Starting secondary school
Encourage the young person to wear their hearing aids and use any assistive technology – promote a positive Deaf identity throughout your setting.
Limited vocabulary
Many young people, who are deaf, enter Secondary school with limited vocabularies and limited language experience, whether they communicate in speech or sign language.
The sheer breadth and depth of information presented in a secondary education setting is often overwhelming, however, pre-teaching vocabulary can be an effective strategy in helping young people integrate new words and concepts into their “bank of knowledge”. Pre and post teaching sessions can help to support understanding of important concepts before a lesson. This will support a young person to follow the lesson and help them to understand and complete tasks with increasing independence.
Explicit instructions
Put away any assumptions about what you think the deaf young person knows and teach to be sure the young person can say/sign the word, recognise it in print and in visual representation, discuss the word’s multiple meanings, and use it in its various contexts.
Scaffolding
Learning the meaning of a new word may be more effectively taught when young people can relate new words to prior knowledge. Effective teachers relate new vocabulary to what a deaf young people are likely to already know rather than to a dictionary or glossary definition. For some, for example, teaching the word injury will be required whilst learning the word severe.
Be word aware
Simplify complex language so that the young person can access the lesson, for example in Chemistry explain that H20 is the scientific word for water
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Repetition is necessary for deaf young people to master vocabulary words. Along with repeated exposure, seeing and using a new word or phrase across content areas and activities will help deepen word knowledge.
Up to 12 exposures may be necessary to develop deeper understanding of a new word, and those who struggle with reading may need additional opportunities.
Visual or graphic organisers
Visual/graphic organisers show relationships between words and make information easier to manage. Deaf young people need to be able to identify attributes and categorise words in various ways. Some types of visual organisers include Venn diagrams, flow charts, sequential organizers, semantic maps, and graphs. Without word organization, young people end up with a “laundry basket” of new words rather than a filing cabinet.
Discussion
For deeper understanding, discussion for deaf young people is paramount. The term “discussion” is not to be confused with “questioning.” Discussion, in a group setting, involves questions or comments going from person to person with the teacher acting as a facilitator. Unlike typical questioning that goes from teacher to young person, back to teacher, and then to another, with content being more strictly controlled by the teacher.
How you can help
- Provide a definition.
- Explain multiple meanings.
- Produce synonyms and antonyms.
- Practice using the word in reading and writing.
- Provide examples and non-examples of appropriate use of the word.
- Develop the young person’s auditory memory, that is the ability to listen, hold information in mind and use it.