Deaf Student in class
I currently have a deaf student in my class and she uses an interpreter. Normally I would tell me students to listen for the sizzle in the pan, but it does not work for her. I have had to think about the other senses that I have and how the food looks or what smells are occuring to help me teach her.
She is doing great in class.
Karen, it is good that you have found a way to adapt things to her so that she can flourish in class. I have been in situation before where I have had a blind student in an online class. The school made the adaptation of the course materials so that they could learn online, but I had to make an additional move by making myself available more by telephone so that I could speak to this student often and help them when needed.
I have had several deaf students over the years. I have found that their challenges are no different that those of the students who speak English as a second language. Essentially, English IS a second language, as ASL and some of the variants have very different structure and syntax than English. Explaining things multiple ways, and using simple terminology that gets right to the point are both helpful.
I am a hard of hearing Chef instructor and also have had the opportunity to have deaf students in my classes. Many deaf individuals are very limited of language skills, especially if they use sign language because the sign language ommits many of the grammar used in conversational and written language. In my case my parents reinforeced my reading skills so this didn't affect me that much but I do understand the difficulties they go through.
On the other hand, deaf individuals are VERY good with the visuals, even catching details hearing people sometimes miss. The most applicable teaching technique when doing demos would be to explain the next step before even executing it. I know sometimes it is difficult, but it does helps a lot.
Another limitation is that deaf individuals gets tired from exhaustion before a hearing person does due to the energy it takes to focus on trying to understand speech. For a person that uses an interpreter, it's even more tiresome because they have to switch their focus constantly between the speaker and the interpreter.
Also, be aware that deaf people do not benefit from memorizing/learnig through the cue of speech, so our brain does not register information as quickly as a hearing person.
All of this has been proved through research, so if a deaf student asks for extra time for timed test they do actually do need it because of the language limitations are there due to the limited hearing.
In my case the way I made it throug college succesfully was by ALWAYS preparing ahead of time, reading at least twice the material the instructor was supposed to cover. That way it was easier for my ear to understand the lecture and for my brain to absorb the material.
If a deaf person has hearing aids or cochlear implant sometimes they CAN hear the sizzle, but as you said, you can have her focus on other senses.
In this case for a sizzle it could be the visual of the steam and bubbling it does or the vibrating you feel in the pan- so next time have her focus on how it feels at the grip of the saute pan when it's sizzling !!!
Yes I had a Deaf student in a cooking class as well.This person had an interpreter and I noticed the need to go back and make sure he absorbed the information especially in the lecture part of the class. With the praticalpart of the class hands on the visuals made it easy. This student was having trouble with the written work which to me came down to studying more not the fact that he was deaf.I gave him a get serious about the course speach and he did better in his written work. I guess he expected me to be easy on him because he was deaf,now when I see him in the halls I have a feeling that he respects me because I wanted him to really work hard and achieve more.
