extra time. I would not have extra time in any of the professions that I would likely pursue, so I don't want to get accustomed to having extra time while I'm in school. If anything, I think that, by virtue of the types of jobs I might want to have in the future, I need to be able to process information and think clearly faster than anyone else - instantaneously - and that is what I try to train myself for.
I'm not saying this is what everyone with a disability should do. What I have learned is that everyone learns differently. Everyone needs to learn in the way that is effective and that makes sense for himself or herself - and for his or her goals in life.
This happens to work for me.