Technological innovations have brought significant benefits to people with sensory disabilities. In the case of deaf children, for example, if the hearing disability is discovered very early, a short distance from birth, they can allow the perception of the first sounds, the voice of the parents and all the useful stimuli to reproduce the first verses and then the words. . In fact, prostheses allow to activate different areas of the brain through hearing, allowing children to start talking. It is very important, however, that the diagnosis is very early learning for hearing impaired children.
This is not always the case and when silence has accompanied the early stages of childhood, specific support interventions must be activated, which allow for the success of communication and, with it, of learning. Deafness in fact involves a serious difficulty in the process of acquiring the verbal language, which occurs naturally for those who in the first years of life hear and listen to the sound environment that surrounds them.
How to intervene at school?
The modalities of intervention in the school environment can be many and related to the specificity of the situation. At school, however, didactic communication between teachers and students is mainly based on verbal communication and for many deaf pupils this involves evident difficulties in learning . It is therefore useful to use tools that facilitate learning processes. Among them, certainly, the use of new technologies for teaching can help to overcome or reduce learning difficulties and contribute to educational success.
In fact, computer technologies allow adaptations in the use of computers, the use of images and animations , subtitles, etc. In teaching, teachers can prepare lessons with PowerPoint or build hypertexts, while students can use various specific software to support learning, multimedia vocabularies , text editors with images and more. In fact, there are dynamic interactive systems, which allow active and constructivistic didactic methodologiesand strategic solutions centered on representation, such as concept maps for study.
Also very useful are tools for personal use, such as induction cables , which can be connected to computers for audio-video communications or tools for speech recognition , as well as magnified lip reading on video , which greatly facilitate remote communications.
The technologies supporting teaching, therefore, are numerous today and can be an excellent support for promoting autonomy and communication, as well as learning and organizing the study.
Learning and language in the deaf child and the hearing child
“Normally every child can acquire any language in his childhood, unless he has speech, neurological or learning problems. It is very important, however, not to confuse a language with communication in general. Linguistic researchers have specified that every human language is a doubly articulated and vocal communication tool. All human languages basically use the vocal-auditory canal, first of all they speak and understand each other because a speaker produces particular sounds that are perceived by the listener’s ear.