Evidence‐based practice in educating deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children: teaching to their cognitive strengths and needs

Abstract

This paper examines research findings concerning the loci of the pervasive academic underachievement among deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (DHH) children and issues associated with interventions and instructional methods that could help to reduce or eliminate it. Investigators have hypothesised that at least 50% of the variability in DHH students' achievement may be because of instructional factors, and several studies have indicated that when taught by experienced teachers of the deaf in mixed classrooms, DHH students may gain just as much as their hearing peers. Only recently, however, have findings begun to emerge concerning related language and cognitive differences between DHH and hearing students as well as instructional differences between teachers with and without experience in teaching DHH students. Building on convergent evidence from such studies offers the prospect of a significant improvement in academic outcomes for those children in the future.

Keywords:

• achievement
• deaf children
• deaf education
• cognitive development
• special education

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a report prepared under a contract from the National Council for Special Education (Republic of Ireland) to the Center for Education Research Partnerships (National Technical Institute for the Deaf – Rochester Institute of Technology) and an expanded version of that report published by Spencer and Marschark (2010). Preparation of the paper was supported by grant REC‐0633928 from the National Science Foundation (USA). The views and opinions contained in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Council, NTID, or NSF.

Notes

1. ‘DHH’ is used generically here to refer to all children who qualify for special support services on the basis of hearing status. More broadly, there is no evidence that hearing thresholds predict differences in academic achievement or classroom learning among DHH children or young adults (Convertino et al. 2009; Powers 1999).