Common difficulties

Being Deaf or Hard of Hearing in school can be extremely challenging, especially when there is not enough awareness or knowledge about Deafness in the school curriculum. No matter what year or school you are in, there will always be difficulties for both teachers and students. Some of the challenges students face include:

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES

Communication barriers are the biggest problem in schools. Many Deaf or Hard of Hearing students rely on lip reading, Auslan (sign language), and/or interpreters, which makes many classroom activities difficult, especially when teachers have little knowledge of Deafness.

Some of the things that make it difficult for students are:

• Turning away when they are talking (such as writing on the whiteboard or going to a certain point)

• Fast discussions make it hard for the student and interpreter to keep up.

• Group discussions are hard, as it can be hard to keep track of who is talking and when.

• Deaf or Hard of Hearing students at a younger age may have smaller vocabularies and lower English proficiency levels. This isn’t because they are not intelligent—it’s simply because they have had less exposure to English and to hearing other people

Communication barriers in schools have a significant impact on the experiences of deaf or hard-of-hearing people. It makes it hard for them to:

• Create and maintain friendships throughout the years.

• Join in on conversations.

This leads to them feeling:

• Isolated and sad

• Feeling left out and separate from their peers

• Isolated 

• Excluded from class conversations 

This means that they can miss out on chunks of information at a time, not because they can't hear, but because of limited access to information.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT BARRIERS

Deaf or Hard of Hearing students may experience delays in receiving information, especially if it needs to be:

• Interpreted

• Captioned

• Transcribed later

Deaf and Hard of Hearing people might also delay in getting information because their brains did not develop as quickly as they should, as they were not exposed to hearing and conversation from a young age. This makes understanding and communicating very difficult. Some of the students may have to do multiple things at once, such as:

• Watching an interpreter

• Watching the teacher

• Watching the slideshow/video

• And take notes

You can’t expect a student to do all of these at one time, as well as trying twice as hard to hear as a hearing person; you just have to slow down and take things slowly.

Being in a classroom can be very noisy, as there may be excitement, confusion, and just people talking, gossiping, and possibly catching up. But these things make it hard for a Deaf or hard-of-hearing student to participate in conversations. Background noise and poor acoustics make it even harder for people with hearing devices than for those with normal hearing. Some of the things that make it hard are:

• Poor lighting

• Obstructed view of the interpreter or teacher

• Seating positions

• Ideally, only one person should be talking at a time, but classrooms are often very noisy and fast-paced.

All of these factors make classroom learning difficult.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL IMPACTS

Being Deaf or Hard of Hearing can cause anxiety and stress, and often leads to feelings of isolation. Because of this, Deaf or Hard of Hearing students may:

• Avoid speaking in class due to communication anxiety.

• Struggle to keep up in fast-paced conversations.

• If their speech is affected, they may feel very self-conscious.

As a result, this can lead to reduced participation in class, regardless of whether they understand what’s going on.

Communication barriers in schools have a significant impact on the experiences of deaf or hard-of-hearing people. It makes it hard for them to:

• Create and maintain friendships throughout the years.

• Join in on conversations.

This leads to them feeling:

• Isolated and sad

• Feeling left out and separate from their peers