Hearing Impaired Students: The Forgotten Ones in Phys Ed

Walk into a school gymnasium; what do you often hear? Do you hear the sound of children running around and playing with their friends? The sound of dodge balls bouncing of off the walls; maybe you hear the sound of a Phys Ed teacher explaining a new game to the students, or maybe you hear the sounds of silence as the last gym class has gone home for the day.

Whatever you hear when you walk into a school gym, it is important to remember that there are some students who would love to hear those sounds but cannot. Those students who have hearing impairments may have never heard in their lives the sound a basketball makes as it goes swish through the net or the sound a whistle makes when it is blown to signify the ending of a game.

However, just because these students may not hear the noises that we often connect with a gym environment does not mean that they do not want to participate. Quite often they are very interested in being involved but are often forgotten or left to fend for themselves. This is not because the Physical Education teacher has no interest in including them into the class; it is often because the Phys Ed teacher may not be well equipped or taught the strategies need to be able to include those who may have a hearing impairment into the class.

Thinking along this topic I came across the article Ensuring the Success of Deaf Students in Inclusive Physical Education by Schultz, Lieberman, Kathleen Ellis and Hildenbrinck. After reading this article, I myself as a future Physical Education feel it could be a great place to start in trying to understand how to be inclusive to those who have hearing impairments in the Physical Education environment.

In this article they discuss the different forms of hearing loss and ways in which those students with hearing loss can be included into Phys Ed classes. One idea the article discussed in regards to helping students with hearing loss become more included and involved within the class was the use of visual aids to help with teaching the lesson. Some suggestions of visual aids that the article gave include but are not limited to:

Taken from: (p. 54, Schultz, Lieberman, Kathleen Ellis & Hilgenbrinck, 2013)

• Posters

• Pictures

• Demonstrations

• Written directions/announcements

• Videos

• Handouts

(Physical Education teacher showing a hearing impaired student how to perform a two foot jump using a visual demonstration) Image taken from: (p. 52, Schultz, Lieberman, Kathleen Ellis & Hilgenbrinck, 2013).

Some other ideas discussed in the article in regards to including students with hearing impairments into the Physical Education environment include the use of a peer to guide/aid the impaired student with the learning of a specific skill or activity. This allows for some one on one time between the student with the hearing impairment and one peer to help with a more hands on approach to help guide the child and allow them to build up some success and confidence in a smaller setting before participating in the activity with the whole class. Also, using different communication strategies between the teacher and the hearing impaired student to discover which strategy they learn from best, as it can vary from child to child. From this knowledge the teacher can build that communication strategy into their lessons to be able to teach to the whole class at once.

If you would like to view some of these ideas for yourself, feel free to check out this article which is available here at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07303084.2013.779535

Reference: Schultz, J. L., Lieberman, L. J., Kathleen Ellis, M. & Hilgenbrinck, L. C. (2013) Ensuring the Success of Deaf Students in Inclusive Physical Education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 84(5), 51-56. DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2013.779535

Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07303084.2013.779535