EDUCATION SETTINGS
Residential School
Residential schools are provided to allow children with hearing loss to be
surrounded with others like them while offering adequate faculty, staff, and facilities.
In this setting, the child usually remains at the school during the week and is able to go
home on the weekends. A residential school often has the benefits of offering
recreational, cultural, and athletic activities in which deaf children can interact with
other children and adults with hearing loss in a non-handicapping environment.
Click HERE to see a list of schools for the deaf in the United States.
Special Day School
There are schools in some urban areas which have been especially created
for children with hearing loss. Children may attend these schools and be placed in
appropriate classrooms according to age, hearing level, and learning ability. Day schools
have the benefits of children living at their own homes, on-campus hearing-aid repair, and
more efficient audiological and psychological services than at schools with a smaller
number of children with hearing loss. The schools are often funded by non-profit
organizations.
Special Class at Regular School
This setting offers the economy of a regular public school while allowing
children with hearing loss to remain in a self-contained classroom. The benefits of
self-contained classrooms are children with hearing loss are placed with other children
with similar needs. They are still able to interact with children with normal hearing
during some non-academic classes such as recess, P.E., and art or afterschool activities.
Mainstreaming
A child may be either partially or completely mainstreamed. When a child
with hearing loss is able to function at grade level in a particular subject, he/she may
wish to be placed in a classroom of students with normal hearing. In this situation, the
child with hearing loss is offered additional educational support such as a note-taker or
an interpreter. Mainstreaming may be seen as an advantage for reducing the handicap of
hearing loss by allowing the child to function among peers who have normal hearing.
Try contacting the following agencies in your area to initiate intervention: