Preparation of Teachers Who Serve Hearing Impaired Students with Additional Mild Handicaps

Abstract

Two national surveys of personnel preparation programs in the education of the hearing impaired were conducted to determine teacher educators' opinions on the preparation of teachers to serve learning disabled and socialiy/emotionally disturbed hearing impaired students. Most teacher educators reported a need to. modify existing curricula in personnel preparation programs in order to better prepare teachers to meet the needs of hearing impaired students who have mild secondary handicapping conditions. However, few suggestions for curricular modification were offered.Approximately one fifth of the students who are in classes or programs for the hearing impaired exhibit one or more additional handicaps (Craig & Craig, 1988, p. 134). The majority of hearing impaired students who have additional handicaps have secondary handicaps that are mild rather than severe, such as a mild learning disability or mild social/emotional disturbance.The results of a survey of teacher education programs in the education of the hearing impaired indicated that teacher educators are aware of the increased number of multihandicapping hearing (MHHI) students and view the preparation of teachers of MHHI students as a critical issue (Israelite & Hammermeister, 198s). Many of the respondents to the survey indicated that clinical work with HHI udents was included as part of the preservice experience for teachers, but strategies for preparing teachers to serve specific categories of MHHi students, such as mild learning disabilities or social/emotional disturbances, were not addressed.The need for personnel preparation programs in the education of hearing impaired students to provide teachers with appropriate knowledge and experience for serving the school-age MHHI population is reflected in the revised standards of the Council on the Education of the Deaf (CED, 1985). In comparison to the previous standards, the revised standards are more detailed and specific with regard to the MHHI population. However, the differences in severity among MHHI students are not reflected in the standards. There is a need to respond to the segment of the MHHI population that exhibits mild secondary handicapping conditions. Two surveys of teacher educators who are affiliated with preparation programs for the education of the hearing impaired were conducted in order to determine the status of teacher preparation with regard to mild secondary handicaps. The first survey conat Oakland University on June 5, 2016 tes.sagepub.com Downloaded from