Self Advocacy for the Mainstreamed Deaf and Hard of Hearing Student using Power Point
Itinerant Teachers are guilty of enabling our students. We claim to teach advocacy skills, but then we go ahead and are the ones who meet with regular classroom teacher to explain a child’s needs. We make beautiful handouts, attend team meetings, and do all the talking. I have discovered a way to truly have students advocate for themselves. Not only do the students learn an important skill; the mainstream teachers follow through better.
For the most part, Itinerants work with their students year after year. The process of creating a presentation can be done at any time. I typically visit the presentations in the late winter, early springtime. This coordinates well with many annual reviews and decisions for placement for the following year. The students and I discuss their hearing loss, amplification needs, and modifications they need in the classroom. We then begin to create our Power Point Presentation.
Depending on the age of the child and their computer skills will dictate how much of the presentation they are able to create on their own. Even if they can’t manage the program themselves, I am able to show them the different backgrounds, sound effects and transitions they can choose from. After I do a few, the children quickly pick up on how to add all the special effects and colors. I’ve had students as young as first grade work on their presentations.
When the presentation is complete and it includes all the information the student wants to share, we set up a time to present to the teacher they will have next year. Many times the student will actually present twice. The first time will be for the teachers themselves; the second would be to their whole class.
Two things have happened since I began creating Power Point presentations with my students. First, the kids have ownership for their classroom modifications. They have gained greater understanding of why they have the modifications in place. With this greater understanding, they have become more proactive in advocating for their needs.
Second, the teachers are following through with greater frequency. There is something powerful that happens when a child looks a teacher in the eye and says, “I need my f.m. to hear better.” It is no longer the Itinerant teacher asking the classroom teacher to do something that is annoying. It makes a huge impact on the classroom teacher when the child asks the captioner to be turned on so they can follow along with the movie.
Since I have had my students present their classroom needs, the regular education teachers have been more compliant in use of F.M., note buddies, and turning on the closed captioners for movies. Some teachers, who in the past have been resistant about modifications, have more readily implemented the modifications since the child has asked for them. In the past, the information packets I have handed out have landed in bottom drawers never to be read again. Children advocating for their own needs own the information and the teachers are also more accepting of the information.
Gail Wright
H.I. Itinerant
Special Education District of Lake County