The Dalai Lama said “Know the rules well so you can break them effectively!” Is it possible that the Dalai Lama’s teachings relate to our kids with hearing loss? Read on….
It is the job of the hearing specialist in a school district, whether it be the educational audiologist, teacher of the deaf or speech language pathologist, to train teachers on best practices with remote microphone technology (or FM systems). In addition to microphone placement, one of the biggest messages delivered is the importance of muting the microphone at the appropriate times. The general rule is to use the microphone when talking to the whole class, the student with hearing loss individually or when talking to the student as part of a small group; but mute the microphone when circulating, working with other students, or talking to another teacher. And of course let’s not forget…Don’t forget to mute the microphone when you go to the bathroom.
BUT, are these hard and fast rules that work for every student and every situation??? Yes? No? MAYBE SO???
While doing an observation of a high school student for a second semester class with a teacher that was new to this student, I observed the following…
The teacher placed the remote microphone on his lapel at the start of class and kept it there for the entire class period. The class structure alternated between teacher lead discussion and independent work periods. While the students worked, the teacher circulated to meet with and answer questions of peers throughout the room. The teacher did not remove or mute the microphone during these times. My student with hearing loss, who is always an excellent advocate, worked diligently on his work and did not ask the teacher to mute the microphone.
Prior to the start of the school year, I did meet with all of this student’s teachers to discuss his accommodations and remote microphone usage. However, as this teacher only had this student second semester, he likely didn’t recall what we had discussed. As I had expected this would be the case, my observation in the classroom was conducted shortly into the semester so that I could make sure to address any issues with teaching strategies and remote microphone usage. As this student is an excellent advocate, he often prefers to discuss issues with his teachers rather than going through me. Since it was the beginning of the semester, I assumed he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to talk to the teacher about how/when to use the mute button.
When class concluded, I approached my student and walked with him to his next class to discuss my observations. I was prepared to suggest that he set up an appointment with the teacher to discuss best times to use and mute the microphone for this particular class. I also planned to offer that we could do so together if he preferred. While I knew there was possibly a rationale for his not saying anything during class, I was somewhat surprised when I heard his response. He said that he actually liked having this teacher leave the microphone on. He wanted to be able to overhear the comments/suggestions that the teacher was making to his peers. He reported that when the microphone is off he never hears what the teacher is saying to others and in this class it helped him to figure out next steps or to know if he was on the right track.
This information isn’t shocking, as we all know that children with hearing loss miss out on the incidental language that their peers are able to hear. So, how can we use this information to better meet the needs of our children with hearing loss?
Are the rules/guidelines that we share NOT a one size fits all? It is the job of the specialist to train teachers appropriately on remote microphone usage, so it is important to keep in mind the individual student and class/teacher as we train teachers.
Of course, we must remember that the teachers don’t understand hearing loss and its implications as well as specialists and parents do. They might not be capable of making the right judgement call. So, by making the rules/guidelines less clear cut, does that make it more difficult for them to do what is right?? Yes, probably so. But maybe this is something that we keep in our back pocket as an option to explain as the teacher becomes more accustomed to the technology and better knows the child’s needs.
So maybe it is true, as the Dalai Lama said “Know the rules well so you can break them effectively.”