how do you explain deafness to young children?
115597
I would start by getting as well informed as possible about hearing impairment. Then, I would choose age appropriate readings and then wait for questions by the child. This will also show your child how useful and enjoyable reading can be! Here are some reading suggestions and comments:\n\n"Anna’s Silent World" by Bernard Wolf takes the reader through a typical day in Anna’s, a deaf six-year-old, life.  It explains that even though Anna is deaf, she still does things much like other children.  Any elementary-age student should read or have this book read to them.   \n\n"Seeing Things My Way" by Alden R. Carter. A fully illustrated book about Amanda and her visual impairment. Explains in easy to read text her experiences and expectations including use of CCTV and Braille.\n\n"You and Your Deaf Child: a Self-Help Guide for Parents of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children"  A resource book that parents can use when dealing with feelings about hearing loss and the implications it may have on family life. Includes reference materials covering language systems, family communications behavior and educational placement, plus more.\n\n"Kid-Friendly Parenting With Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: A Treasury of Fun Activities toward Better Behavior" by Daria Medwid and Denise Chapman Weston\nA step-by-step guide offering hundreds of ideas and methods designed to work with children ages 3 to 12 to enhance communication and strengthen relationship in skillful, fun ways.\n\n"I Can Sign My ABC’s" by Laura McCaul and Susan Chaplin, Illustrated , Full-color picture book with 26 signs-one for each letter-with manual alphabet, hand shape, a picture, the name and sign of a simple object beginning with that letter. Ideal book for teaching young children the alphabet.\n\n"My Signing Book of Numbers" by Patricia Bellan Gillen\nThis full-color picture book helps children learn their numbers in sign language. Each two-page spread has the appropriate number of things or creatures for the numbers 0-20. Signs for 30,40, etc. to 100 and instructions on "how to" are included.\n\n"I’m Deaf and It’s Okay" by L. Aseltiine, E. Mueller & N. Tait, Pictures by H. Cogancherry. How this little boy copes with the frustrations of deafness at play and at home.\n\n"My First Book Of Sign" By Patricia Bellen Gillen, Pamela J. Baker, Illustrated. A full color alphabet book, giving the sign for 150 words most frequently used by young people. Word choices based on early language acquisition. Appropriate for children beginning to read.\n\n"Choices in Deafness: A Parents’ Guide" Edited by Sue Schwartz. Ph.D.  A clear thorough, reassuring book that will help parents make the best choices. Written by professional, with frank personal accounts by parents.\n\n"The Silent Garden, Raising your Deaf Child", Second Edition\nPaul W. Ogden.  An up to date reference comprising all the bits and pieces of advice, encouragement and hard data that parents might need in order to make decisions that will enable their children to grow into strong, healthy and productive members of society.\n\n"Raising and Educating a Deaf Child" by Marc Marschark\nA comprehensive guide to the choices, controversies, and decisions faced by parents and educators. Although written by a researcher, the language and explanations of complex issues are clear and easy to understand.\n\n"A Parents’ Guide To Middle Ear Infections" by D.S. Davis,M.A., CCC-A  Answering questions about ear infections in understandable terms. Anatomy, physiology, coping at home and socially.\n\n"Psychological Development of Deaf Children" by Marc Marschark.  Beginning with the nature and scope of deafness the author integrated 30 years of information to identify in what functionally significant way deafness affects the course of child development.\n\nArthur, C. (1979). My Sister's Silent
1055068
All of the answers that you have been given so far are good!!  I am an elementary teacher and one thing that I would ask is that you teach your child how to follow directions. You would be suprised how many children have a hard time listening and following simple directions.
487671
Practice speaking with them, don't feel bad about correcting them.  they can watch TV or movies, listen to audio books. Even going to the basics with grade school phonics - Hope this helps!
223886
At that age, my son liked the Lionel books, by Stephen Krensky.  My son had a auditory processing problem called phonetic discrimination that kept him from being able to combine sounds into words, or break words apart & identify sounds.  \nI found an audiologist to do FastForword with him to help him with that.  \nThere is a shortage of books that focus on vowel sounds.  Although youngish the series of books by Barbera DeRubertis such as Lucky Duck can help if that is something that needs extra help.  I still have my son in reading tutoring via someone who is tutoring using the Masons Scottish Rites reading program, which uses the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching sound/phoneme reinforcement.  His reading & spelling are still weak, but the gap is narrowing.
871491
With out know which impairment the child has I can only offer a generalization.\n\nThink about the activity and which senses it involves.\nWhat do you want the child to learn?\nCan the activity be accomplished using other senses?\n\nThink of it like solving a puzzle and Try imposing the same impairment on yourself and experiment with different ways to achieve what effect you want.
560618
do something NEW and INNOVATIVE !\n No one else will catch on\nI taught my little leaguers sign language- yes the same sign langauge that the deaf use !\nThe kids thought that is was fun and different.\n\nuse the letter  B  for bunt\nuse the sign for steal for steal\nthe sign for taking a pitch is the sign for "no"\n go to a sign language site on the web for the alpha bet\n   the more that the kids learn the more interest they will have in learning about the game and life in general
1144944
im really surprised that your five year old preschoolers even understand that the dyslexic child is different. most 5 year old children accept and respond well to all other kids whether they are handicapped or different. my son went to preschool with a mainstreamed down syndrome child and had no clue he was any different.
932888
This site has a dictionary, as well as games that you and your daughter can play. http://aslpro.com/\n\nDont' just rely on the website, though.  It can't teach you the grammatical structures, facial expressions, or social norms.  That you have to get from interaction with someone who is a participant in the Deaf community (maybe Deaf, maybe an interpreter)
252918
Hearing lose is not a joke. I've had less than half my hearing since I was a teenager.  For the rest of my life I have to watch television with the captioning on because to really hear it it's so loud and I'm afraid of my children losing their hearing. Please be careful.
132787
You would not want to be doing that.\nChildren need to be developing "input channels" their senses.\nPreferred stimulating of one sense, in your case the visual sense, could be of disadvantage to the kids future, like at school the kid might have to get information visualized before its able to understand it.\n\nBasic stimulation from everyday routine tasks will enable natural sensory maturation. But rich, diversified sensory stimulation over a lifetime will foster a much richer sensory experience that enhances enjoyment from the sights, smells, tastes and sensations of the world around us. \n\nAs you sing, or dance and speak with your baby and expose him to more sounds, you are contributing to a greater, richer sense of hearing. Consistent stimulation of this type will lead to finer auditory perception – such as the ability to not only recognize the tune of a song, but perhaps also to distinguish between the accompanying instruments, or to have a heightened appreciation for music in general. \n\nWhile sensory stimulation is essential, it is also important to know your baby's limits, so you can expose him to the correct, age-appropriate stimuli. In the first months, it’s best to provide him with sharply contrasting stimuli, such as strongly contrasting colors and tones.
1137566
The keyword is meaningfully.  If it is just babble and unintelligible, then this may be a problem that a pediatrician needs to see.\nAt this age, children are learning to talk and they say words - maybe 2 or 3 words together in a partial sentence.\nIf the speech is not clear or some syllables are not heard, that is not a problem at this point. It will clear up in the next year.
429420
Its a warning to tell you that you will losing your hearing early in life like many people have already.  A known fact.
734055
I grew up hard of hearing and have become progressively deaf.  I was fortunate in learning English in those formative years.  But the experience of someone who grew up deaf is very different.\n\nThe first thing to understand is that the printed word is a encoding of the auditory word.  People do not learn their first or native language by first experiencing it in print.  Print literature represents an auditory language.  Native users of the language represented in print literature must learn to decode the printed word, using their native abilities.\n\nPeople who have grown up deaf without direct auditory access to the dominant language are at a disadvantage.  They will learn to read and write the dominant language (if they do) as a second language.  Their ability to do so will be much stronger if they have a strong, solid language foundation.  American Sign Language can give them that.\n\nI recommend reading "Raising and Educating a Deaf Child" by Marc Marschark.  It is available at Amazon.  Visit Marc's website.  I have used in text in teaching about these issues.\n\nKen
813689
We need a little more information in order to help you.  What is the nature of the special need?  For example, does the child have a hearing impairment, or a learning disability, or a physical disability?  How you do the adaptation depends on the disability and the child's strengths and needs.  Possibly if you can add details you may get several good suggestions.
434362
Try these links:\n\nhttp://www.icdri.org/dhhi/al_hoda_hearing_and_speech_centr.htm\n\nhttp://www.hearingschools.com/pages/magazines_hearing.htm\n\nhttp://www.rchipak.com/Articles/children.html
200766
In the UK we use programmes called Sounds-Write and THRASS which encourage children to listen to the sounds in a word and break it down in order to spell it correctly. They are not listening only for single letters but for block sounds too - th, gr, ee, etc.\n\nWe have lots of word games that we play. One of the most popular is a jigsaw puzzle type game for putting parts of words together to see the different words you can make and spell correctly. Children have a picture in front of them which they then 'label' with the puzzle pieces. ie picture of a frog; child finds 'fr' and 'og'.\n\nYou can use everyday objects around the house to encourage your son to speak. 'J' for juice. 'B' for bed. Get him to say these things with you. When you go shopping, give him his own list and help him work through it around the store, crossing off words as he finds the object. This will help him link words with daily life. \n\nTry not to make a huge thing out of it though. You don't want to put him off! His achievements, however small they may seem to you, need praising and he needs constant encouragement. \n\nI hope you understand what I mean.\nGood luck.
1090713
The best way to communicate with a child is as an adult.  Speak to them as if they can understand you; you'll be surprised.  They may not understand it all at once; but as time passes they will understand more and more.  Don't limit the food you give them.\n\nOf course you only feed them the appropriate information for the age, however, speak to them.  Don't treat them like kids that won't understand anything.