We are certainly living in a crazy time, experiencing things we could never have imagined. Living in the time of a pandemic has created obstacles and caused challenges for all of us. We all need new ways of thinking and going about our daily lives. For our students with hearing loss, learning challenges in the mainstream classroom are not something new, but this is a whole new world!
While not something that the average person even thinks about, it makes sense that mask wearing would cause difficulty for people with hearing loss who don’t have the ability to read lips. But, there are many other obstacles that this pandemic has created for our children with hearing loss in the schools. It is critical that the current school programming be carefully examined to ensure that our students with hearing loss continue to have the auditory access that they need to succeed. This means that the current IEP or 504 accommodations are likely not enough.
Not all schools or districts across the country have put into place the same plans for back to school in this pandemic, so it is not possible to include all of the scenarios. However, we do know that some schools are completely virtual learning, others are hybrid (which means something different everywhere), and others are full in-person learning.
In Person Learning
Over the past decade, classroom learning has become more cooperative and student directed. However, in-class learning looks different now than it did this time last year. Students are distanced (hopefully at least six feet apart), wearing masks, and there is less group work. Teachers are needing to “lecture” more, taking us back to the old way of doing things. Two positives have come from my initial observations in the mainstream. First, less group work is often easier on students with hearing loss, as they do not need to listen and communicate with peers in a noisy classroom environment. Another positive that I have seen is a result of the new classroom set up. WIthin the classroom, students are spread apart AND wearing masks, making it more difficult to hear comments and questions from peers within the classroom. However, I can say that in many classes, teachers are having difficulty hearing student comments as well. Thus, they are automatically asking students to repeat what they have said louder, and are then repeating or rephrasing because they are aware that it is difficult to hear. In the past, this was something that I needed to train teachers to do for the students with hearing loss in their classes. Now, it is something that seems to come more naturally, because they are fully aware of the difficulty themselves. As for some of the issues, let’s first talk about masks. Masks do not allow the ability to see the mouths of the people speaking and those with hearing loss often rely on these cues to enhance their hearing. Masks with clear windows have been created to alleviate this problem. While these masks are a great idea, not all are created equally. The plastic used does make it more difficult for the wearer to breathe, and I have heard complaints from teachers. In addition, often, the masks become fogged, making them not as beneficial anyway. One trick that I have learned that helps, is placing dish soap on a tissue and wiping it on the inside of the clear plastic part, then using a dry tissue to wipe off any excess. This trick has worked for most of the clear masks that I have tried. While social distancing is the best way to decrease the spread of the virus, listening in a distanced classroom, to both the teacher and students, is more difficult. Even with preferential seating close to the teacher, the student is still at least 6 feet away now, making it more difficult to hear than before. Speech acoustics tells us that the speech signal loses 6 decibels of volume as distance doubles, and we are now putting the students at a further distance from the teacher. In my experience some teachers are even teaching from their desks, so that they are at less risk. Our students with hearing loss, even with preferential seating likely will not be able to hear their teachers as they usually do. For the student who never had Hearing Assistive Technology (soundfield or personal), it may be necessary now and should be considered.
Virtual Learning
Virtual learning is when the students are at home and learning via the computer. Virtual learning can take many different forms, depending on the district. There is both asynchronous and synchronous learning. Asynchronous learning does not require real-time interaction. The teacher posts content for students to access when it best fits their schedules and then assignments are due when posted. This material can be pre-recorded video content, reading assignments, worksheets, etc… Asynchronous online learning allows the student to access the materials and work at their own pace. For written materials, auditory access is not required and in general the student with hearing loss is not at an auditory disadvantage. For videos and other media related materials, thought needs to be put into ensuring auditory access. One positive is that the student is working at his/her own pace. Thus, he/she is able to adjust the volume and rewind and listen again to something that might have been missed. Also, some materials are already captioned and allow the student to turn on captioning for additional support. Another thing to consider is that for those students learning from home, there are often siblings or parents who are also learning/working from home. Thus, it is critical that the student with hearing loss have a quiet space where he/she does not have to be concerned with auditory distractions. As children with hearing loss often do not do well with headphones, use of Hearing Assistive Technology (FM/DM/Remote Mic) patched to the computer may also help with giving the student a better auditory signal. Synchronous learning happens at the same time for the instructor and the students, meaning that there is real-time interaction between them. This is usually done via Google Meet or Zoom. Google Meet, while not perfect, does have automatic captioning that can be easily turned on by the student. While Zoom does allow for captioning, a captionist must be assigned to caption live during the class or the school district must pay for a service to provide remote captioning. With either platform, my experience is that the connection is not always great, creating a poor auditory signal.
Hybrid Learning
Hybrid learning seems as if it would be just a mix of the above, but it takes on many different forms in different districts around the country. In many school districts, hybrid models include teachers simultaneously teaching students live in the classroom and those at home via a webcam. This poses its own issues, as teachers are sometimes focused more on those students who are live in the classroom. Thus, they might not see the facial cues from the student with hearing loss at home demonstrating that he or she didn’t hear or understand something. It also might be a longer time before the teacher notices that the student with hearing loss at home is raising his/her hand to ask a question and instead continues on with the material. While many students had synchronous sessions in the spring when schools first closed down, the teachers are now wearing masks. This can make it more difficult to hear/understand them, and additionally, lip reading cues are no longer available. For the student at home learning via webcam, hearing peers who are at school (who already speak softly) is also a challenge because their voices are not picked up by the teacher’s microphone. It’s important for the teacher to repeat/rephrase peer comments and questions.
Final Thoughts
So what can we learn from all of the above, this is a whole new world and what worked last year might not work this year. I ended every meeting that I had with teachers at the start of the year for my students with… “We don’t know how this is going to go. It is a work in progress. Even the student can’t predict how he/she will hear under these circumstances, as learning with a mask, or zooming with masks has never happened before. The best thing to do is check in often with the student and encourage him/her to advocate and let you know what is and is not working.