Hearing Differences and Technology

This program informs young school children and builds awareness and understanding of hearing, communication, and technology. When elementary and grade school students are introduced to the person behind a disability, they understand that the person is not the disability. They learn that people have different physical attributes and intellectual talents, and that we all have strengths and weaknesses. The program expands students’ perspective of the unique differences of persons with hearing loss and ways a person with a hearing disability can fully participate in society. Students who learn about hearing loss come to understand and accept differences in positive ways.

Hearing Differences and Technology is geared toward aural children who are mainstreamed in the public school. In this program students learn about sound, technology, what it sounds like to have a hearing loss, and what it feels like to live with a hearing loss. Students also learn about the anatomy of the ear, degrees of deafness, communication choices, how language develops, and how to protect hearing. The more students can learn about hearing and hearing differences, the more comfortable and inclusive students may become around deaf and hard of hearing people. This is an extraordinary education for students and most school age children find this subject fascinating.