10 Things You Should Know about Phonemic

Awareness and Phonics for Student with

Hearing Loss

Dr. Susan EasterbrooksProfessor, GSU

Dr. Nanci ScheetzProfessor, VSU

I. Vocabulary and grammar weaknesses will influence

phonemic awareness and phonics acquisition in children

with hearing loss.

Children who hear are blending and segmenting

words they know; children who have hearing

difficulties are not.

What do you get

if you take the

/d/ off dish and

add a /f/ ?

What do you get

if you take the

/d/ off dish and

add a /f/ ?

Dif? What’s

a dif?

Dif? What’s

a dif?

Do you remember the next slide? It is from the Vocabulary

presentation. Children with hearing loss miss the Children with hearing loss miss the

bottom two layers.bottom two layers.

Be sure to teach language and concepts before you ask

students to manipulate sounds in the words.

World Knowledge

Words and

grammar that represent

the ideas

Ideas about the world

Ability to read

the words and

make sense

Labels

Do you remember this

pyramid from the

language

presentation?

Students with hearing loss

struggle with the bottom

two sections of the

pyramid. They have

a concept and

language

problem

rather

than a

reading

problem.

II. Many children with hearing loss cancan learn

phonemic awareness and phonics

• Hearing children who are good readers have good phonological Hearing children who are good readers have good phonological awareness skillsawareness skills

(National Reading Panel Report, 2000)

• This is true as well for some children with a hearing loss. (Dyer, MacSweeney, Szczerbinski, Green, & Campbell, 2003;

Harris & Moreno, 2004; LaSasso, Crain, & Leybaert,2003)

• The The purposepurpose of phonemic awareness and phonics activities is of phonemic awareness and phonics activities is to build an internal phonological (sound) representation of the to build an internal phonological (sound) representation of the grapheme representing a soundgrapheme representing a sound (f= fish, phone, cough)

III. There are at least two primary modes through which

children with hearing loss can develop an internal

representation system for phonemic-graphemic

relationships.

Auditory:Auditory: Listening to the sounds

(internal auditory code)

Visual:Visual: Looking at the sounds

(internal visual code)

IV. When teaching through the auditory modeauditory mode,

teachers should pay careful attention to the

sounds that are available to the child.

Listen to the sound sample below.

This represents what a child with a hearing loss in the middle frequencies might hear.

The problem is not loudness, but clarity.

You need to know what sounds the child can discriminate before you ask him to discriminate them.

In order to be able to benefit from auditory

approaches to phonemic awareness and

phonics, a student must also be ability to

identify word patterns.

wha-WHA-

wha

wha-WHA-

wha

• Successful development of phonemic awareness and phonics through listening depends upon two key elements:

– You MUST make sure the student is wearing the hearing aidhearing aid, and that the hearing aid is working.

– You MUST collaboratecollaborate with the teacher of the deaf, who can tell you what sounds a child can and cannot hear.

• When you know what sounds a child can and cannot hear, you can make meaningful adaptationsmake meaningful adaptations to your phonemic awareness and phonics lessons.

pig

big

dig

pig

big

dig

How can deaf children acquire a phonological system when

they have restricted knowledge of spoken language due to

hearing loss? (Stewart & Clarke, 2003)

V. When teaching through the visual mode,

teachers should pair the visual strategy carefully

with the needs of the student.

Remember…we are trying to develop an “internal phonological representation of the grapheme representing the phoneme.”

In order to do this, we must choose a visual strategy appropriate for the student.

phph

/f//f/

VI. One visual alternative is Cued Speech.

Cued SpeechCued Speech is a visual communication system

that uses 8 handshapes and 4 locations to

represent the phoneme stream.

When combined with lip movements, it helps

make the phoneme stream understandablemake the phoneme stream understandable to

individuals with hearing loss.

Consonant Handshapes

   

/b, wh, n/ 

/h, r, s//TH, k, v, z//zh, d, p/

                                                

                                                           

/m, f, t/ /w, l, sh/ /j, g, th//ch, y, ng/

 

bigbigpigpig

VII. A second visual alternative is Visual Phonics.

Visual phonics is…Visual phonics is…

…a multisensory approach, using tactile, kinesthetic, visual, and auditory

feedback to improve reading, writing, and speech skills in deaf students

and other children and adults who do not learn readily from traditional

reading approaches.

…a multisensory approach, using tactile, kinesthetic, visual, and auditory

feedback to improve reading, writing, and speech skills in deaf students

and other children and adults who do not learn readily from traditional

reading approaches.

http:clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/e-docs/Keys/see.htmlhttp:clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/e-docs/Keys/see.html

e d

VIII. A third visual alternative involves

structural analysis and color coding.

Color coding systems usually have one color to represent vowels, one for voiced consonants, and one for unvoiced consonants.

Other systems can get quite complex.

All labial consonants are in this color: Bb, Pp, Ff.3.  All nasal labial continuant consonants are in this color: Mm, Nn.4.  All palatal consonants are in this color: Gg, Kk, Xx.

ETC.

• Structural analysis systems ask children to learn to decode based on syllable patterns.

pon der un der

won der thun der

IX. No matter which system you choose, you must

STICK WITH THAT SYSTEM OVER TIME.

Phonemic awareness and phonics skills do not develop in one year with one teacher; they develop over multiple years.

Choose one system and stay with it.Choose one system and stay with it.

This means that you must collaborate with receiving teachers. Teachers P-4 must agree upon one system and stay with it. Systems may differ between children, but they should NOT differ across years.

pp

X. Some available phonics curriculums have been

used successfully with DHH students who are

learning through the auditory pathway.

Children’s Early Intervention for Speech, Language, and Literacy (www.slosson.com)

Lindamood Bell (http://www.lblp.com/programs/lips.html)

A group of researchers at Georgia State University is designing a literacy curriculum for preschool deaf children.

(For more information, contact seasterbrooks@gsu.edu.)

10 Things you should know about

phonemic awareness and phonics.I. Vocabulary and grammar weaknesses will influence phonemic awareness and

phonics acquisition in children with hearing loss.

II. Many children with hearing loss cancan learn phonemic awareness and phonics.

III. There are at least two primary modes through which children with hearing loss can develop an internal representation system for phonemic-graphemic relationships.

IV. When teaching through the auditory modeauditory mode, teachers should pay careful attention to the sounds that are available to the child.

V. When teaching through the visual mode, teachers should pair the visual strategy carefully with the needs of the student.

• VI. One visual alternative is Cued Speech.

• VII. A second visual alternative is Visual Phonics.

• VIII. A third visual alternative involves structural analysis and color coding.

• IX. No matter which system you choose, you must STICK WITH THAT SYSTEM

OVER TIME.

• X. Some available phonics curriculums have been used successfully with DHH

students who are learning through the auditory pathway.