Being Deaf Research Paper

Mrs. Vicki Scott, former elementary music teacher in the Springfield School District, had several students in her school who were deaf or hard of hearing. She was a very gifted teacher and was able to teach her students with very limited hearing abilities to match pitch, keep steady beat, and demonstrate musicality. Alice-Ann Darrow, Professor of Music Therapy and Music Education at Florida State University, became interested in studying people with hearing impairments by watching her father, who was hearing impaired. Being deaf doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t hear at all; there are very few who can’t hear anything. It means, “a loss severe enough that hearing alone cannot be used for the purpose of processing speech” (Darrow 2006).
The purpose of this paper is to explore how students who are Deaf learn about music. Included will be: a brief on Deaf culture and history of deaf music education, strategies for teaching deaf students, and song signing.
When using a capital ‘D’ at the beginning of the word deaf, the word changes from an adjective to a noun naming a culture; not all people who are deaf fit into the Deaf culture (Adamek & Darrow 2010). In Deaf culture the people feel more at home without “hearing” and are primarily fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). Many people who are deaf are also bilingual. Students are
The cochlear implant turns sounds into electrical waves that stimulate what is left of the auditory nerves (Schraer & Prause, 2009). The implant itself has mixed reviews. When implanted at a young age the child knows virtually nothing else. When implanted later in life, the tone heard by the listener isn’t always the actual tone being played (Schraer & Prause, 2009). With students who have recently gotten cochlear implants, it’s important to remain predictable in your classroom scheduling in order to reduce “hearing-stress situations” (Schraer & Prause,