Educational Considerations for At-Risk/Marginal Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Abstract

The teaching of children who are at risk, marginally deaf, or hard of hearing is considered in this article, primarily from the framework provided by Ogbu (1990), Sinclair and Ghory (1990), Cromer (1993), and the contemporary writings of others working with multiethnic populations of children who are hearing and hearing-impaired. Emphasis is put on the social constructive nature of this complex phenomenon, the heterogeneity (both inter- and intraculturally) of the populations involved, and some of the processes that students go through in becoming marginalized. Finally, consideration is given to how one might address some of the problems of educating these children. Descriptions and examples of some successful intervention projects are presented.

Improving Practices for Students with Hearing Impairments

“…Typically, students who are deaf or hard of hearing and whose families do not speak English (Christensen & Delgado, 1993;Cohen, Fischgrund & Redding, 1990) or whose families are black (Moore & Oden, 1977) are at greater risk academically. Kretschmer (1997) outlined ways in which schools and institutions undervalue marginal children. These include neglect, trivialization of classroom tasks, blaming, reduced academic expectations, overidentification of additional disorders, and subtle and not so subtle forms of humiliation.…”