Everybody Counts Curriculum GuideSecond Grade

Hearing Impaired Objectives

1. To Increase students’ understanding of people who are hearing impaired, including their feelings goals and frustrations, and to reduce anxieties which may be present during encounters with people who are hearing impaired.

2. To explore the causes and understand the range of hearing impairment.3. To identify the problems that people who are hearing impaired have in communication and to

explore manual communication and the limitations of lip reading.4. To present and reinforce the idea that all people, including the disabled, have the same social

needs and feelings.

Materials (Supplied to you, on the day of the program, by the PTA)

1. 24 Empty one-gallon milk jugs just made out of thin plastic.2. CD player (a real cd player and not just an MP3 player or computer)3. High school musical CD or other song with a lot of base.4. Large rubber band5. Hearing aides6. Picture of Hearing Aides7. Picture of Cochlear Implant8. Picture of FM System9. Poster of Five Senses10.Diagram of the Ear11.Posters of children12.Manual alphabet cards spelling each child’s name.13.Manual alphabet sheets to cut and paste.14.Seven paper signs of ear parts on yarn necklace.

Suggested Time Allowances (50 minutes total)

15 Introduction 24 3 Group Activities (8 minutes per group)10 Conclusion

Helpful Suggestions

Be prepared

1

Introduction

Give a voiceless “hello” statement. Begin by saying, “Hello boys and girls, my name is _______ and I am here to present the Everybody Counts program to you. Today we are going to talk about people who have trouble hearing.” Halfway through the introduction stop talking and start “mouthing words.” Briefly discuss with the children that they have just had the opportunity to experience what it would be like to have a hearing problem. Explain that a person who is hearing impaired would have to carefully watch the movement of the lips of any person who is speaking.

Give a brief overview of the topics that will be covered.

1. Understanding the ways that all people have similarities and differences.2. Information about causes and degree of hearing impairment.3. An opportunity to see hearing aides, discuss lip reading and learn some sign language.

Ask the children to look at the poster of a child. How is he/she the same as we are? “Cues: a person, has feelings, likes good things to eat, wants friends, and sometimes is sad.”

How is she/he different from you? (Cues: eye color, hair color, size, fingerprint, age)

Add a hearing aid to the child’s picture. Now, ask the children how is the child in the picture different then they are. Stress that the child is still the same happy child with the same likes, dislikes, and feelings. The only difference is that he/she needs a hearing aid because there is a problem with the way he/she hears. Children who experience difficulty with their hearing have the same happy, surprised or sad feelings as you.

The Five Senses

Explain that hearing is only one of our five senses. Show the children the poster illustrating the five senses. This helps make it clearer to second graders.

2

How Do We Hear

What Is Sound?

In order for us to hear anything, there must be a sound for us to hear. We hear many different sounds, but they all have one thing in common. They are caused by a back and forth movement called a vibration. Stretch a large, fat rubber band between the thumbs of your hands. Stretch it 10-12 inches and then reach up with your fingers and pluck (snap) it. The children can hear the sound and also see the vibration of the rubber band. These vibrations or rapid back and forth movements travel through the air. When they reach our ears, we hear the sound.

Milk Jug Experiment

Pass out a milk jug to each child. Tell the kids to hold the milk jugs between their hands and they should tell you when something happens. Use the radio provided. Play Track 2 from High School Musical “Getcha Head in the Game”. The kid’s eyes will light up when they realize what is happening. The kids will feel the music in the jug. Tell the kids that those are the sound waves traveling from the radio, through the air, hitting the milk jug and making it move. When deaf children have a school dance, they have someone up front signing the words to the song and then they can feel the beat and the music.

The Ear

Show the class the large drawing of the ear. Point out the three main parts of the ear; outer, middle and inner. Ask the children to notice the ear drum and the three small bones commonly referred to as hammer, anvil and stirrup. Explain that most of the hearing problems are caused from damage to parts of the ear that we cannot see. Sound must travel in the outer ear and continue on to the inner ear for a person to hear. If there is any problem along the way, hearing may be impaired.

Line up 7 children and tell them that they will all be parts of the ear. Give each child a paper sign necklace. Line the children up in the order of the ear.

Outer Ear Ear Canal Eardrum Hammer Anvil Stirrup Inner Ear

Have the outer ear squeeze a code message (ex. too short squeezes) into the Ear Canals hand and have the code travel through the parts of the ear. Did the correct message make it to the Inner Ear? Now take out a

3

part of the ear by having the child take two steps back. Try sending a message again. If any part of the ear is not working, the message cannot get through.

Causes of Hearing Impairment

Very briefly explain the following terms appropriate for the age level:

1. Congenital malformation of middle or inner ear. (I.e. part of the ear did not develop or form properly before birth.)

2. Prenatal disease of mother (i.e. Rubella or German measles may effect the baby before birth)3. An illness can lead to severer inner ear infection which causes hearing loss. Examples would be

whooping cough, scarlet fever, pneumonia or encephalitis.4. Accidents such as severe blow to the heard.5. Environmental noise or prolonged exposure to very loud noise. One example would be loud industrial

noises. Rock concert stars may develop hearing loss and artillery soldiers may be subject to temporary or permanent hearing loss. Some people where ear plugs while working in areas of intense noise. People who listen to MP3 or CD players may suffer hearing loss if the volume is set too high and used over a prolonged time.

Types of Hearing Loss

We will discuss two types of hearing loss:

1. Loudness--Conductive hearing loss—Sounds are not loud enough for the person to understand. Increasing the volume helps. For example, if you are listening to music, but it is being played very quietly, it is hard to hear. However, once you increase the volume, you can hear the music clearly. This is similar to conductive hearing loss in that it can be helped by increasing the volume.

2. Clarity—Nerve deafness—Sounds are not clear. Increasing volume does not help. For example, if you are listening to the radio, but the station is not tuned in clearly, it might be difficult to hear the music. In this case, turning up the volume does not make the music clearer. In order to hear the music clearly, you need to remove the static and adjust the tuning. In some cases of hearing loss, the difficulty is one of clarity, not just volume.

4

Group 1 Hearing Aides

FM Systems

An FM system is a type of microphone worn by the teacher to transmit via FM radio waves to a receiver that is worn by the student. The receiver looks like a small box and can be clipped to the student’s belt. Younger students may wear it in a chest pack. The teacher has a microphone that either clips on his/her clothing or hangs on a loop around the neck.

There is a type of FM system that is a personal hearing aide without an additional receiver or box that is worn by a person. Some older kids like this because it doesn’t show, but it doesn’t have a great range and can be a problem for younger children, as they may not realize they are getting out of range on areas like the playground or on a field trip.

Explain this to the children, in simple terms.

FM systems consist of a microphone, a transmitter (or mic-transmitter combination), a receiver along with some way to bring the sound to the ear

Hearing Aides

Unlike an FM system that only amplifies what is happening by the teacher’s microphone, a hearing aide amplifies everything around the wearer. Let the children examine the hearing aides and explain that the ear mold fits the owner’s ear. Some of the kids may have had ear plugs made for swimming and will know how the molds are made. Show the children the battery compartment on the hearing aide. Explain that the aide takes special small batteries that only last 2 to 3 weeks. Children with hearing aides keep extra batteries at school. One problem with hearing aides is that they get rather

5

uncomfortable in the ear and some people have problems with irritation in the ear canal. This irritation can hurt and feels similar to swimmer’s ear. As a child grows he/she will need a new ear mold to maintain a proper fit in an attempt to avoid irritation.

Cochlear Implants

For people who can not be helped by a FM System or high-powered hearing aides because they are totally deaf, there is the cochlear implant. This device is surgically implanted inside the ear to skip the damaged portion of the ear. A portion of the cochlear implant is worn outside the ear and looks similar to a hearing aide with an extra clip. Like the hearing aid, it allows the wearer to hear sounds around them, but instead of making sound louder, it converts the sound to electric impulses that the brain can interpret as sound. It is like a bionic ear.

external sound processor (A) and coil (B) and an internal implant (C)

6

Group 2 Lip Reading

Many factors influence the success of lip reading.

1. Mood of speaker can be detected. This helps the person who is hearing impaired understand the meaning of conversation. “Mouth” sentence and have the children guess the emotion of the speaker. Example: using appropriate facial expressions, “mouth” the sentence, “You make me so angry when you hit your sister!”

2. Initial word sound gives information. It is important to know the first sound or letter of a word. If you miss that, you won’t know the word. People who lip read must try to understand the beginning letter of each word. Mouth a few consonant sounds. One at a time, “p”, “b”, “m”,”l”. Let the children try to identify the letters.

3. It is difficult to lip-read when lip movement is similar for several words.

Silently mouth words as examples to children.

Words that are fairly easy to differentiate:

Man-slam

Boy-toy

Pat-cat

Words that are more difficult for the lip reader:

Kick-lick

Stay-lay

Quick-quiet

All of these factors make it difficult to gather information in a running conversation. Other problems occur when the speaker turns his head, talks very quickly, or moves his hand in front of his mouth.

Example: give a voiceless 2 or 3 sentence dialogue on any subject. While talking, turn your head, itch your nose, talk quickly and move your head up and down.

Summary

Remind the children to look directly at someone who is hearing impaired when speaking to him. They should make an effort to speak clearly and to keep their hands and objects away from their mouth. Remind students that it may also be difficult to understand the speech of a person who is hearing impaired. Since a person with a hearing impairment can not hear, the exact sounds of words and letters of the alphabet, it is difficult for them to learn to talk. They can not hear “mistakes” if they do not pronounce a word correctly.

7

Group 3 Sign Language

Explain to the children that the signs are actually “pictures” describing a word. Many are very obvious if you really take the time to observe them.

Show each of the following signs and ask the children to guess the words.

Baby Sleep Book

House Tree Cow

Say the following words and ask the children what they think the sign might be.

Car Telephone

Butterfly

Boat

Children are able to remember them very easily and enjoy trying to communicate with their friends in sign language.

Pass out sign language books and let the kids find words to show the group.

8

Conclusion – Manual Alphabet

Pass out the copies of the manual alphabet and each child’s individual name card. You learned many signs for different words. Well, there are also signs for each letter, so you can spell any word. Now you will each learn how to sign your own name. The students will cut and paste the letters from the manual alphabet, to the corresponding written letters in their name, on their name strip.

G I L L I E

Conclusion Continued

Kids who are hearing impaired may use an aide to hear or speak with sign language. They also may be difficult to understand and may go to speech therapy. But, they are just kids like you and want friends and to have fun. Remember that hearing impaired people still have the same “inside feelings”.

9