EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN
The purpose of this Guide to Curriculum for
聽覺弱能兒童
Hearing Impaired Children is to provide heads and teachers of special schools and special classes and all other professionals working for the education of hearing impaired children with a better insight into curriculum development in general and the curriculum for hearing impaired children in particular. It is hoped that this will enable them to look at curriculum development for these children in a proper perspective; thereby, be more alert to their learning difficulties and needs and better equipped to initiate adaptations to the curriculum and to develop suitable curriculum materials to meet these difficulties and needs. In the chapters to follow, the various elements in curriculum, such as objectives, general principles and strategies, suggested adaptations and specific teaching approaches for selected subjects, will be discussed in detail.

 

2.1 Definitions of Hearing Impairment

With reference to Hong Kong Review of Rehabilitation Programme Plan (1994/95-1998/99) Section 7.2, the following definitions are currently adopted for educational purposes:

失聰學生
Deaf pupils are pupils with impaired hearing and who require education by methods suitable for pupils with little or no naturally acquired speech or language.

局部失聰學生
Partially hearing pupils are pupils with impaired hearing whose development of speech and language, even if impaired, is following a normal pattern, and who require for their education special arrangements or facilities, though not necessarily all the educational methods used for deaf pupils.

However, as will be noticed throughout the Guide, the term 'hearing impaired children' is used to cover both 'deaf pupils' and 'partially hearing pupils'. The reason is: the teaching suggestions in the Guide address only the learning difficulties and needs of both categories of children, which are considered to be basically similar.

 

2.2 Specific Learning Difficulties of Hearing impaired children

The learning difficulties of hearing impaired children lie primarily in their difficulties in speech and language, which may in turn vary according to their degrees of hearing loss.

Some of these children may have poor articulation of speech, for example, the omission of high frequency sounds. They may be weak in
呼吸和聲調
breath and pitch control and their voices tend to be monotonous. All these make it difficult for them to communicate with others. In language learning, they may have difficulties in understanding abstract vocabulary,
語句結構
complicated sentence structures
and unfamiliar concepts. They may also have difficulties in learning to read and write.

Language plays an important part in the higher intellectual development, especially in problem solving. Deafness may cause a language deficit, which in turn affects progress in learning. Many hearing impaired children tend to be rather weak in abstract thinking and analytical power. This can be a hindrance to their acquisition of knowledge.

 

2.3 Objectives of the Education of Hearing Impaired Children

The objectives of the education of hearing impaired children are:

(1) To help hearing impaired children develop their potential to the full by providing them with learning experiences in school.
(2) To encourage hearing impaired children to use their
剩餘聽力
residual hearing to develop as much language as possible so that they can master adequate
溝通技巧
communication skills for use in their everyday life.
(3) To help hearing impaired children grow up well-adjusted and independent so that they can integrate into society.
(4) To help hearing impaired children develop a correct sense of value and citizenship.