Top Tips for Travel Training with Hearing Impaired Students

Top Tips for Travel Training with Hearing Impaired Students.

1. Awareness of condition

 Most important is to work closely with the teacher for the deaf involved with your student. They will have the clearest understanding of the particular issues involved

 Hearing loss ranges from mild to profound but at all levels will mean some speech sounds are not picked up.

 Hearing loss on only one side affects the ability to know where the sound came from.

2. Hearing aids and Cochlea implants

 Hearing aids improve but don’t replicate normal hearing.

 They are directional, so won’t hear noises behind them.

 They pick up background noise which is then difficult to filter out.

 Cochlear implants are extremely expensive hearing aids that are surgically inserted and are only available to profoundly deaf children

3. Communication

 Learning some basic sign is useful and polite.

 Lip reading is used by most HI students but at best gives them extra clues as to what is being communicated. It is estimated that it is only at best 40% accurate.

Therefore it is important that your face is on a level with theirs, that you are static and well lit for good communication to take place.

 Facial expression, body language and gestures give extra vital clues as to the information being exchanged. 4. Other issues

 Due to developmental delay time is often a difficult concept for deaf students.

 Due to confused sound messages, danger is not always immediately apparent.

 Information about changes to public transport can be easily missed by hearing impaired students.

5. Solutions

 Check lighting is good so that all the visual signals can be picked up.

 Check for clothing such as hoods and similar that cause extra noise in hearing aids and limit sound getting to them.

 Flash cards and information cards are useful for communication. They can be wallet sized to be discreet.

 Apps on mobiles can access travel information and cut out the need for difficult communication issues.

 Pre training and training in a quieter environment can be very valuable. This can include drama which is a good visual way for students to learn.

 Students may need extra help finding the right people to ask for help. They may not have picked up who the safe people are.