Principles and Strategies of

Teaching for Learners with

Difficulty Seeing, Hearing and
Communicating
ED 10
In the Philippines, learners with blindness and deafness
usually attend self-contained classes through schools
such as the School for the Deaf, School for the Blind and
other Special Education centers. Although these learners
were traditionally segregated in special education schools,
inclusion in the regular classroom is being practiced in the
country, most especially that it is cited as a program option
in the DepEd Order 72, series of 2009, also known as the
Inclusive Education as Strategy for Increasing
Participation Rate of Children (Department of Education,
2009).
 In line with this, inclusion is viewed. As
educating an increasing number of pupils in
mainstream schools and fewer or none in the
special schools, but another view states that
inclusion is about pupils receiving a good
education, whether that is in a special school
or in a mainstream school (Farrell, 2006).
This leads us to questions:
1. Are special schools not inclusive schools?
2. Can inclusive education truly meet the needs of
learners with disabilities, giftedness, and talents?
These questions move beyond looking at placement of
learners as indication of whether they are included or
segregated, as expounded by Powers (1996), "inclusion is
an attitude not a place.”
Wherever the learners may be, attitudes for
beginning teachers are suggested below:
1. Make a background check

➢ In beginning of the school year, make sure you make a

background check of all your students, including their talents and
skills, and medical conditions.

➢Preparation will help reduce half of your classroom management

issues as this will help you identify the kind of learners you will be
having in your classroom, and plan ahead in developing an
accommodating and accepting atmosphere inside the class.
Wherever the learners may be, attitudes for
beginning teachers are suggested below:
2. Establish rapport

➢Let your learners know that you can be trusted and that
you will not harm them.

➢Determine routines and prepare them in your teaching

styles, sequence of lessons and types of classroom
evaluations.
Wherever the learners may be, attitudes for
beginning teachers are suggested below:
3. Adhere to the People First Policy
➢Look at every learner with individual skills, talents, capacities and limitations.
➢Disability - is just one characteristic that makes classroom diverse, along
with gender, religion, ethnicity, IQ score, language, ambition, behavioral
patterns and a lot more.
➢If learners do not learn, look at other variables such as their interest,
classroom condition, instructional materials, time of the day, lesson
difficulty, learner schema, teaching strategy and other things, but not isolate
the learner’s condition as the main reason of failure.
➢ Teachers should also be seen as the main model in the creation of an
accepting classroom atmosphere, so as not to tolerate labeling learners
based on their condition, or skin color, even and most especially just for fun.
Wherever the learners may be, attitudes for
beginning teachers are suggested below:
4. Treat them as you treat other regular students
➢ This goes with assigning seats (except for low vision and hard of hearing
students that should be assigned in front seats) leadership responsibilities,
classroom activities and chores, school program participations and other
school assignments.
➢Giving special treatment makes them feel different likewise, their
nondisabled peers will feel that the teacher favors those with disabilities
more than them, or that the learners with disabilities require being separated
and apart, and this will not present an inclusive setting.
➢ Remember that inclusion is not just for learners with disabilities but also for
all types of learners in the classroom. This makes learners with disabilities
more independent, developing their own will and believing that they can
perform like any other learner in the class.
Educational Approaches
• Leaners with Blindness
- Teaching learners with difficulty seeing are done through the use of nonvisual
senses such as sound, tactile and manipulative materials.

1. Braille – is a tactile reading and writing system and is the primary means of
literacy for learners who are blind.
- It consists of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other system
arranged in raised dots .
-It is read by moving the fingers from left to right along each line.
 Educational Approaches

2. Braille Technological Aids

➢These are materials that develop Braille system

made readily available to those learners with
blindness.

➢An example of this is BrailleNote.

 Educational Approaches

The figure seen on the right

is a portable device with Perkins-
style Keyboard which translate
braille into synthesized speech
or print, display downloaded
books or text files in braille and
even access Web pages. It also
has calculator and calendar
applications.
Educational Approaches
3. Tactile Aids and Manipulatives
➢ These are materials used to describe objects and the world
around us. Example of this is Cuisenaire rods developed by
Belcastro (1993) where learners with blindness can quickly
identify different values by feeling the lengths and tactile markings
associated with each set of rods.
➢Other manipulatives include braille math blocks, Digi-Blocks,
Cranmer abacus, Speech-Plus talking calculator, embossed relief
maps and diagrams, and three-dimensional (3D) models.
There are different types of tactile
books that foster development of
literacy skills of learners with
blindness, and some of these are
• experience books,
• object books,
• routine books, and
• theme books.
A. Experience book is based on the learners' experience such as attending
birthday parties and field trips. The book is used to capture best moments
the learners remember and this could also be used to help develop the
learners' language as they explain the contents of their experience book.

B. Object book is a book containing real objects taken from the learners’
activities such as baking where some materials are pasted on each page of
the book. This book introduces tactile learners to read as they move on to
more abstract levels like tactile symbols, and/or braille.
C. Routine book is an organizer of learners' classroom activities where step-by
-step procedure is done, turning one page to the next, so routines could
easily be established. After each activity, learners are taught to remove an
item attached to the book through Velcro, and place it in a box to indicate
that an activity in the routine was already accomplished. This could also be
used as story books, turning each page as the story succeeds.

D. Theme book is a book that focuses on an area and is used to supplement

instruction on a particular topic such as demographic information, regions
in the Philippines, flags, and others.
Educational Approaches
4. Expanded Core Curriculum
➢This curriculum includes orientation and mobility, listening skills,
social career education interaction skills, independent living skills,
recreation and leisure skills and career education (Allman, Lewis
independent & Spungin, 2014).

➢Orientation is about knowing where you are headed how to reach

a place with the use of information available in the environment.
Educational Approaches
4. Expanded Core Curriculum
➢Mobility refers to the ability to move safely and effectively, from
one place to the next.

➢Learners with blindness often use the aid of canes, guide dogs,
electronic travel aids and sighted guides when travelling.

➢ Sighted guide technique as developed by the American

Foundation for the Blind (2018) enables a person with visual
impairments to use another person with sight as a guide.
Educational Approaches
4. Listening Skills
➢ Listening Skills must be developed since learners with blindness obtain
information by listening.

➢A widely held misconception is that people who are loss of blind

automatically develop a better sense of hearing to compensate for their loss
of sight (Heward, Alber-Morgan & Konrad, 2017)

➢Functional Life Skills include hygiene and grooming, shopping, and

transportation are skills needed before learners will reach adulthood. These
skills are taught in the expanded curriculum for blindness.
Learners with Low Vision
These learners can read through print materials but may have
limited vision and with some difficulties. Below are some aids that
help these learners learn.

1. Optical Aids
These are the most famous aids used by learners with low vision
where professionals such as ophthalmologists and optometrists
assess, treat and recommend these aids based on the visual
needs. Some optical aids include glasses, contact lenses,
handheld telescopes, and magnifiers.
Learners with Low Vision

2.Large Print Materials

Books, handouts, most especially visual aids posted on the
board should be readable by all learners in the classroom.
Large print materials are printed or handwritten with bigger
font size, legible font style, with wider spacing.
Learners with Low Vision
3. Classroom Adaptations
➢ Classroom lighting is important for learners with low vision.
Additional lighting can better assist learners who find it difficult to
read compared to their peers.
- Photocopied handouts and worksheets can also be difficult for
them, so it is better to give them original copies, if possible, or
assign someone who can go over the letters or diagrams with a
darker pen.
➢It is also recommended that the learners be given freedom in
choosing their seats in the classroom.
Learners with Hearing Impairment
1. Hearing Aids
➢This device was developed to improve hearing of those people
with difficulty hearing. Its volume and tone could be adjusted to fit
in the needs of its user and can be worn in either one or both ears.

2. Assistive Listening Systems (ALS)

➢ALS work as amplifiers directly connected through a radio link
from the teacher to the learners. It reduces the unnecessary noise
or background sound for the learners to stay focused only to the
speaker.
Learners with Hearing Impairment

3. Cochlear Implants.
➢This is an electronic medical device surgically implanted
sense of sound to learners with severe to profound
hearing auditory hearing loss. It however, does not
restore or create normal hearing but can only give useful
auditory understanding of the environment that can help
a person learn speech.
Learners with Hearing Impairment
4. Sign Language. Filipino Sign Language or FSL Philippines
➢ It has its own grammar, syntax, and morphology that are based
on manual hand signals supplemented by body and facial
gestures.
➢FSL is not the same American Sign Language and is neither based
on Filipino or English.
➢ It has no written systems and is governed by purely visually
motivated grammatical devices found in nonmanual signal of the
face and body (Martinez, 2012, December 1).
Learners with Hearing Impairment
5. Oral/Aural Approaches
➢This approach views speech as essential if learners with deafness are to
function in the hearing world (Heward, Alber-Morgan & Konrad, 2016).
➢This approach trains learners to produce and understand speech and
language with auditory, visual, and tactile methods of input.

6. Auditory Training.
➢ This is commonly given to young learners with residual hearing to get them
acquainted with sounds. The three levels of auditory training include
detecting discriminating and identifying sounds.
Learners with Hearing Impairment
7. Speechreading
➢ This process is done through retrieving spoken message
by paying attention to the speaker's lip movements,
facial expressions, eye movements, and body gestures.
➢This approach however has many limitations like faulty
interpretations on lips. Walker (1986) estimates that even
best speechreaders detect only about 25% of what is
said through visual cues alone; and the rest is contextual
piecing together of ideas and expected constructions.
Learners with Communication Disorders

➢Specialists in communication disorders give

therapies to help learners speak in the best
possible way.
➢These specialists are recommended to help
identify, evaluate, and provide services to
learners with specific communication
disorder.
 Activities are listed below to help lessen some of learners'
articulation and phonological errors.

1. Discrimination Activities
➢These activities are developed to help learners produce and discriminate
between similar sounds like pin and bin, cheap and jeep, cheese and she’s.
➢Activities could be done through creating stories, drawing large /p/ and /b/,
visualization of sounds through mirror modeling, and producing sounds in
front of a lighted candle.

2. Vocabulary Building
➢ Specialists as well as classroom teachers use variety of techniques in
building learners' vocabulary. Among these include development of graphic
organizer, mnemonics, repetition, word walls, vocabulary journals, and using
context clues.
 Activities are listed below to help lessen some of learners'
articulation and phonological errors.

3. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

➢AAC includes different ways of sharing thoughts and emotions to
the receiver without talking.
➢Unaided AAC techniques do not require physical aid or device
such as speech, gestures, facial expressions, body posture, and
manual signs while aided ACC techniques use external device
such as pen and paper and computerized voice-input device.
Learners with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

➢Learners with ASD have difficulties with social interaction

and may manifest limited use and understanding of
nonverbal communication, and difficulties with social
and emotional responsiveness
➢These learners may also have impaired communication
due to delayed language development and difficulties
with initiating, responding and sustaining conversations.
 Suggested approaches in teaching
learners with ASD

1. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

➢ ABA is a therapy based on the science of learning and behavior
with the goal of increasing positive behaviors and decreasing
harmful ones that negatively affect learning.
➢It includes behavioral principles such as positive reinforcement
and modeling that yield beneficial outcomes for learners with
ASD.
➢Some practices derived from ABA include Picture Exchange
Communication System (PECS), peer-mediated interventions, and
self-management tactics.
 Suggested approaches in teaching
learners with ASD

2. The Picture Exchange Communication System.

➢The PECS (Bondy & Frost, 1994) aims to help
learners to request things or activities from others
with the use of pictures.
➢Learners exchange picture or a symbol
representing an item or activity for something that
they would like.
 Suggested approaches in teaching
learners with ASD
3. Social Stories
➢This is a form of visual support to learners with ASD as social stories explain
concepts, social situations and expected behaviors of people in a format that
matches their level of comprehension.
➢Gray and Attwood (2010) recommend the use of social stories to describe a
situation and expected behaviors by explaining simple steps for achieving
certain goals or outcomes and teach new routines and anticipated actions.
➢Using this approach helps learners with ASD to get familiarized with a social
event or activity before its conduct to lessen their anxiety and help them
understand situations from other people's perspectives.
 Suggested approaches in teaching
learners with ASD
3. Social Stories
➢an example of Carol Gray's (2015) Social Story, which is usually
written in one sentence per page along with illustrations
presenting the information written.
➢Comic book conversation is a modification of a social story that
uses comic strip components with speech bubbles instead of
text.
➢This technique provides visual representation of different levels
and processes of communication that takes place in
conversations.
 Suggested approaches in teaching
learners with ASD
4. Jigsawing
➢ This approach provides opportunities to learners with ASD to
work collaboratively with their peers as everyone in the class
completes one particular task.
➢Following the format of a jigsaw puzzle, tasks are divided among
each puzzle piece, with each piece essential to the overall
success of the task.
➢This leads individual learners and groups to become
interdependent, relying on everyone's participation to complete
the given task.
Reference:
• Custodio, Z. U. & Nalipay, J. N. (2021). Foundations of special and
inclusive education. Quezon City. Adriana Printing Co., Inc.