Hearing impairment refers to any level of reduced hearing that affects educational performance. Total communication incorporates all means of communication including signs, gestures, fingerspelling and speech. Cued speech uses handshapes and placements to make mouth movements visually distinct. Assistive devices like FM systems, hearing loops, and augmentative communication devices help people with hearing loss communicate by amplifying sound, transmitting signals, and generating or displaying speech. The oral approach focuses on developing listening and spoken language skills through amplification and visual cues without using sign language.

1. Assistive Devices for
Hearing Impairment
Muhammad Faizan

2. Objectives of this topic
After the session students must be able to know about
 Definition of hearing impairment.
 What is total communication.
 What is cued speech.
 What are assistive learning devices.
 What is oral and aural approach.

3. Hearing Impairment
An impairment in hearing, whether permanent
or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance but is not included
under the definition of ‘deafness’
[IDEA]

4. Total Communication
Total Communication (TC) is philosophy of educating
children with hearing loss that incorporates all means
of communication; formal signs, natural gestures,
fingerspelling, body language, listening, lipreading
and speech.

5. • Total communication starts in 1967
• Originally developed by David Denton at the Maryland
School for the Deaf
• Total communication is the combination of oralism,
manualism, auditory training and visual aids.
• Total Communication welcomes all methods in one
classroom
• Total communication refers to an educational phiolosphy
as well as to a mode of communication
History of Total Communication

6. Characteristics of total
communication
Fundamental to this approach is the recognition that
children have different styles of learning
Provide alternate mode to choose from
Helps to ensure that each child will find ways to
meet his or her own communication needs
Total communication is used to bridge the gap
between strict oralism and strict manualism

8. Cued Speech
Cued Speech is a visual mode of communication that
uses handshapes and placements in combination
with the mouth movements of speech to make the
phonemes of a spoken language look different from
each other.
[National Cude Speech Association]

9. Cued speech is composed of three
elements
 Shape of the hand
Indicate the consonant group
 Location or position of the hands
Indicate the vowel group
 Mouth shapes
Show which vowel or consonant sound within each group is said

11. • Mouth= ea (flat
mouth)
• Chin= o (round
mouth ), e (flat
mouth),
• Throat= u ( round
mouth ), I (flat
mouth), a (open
mouth)
• Side= o as in love
(flat mouth), o as in
mom (open mouth)
Mouth shapes

12. Benefits of Cued Speech
Once every sound is made visible deaf children can
gain an understanding of spoken language
Lip reading becomes accurate
Helps listening—research has shown that deaf
children familiar with cued speech use their residual
hearing to greater effect (B.L. Charlier &
D.palissen,1986)

13. Basic principles of cued speech
Every sound in the language must look different
either in the hand or in the moth
When sound looks alike on the lips they are cued
differently
example meat, beat

14. Assistive devices For H.I.C
The terms assistive device or assistive
technology can refer to any device that helps a
person with hearing loss or a voice, speech, or
language disorder to communicate. These terms
often refer to devices that help a person to hear and
understand what is being said more clearly or to
express thoughts more easily.

15. Types of assistive devices
 Assistive listening devices (ALDs) help amplify the sounds
you want to hear, especially where there’s a lot of background
noise.
 Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
devices help people with communication disorders to express
themselves.
 Alerting devices connect to a doorbell, telephone, or alarm that
emits a loud sound or blinking light to let someone with hearing
loss know that an event is taking place.

16. FM system
Use radio signals to transmit sound
They are often used in classroom where the
instructor wears a small microphone connected to a
transmitter and the students wears the reciever.
Assistive listening devices (ALDs)

18. Hearing loop system
Hearing loop (or induction loop) systems use
electromagnetic energy to transmit sound. A hearing loop
system involves four parts:
 A sound source, such as a public address system,
microphone, or home TV or telephone
 An amplifier
 A thin loop of wire that encircles a room or branches out
beneath carpeting
 A receiver worn in the ears or as a headset

20.  The simplest AAC device is a picture board or touch screen
that uses pictures or symbols of typical items and activities
that make up a person’s daily life.
 Speech-generating devices go one step further by
translating words or pictures into speech.
 For many years, people with hearing loss have used text
telephone or telecommunications devices, called TTY or
TDD machines, to communicate by phone.
Augmentative and alternative
communication (AAC) devices

21. Alerting devices
 Alerting or alarm devices use sound, light, vibrations, or a
combination of these techniques to let someone know when a
particular event is occurring.
 When the phone rings, the visual alert signaler will be activated
and will vibrate or flash a light to let people know.

22. ORAL APPROCH
“ An approach that teaches a child to use his/her
residual hearing through amplification and the use
of speechreading /natural gesture/ visual cues to
aid the child’s understanding of language. ’’
The use of any form of sign language
communication is not encourged.

23. GOALS OF ORAL APPROACH
There are some primary goals of oral approach:
To develop spoken language through listening and
visual cues
To develop spoken language and communication skills
necessary for school success and integration into the
hearing community.
The ultimate goal is to be able to respond quickly and
accurately.

24. METHODS FOR DEVELOPING
SPOKEN LANGUAGE
To help develop spoken language, different methods
can be used:
An auditory-oral approach
An auditory-verbal therapy

25. AURAL APPROACH
The Aural Approach focuses on developing listening
and speaking with the effective use of hearing
technology, to make the most of a child’s residual
hearing.

26. HOW DOES AURAL APPROACH
WORK?
Uses hearing and listening to develop communication skills.
Relies on the use of amplification including hearing aids and
implants and other technology that supports their use.
Doesn’t use sign language.
Discourages children from relying on lip-reading (although
the use of natural gestures and facial expressions is
encouraged)

27. Thankyou