Week 3

Educational placement for students with hearing loss has been a long debate.  What are your thoughts about educating students within the “mainstream” versus in a centralized program/school?

There are definite pros and cons to both of these educational options.  I think mainstream is great, because it introduces the child to the larger hearing world, and hopefully they become confident and more than proficient in their interactions with hearing individuals.  A centralized program is good, because the deaf and hard of hearing students are around other similar individuals (with a hearing loss).  I think this, in itself, can give the child confidence—to have friends with that are like them (particularly with communication modality).  I’m not sure I could say I prefer one over the other or that one is “better” than another.  I think that really depends on the individual child and family, and their preferences and goals.    

How do you plan to take data?  Will you take data every day vs. once in a while?  When is it important to take data?

This is a hard question!  I think I would like to take data whenever possible, but I think daily is improbable.  It really depends on the type of class—if I’m in a one-on-one situation with a child, I think it will be much easier to remember how (s)he does on the different goals/activities.  If I have a classroom with multiple children, I think I would have to focus on one child at a time, or review it by video (which I imagine is not possible in many places).  I know that during the practicum in the MSU DHH preschool, I often had to watch the videos to keep accurate data on the students.  I think it’s important to take data on students at the beginning and end of each new goal or objective—that way you have a baseline and an ending result, showing the student’s growth.  How data is taken will likely depend on the age and ability of the student (particularly in reading and writing).  The more advanced the student is in reading and writing, and the older the student is, the more data can be collected from written samples/assignments.  For younger students, or those with less reading/writing skills, I think a lot of data will need to be collected from spoken/signed communications with the students (which the teacher will record in written form), and from interactions with the student (i.e. how (s)he follows directions, etc.).