Identify & assess students with hearing loss, and provide them with an appropriate support program & instruction to maximize the student’s learning potential.
Provide the student with the educational skills and accommodations needed to be successful in the least restrictive environment.
Recommend and monitor auditory equipment.
Facilitate literacy, self-advocacy and independent living skills.
Offer students appropriate access to the education environment.
Any student of school age, residing in Beaver County, is eligible if he/she exhibits one or more of the following:
– Documented hearing loss of 25dB or greater in at least one ear
– Documented academic delay with associated hearing loss
– Documented chronic middle ear infections with associated chronic hearing loss
– Uses a hearing aid (or similar amplification device) or cochlear implant
Students are referred to the program by their school district. A referral form accompanied by a copy of the student’s most current clinical audiogram or failed hearing screening results is required to initiate the referral process. Checklists for referrals and referral forms can be found on the website: www.bviu.org. School nurses will refer students who fail their hearing screening protocols and if hearing loss is found, appropriate referrals to outside agencies and/or further testing at their district will ensue through district personnel.
Eligibility is determined on a case by case basis of students who have a documented hearing loss and are in need of specially designed instruction in order to reach his/her potential. The determination of eligibility for Deaf/Hard of Hearing Support Services is made through a comprehensive assessment by a multi-disciplinary evaluation team. The multidisciplinary assessment MAY include:
– Educational Functional Hearing Assessment
– Questionnaires and Observations of Classroom Teachers
– Observation and Assessment of Listening Environments
– Speech/Language Assessment
– Assessment in any other area thought to be significant in determining the student’s unique needs
An Educational Functional Hearing Assessment may include the following:
– Audiological Evaluation/Hearing Screening
– Functional Listening Evaluation
– Auditory Skills Assessment
– Speechreading Assessment
– Receptive and Expressive Language Assessment
– *Phonemic Awareness Assessment (typically conducted through Speech Evaluation by a Speech Language Pathologist)
– Reading Assessment
– Observation
– Teacher and Parent Reports
– Review of Audiological and Academic records
The BVIU Audiology/Hard of Hearing Support Program can provide services in a variety of ways. The type of service delivery is based on each child’s individual needs and abilities and the information gathered in the evaluation process.
Service delivery can include any of the following:
Consultative and Monitoring
Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Educational Audiologist may provide consultative services to school district personnel who have a student with a hearing loss in their classrooms. These services may include instruction on accommodations that are necessary in the regular education classroom to ensure that the student with a hearing loss can access the curriculum. These include preferential seating, reduction in background noise, visual presentation of materials, close captioning of TV, DVDs, etc.
Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Educational Audiologist may provide monitoring services for students who do not require direct instruction. Personnel contact the students regular education or learning support teachers periodically throughout the school year with the goal of monitoring the academic progress, social and self-advocacy skills of the student as well as report use, care and maintenance of any hearing assistive technology if applicable.
Itinerant/Direct
Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing provide direct instruction to an individual or a small group of students to support academic areas and to strengthen language, speechreading, auditory and self-advocacy skills as determined by the Individualized Education Program. Support may also be provided in hearing aid orientation and care and maintenance, vocabulary development, reading literacy and writing skills, and test taking and study skills.
Itinerant teachers also monitor the functioning of hearing aids and personal FM amplification devices in the school setting.
The following are state mandated procedures required in the public school program in order to enroll a student into Deaf/Hard of Hearing Support:
1. Permission to Evaluate: This form is generated by the district LEA and sent to parents after a student has been referred by the school district and the Educational Audiologist has reviewed the student’s clinical audiogram and/or audiological history. It gives the Hearing Support Program permission to conduct an evaluation.
2. Documented Hearing Loss: Audiograms from outside audiologists, Children’s Hospital, or BVIU Educational Audiologist must be available and document a 25dB or greater hearing loss in one or both ears.
3. Multidisciplinary Evaluation (MDE)/Evaluation Report (ER): This evaluation and report is completed and signed within 60 calendar days of the Permission to Evaluate form being signed. Each member of the team, which may include the teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, the Speech and Language pathologist, the classroom teacher, the school counselor, the principal, the school psychologist, the district representative (LEA) and the parent, is involved in sharing the following:
Educational, social and physical history
Summary/interpretation of diagnostic assessments
Strengths of the student
Degree of need of the student
Information from the parents about home and from the teacher about the classroom.
4. Invitation to the IEP Meeting: This form is sent by the district LEA to the parents after the ER has been completed and circulated.
5. IEP: A meeting is held and an IEP is developed and reviewed every year or the student is ineligible for an IEP. The IEP provides information on the student’s strengths and needs, and lists both annual goals and short term objectives. The specially designed instruction that will be utilized is also listed. Parental involvement in this process is critical.
6. Notice of Recommended Educational Placement (NOREP): This form gives permission for the student to be placed in Deaf/Hard of Hearing Support.
Personal hearing aids, either traditional or surgically implantable (ie BAHA or Cochlear Implant), are considered to be personal medical devices that are obtained, provided and maintained by the student’s family through the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program, self-pay or private health insurance.
Routine listening checks are performed by the BVIU Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing or Educational Audiologist for students wearing personal hearing aids during scheduled Hearing Support time, as indicated on the IEP. BVIU teachers ensure proper hearing aid function by performing light troubleshooting and informal listening checks of personal hearing aids with use of a listening stethoscope, battery tester and supplies for cleaning of earmolds. Minor repairs may be reported to the BVIU Educational Audiologist for correction. Extensive malfunctions or earmold problems are reported to the parents for repair or replacement through their private insurance and/or Clinical/Dispensing Audiologist.
An electro-acoustic evaluation of personal hearing aids is available, if indicated, by the Educational Audiologist.
The student’s family is responsible for routine replacement of personal hearing aid batteries. Students who qualify for the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program may obtain batteries at a participating pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription. Extra batteries should be available to the student during the school day, if the need arises. It is recommended that parents provide extra batteries to the elementary school nurse and that the expiration date of the batteries should be monitored regularly. Older students who are known to be sufficiently responsible may keep extra batteries with their personal items in school. Caution should be exercised to avoid accidental ingestion of batteries by any student who may come in contact with new or discarded batteries.
For students who use personal hearing assistive technology that attaches to their personal hearing aids, battery responsibility is a “shared” matter in that the school district is asked to purchase half of a school year’s supply of batteries to have on hand at school. The battery replacement at home and on a daily basis remains the responsibility of the family.
Some students use additional Hearing Assistive Technology, such as Personal Frequency or Digitally Modulated Systems or Individual Soundfield Systems during the school day. These devices may be used in addition to a personal hearing aid, but, may also be used in cases when personal amplification has not been recommended for fit. Assistive Listening Devices are provided and maintained by the school district and are monitored by the BVIU Hearing Support Teacher and the BVIU Educational Audiologist. Device needs, such as repairs and replacement of batteries and earmolds, are referred to the BVIU Educational Audiologist on an as needed basis. Each part of the personal assistive technology also receives at least an annual evaluation and repair if indicated.
Large group classroom Soundfield FM systems are provided and maintained by the school district’s building personnel.
In both cases, the school-purchased hearing assistive technology remains at school and does not go home.
Listed below are some recommendations for school district teachers who have a child with a hearing loss in their classes.
• Seat the student optimally within the classroom, where they will gain the most visual information in addition to information delivered via listening from the teacher in their teaching area. Sometimes this is in the front of the room near the teacher. Teachers that are “active” and move around as they teach should be cognizant of the hearing impaired child and their needs.
• Reduce background noise as much as possible. This includes avoiding seating the student near noise-generating devices such as ventilation or technology fans, aquariums, hallways, etc. *For students with on e-sided hearing loss, these noise-generating items should be kept away from the students normally hearing ear.
• Speak naturally – avoid exaggerations.
• Keep hands, books and papers away from your face and ensure speaking mouth is clearly visible for accurate lipreading.
• Face the student at all times when you are speaking. Avoid speaking when writing on the board.
• Gain and/or assure student’s attention before giving assignments or making announcements.
• Stand in one place when giving instructions.
• Don’t ask the student if he/she can “hear”. A child with a hearing loss may be able to hear you speak but may not understand what you are saying.
• Check for understanding frequently, but use open ended questions and not simply yes/no questions.
• Rephrase a question or statement instead of just repeating it.
• Be sure the light is on your face for easier speechreading. And a with your avoid standing with back to a bright light or window.
• Write assignments and any new and unusual words on the chalkboard/whiteboard. It is also helpful for topic changes to also be indicated in writing on the chalkboard/whiteboard.
• Encourage the students in class to face each other during discussions so that the child with a hearing loss may follow what is happening.
• Do not require a student with a hearing loss to complete a worksheet during a video/DVD/television program as the student is not able to watch the program and write at the same time. Instead, allow him to complete the worksheet after the program is finished.
• Avoid giving oral tests to students with hearing loss.
• Remember that the child with a hearing loss may tire easily and appear inattentive because he/she must expend more energy watching and listening to what is being said.
• Become familiar with the proper use of any assistive listening devices used by the student. *Annual InServices will be offered to all new teachers at the beginning of the each new school year.
Contact the Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit Educational Audiologist, Dr. Amy Hartle, AuD, CCC/A (724.728.3730, ext. 4152 or voicemail ext. 4519, Google Voice (call & text) 724.683.8316) if you have questions or concerns.