Examples of Overall Difficulties

• Short attention span and/or struggle to pay attention

• Appear to have poor listening skills

• Difficulty carrying out long or multi-step directions

• Often need more time to process information presented orally

• Exhibit behavior problems

• Behave as if they have a hearing loss

• Respond to speech inconsistently

• Frequently request repetition of verbal information

• Often misunderstand what is said

• Difficulty locating sounds

• Difficulty making out the teacher’s voice against the background noise from other students such as shuffling papers, opening notebooks, or making other noises

• Low academic performance

• Difficulty remembering information such as directions, lists, or study materials

• Difficulty learning a foreign language

• Difficulty understanding directions in lunchroom, hallway, and playground

• Difficulty in work group when more than one person is talkin

Overall Strategies

• Teach the student strategies to compensate for the auditory deficit such as taping class lectures, how to ask for repetition, and how to use visual cues (look and listen)

• Teach listening skills, including when to listen for meaning rather than exact repetition

• Teach methods to enhance auditory comprehension and memory: (e.g., chunking, verbal chaining, mnemonics, rehearsal, paraphrasing, summarizing)

• Teach the student to wait until instructions are completed before he/she begins a task

• Teach key words and phrases

• Counsel toward self-advocacy for listening, including recognition of adverse listening conditions and methods of dealing with them

• Teach noise tolerance skills

Accommodations

• Reduce background noise and reverberation

• Allow the student to move to a seat near the speaker

• Give “alert” cues such as calling the student’s name, saying "Listen” and “Are you ready?” or another prearranged signal before giving information or assignments

• Have the student paraphrase directions or summarize major points of the lesson

• Use a slower speaking rate

• Insert pauses to allow the student to catch-up

• Use consistent visual aides and cues

• Rephrase and restate important information to provide auditory redundancy

• Build in “wait time” and give the student time to think and respond to auditory instructions or questions

• Avoid or modify oral tests

• Limit the amount of information in each instruction by using key words and phrases

• Present only one or two tasks or directions at one time

• Provide an overview of the “big picture” by sharing the goal of each lesson

• Allow a “buddy system” that the student can use to check on homework assignments or other instructions

• Reserve a space in the room to post procedures, assignments, and homework and teach students to refer to this spot

• Consider the use of recording devices for students who need a repetition of directions, spelling words, or lectures

• Provide pre-printed or skeletal lecture notes or outlines to minimize the need to listen and write or take notes

• Highlight important information using colored highlighters

• Color code folders, types of assignments, etc.

• Avoid expressions from foreign languages