HICEN Project
Heidelberg University of Education and Ernst Lehnhardt-Foundation
Hearing impaired children - elementary needs in preschool care and education
It is nowadays taken for granted that elementary educational measures create a vital foundation for later school-based learning and, over and above this, for lifelong self-organized learning of the kind required by people in a knowledge-oriented society. This applies all the more to the early education of hearing-impaired children, as they not only require help, tailored to their developmental level, to help them cultivate their own skills and methods for learning – as normal-hearing children also do – but also additional assistance in order to compensate for the barriers to perception and learning that come with sensory impairment. Numerous studies highlight what is fundamentally needed if all-round, unimpeded development is to be a real prospect for these children: namely, detection of hearing impairment as early as possible, prompt provision with assistive hearing devices and immediate commencement of early intervention. These opportunities are, however, only available if appropriate systems of early intervention and special training opportunities for preschool educational staff working with hearing-impaired children exist and go well. In order that the systems of elementary education can offer these opportunities to all hearing-impaired children they have to be able to integrate and further develop the new findings and best practice. The most crucial aspect – aside from the fulfilment of institutional requirements – is that education professionals be familiarized with the latest knowledge in the relevant disciplines. Although the needs in this respect are very great, nowadays the opportunities provided by eLearning and virtual learning environments means that the scope for meeting them – both in initial and advanced training – is greater than ever.
The HICEN Project is meeting the demand for improvements to the quality and efficiency of training for specialists in preschool education for hearing-impaired children. To do this, the Project focuses on the needs of these children in the very first years of life, from birth to the age of three. This period is of the utmost importance for any child's development but is particularly so in the case of hearing-impaired children. Today, hearing impairments can already be detected shortly after birth, and appropriate care and education can also be started at that time. Hearing-impaired children are no longer forced to go without care and education in this first stage of life as they were all too often in the past. This time can now be purposefully utilized for both basic education and education for the hearing-impaired. The authors of the HICEN Project outline the appropriate measures professionals and parents should take when interacting with hearing-impaired children during this period of their life. The measures suggested in these 9 modules are primarily for families who have chosen to use mainly spoken language to educate and support their hearing-impaired children.