Even if the communication barriers are removed between deaf children and hearing children they will still not be at the same level to learn the same way. There is still a gap in the deaf child's prior knowledge that the hearing child doesn't have. Because of this there are things that will have to be directly taught to the deaf or hard of hearing child that the regular hearing child acquired from listening to conversations, TV, talking with others, etc. So if the communication barriers are removed the children are still different and their learning needs and styles need to be addressed differently. One way to show how the two groups are still different is int he way that you present new information. When reading a book a child who is deaf or hard of hearing will struggle more with the comprehension of the story then a child who hearing. For the deaf student the teacher will need to ask more questions and may need to build on the questions slowly, where as the hearing child may be able to completely tell you what happened in the story without much assistance. Also if you are filling out a graphic organizer of the story the deaf student may need to really talk through the story more to understand where all of the information goes.
These two groups are very different. However, it is important to remember that no two hearing kids and no two deaf kids are alike so we as teachers need to be always adjusting out teaching presentation to meet the needs of each of the students.
That is where the problem lies in parents who implant their children and then expecting them to be "normal" developmentally. Deaf children of hearing parents have missed so much background information, that even if they were to suddenly "hear" the gap would be so large. I agree with you that the cause of the difference in learning is not because children who have a hearing loss learn differently, it is the lack of background knowledge, paired with the visual language style, that creates the differences.
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