Abstract:

In 1990 the Organic Law of General Organization of the Educational System (LOGSE) introduced the concept of Special Educational Needs (SEN), since then, numerous authors have tried to classify, understand and evaluate these needs to try to facilitate the school life of students who can see involved in them. These SEN’s include, among others, physical and mental disabilities that can affect the normal performance of the student in the classroom. This work is framed within the former, and more specifically, it addresses the case of hearing impairment and the difficulties that this barrier may present for learning.

By and large, it should be noted that more than 80% of physical disabilities occur after birth, after the gradual deterioration of some function or by accident. The easiest to identify within these disabilities are those related to motor difficulties, since most of them can be diagnosed by simple observation of the child and society is highly aware of them. On the other hand, visual disabilities also have a high degree of early diagnosis, and intervention guidelines and measures are well internalized by teachers, although the most effective measures are not always taken.

In the case of hearing impairment, it is considered that the person involved should be classified as a student with SEN when there is total deafness or hearing loss with a mean loss between both ears greater than 20 dB and difficulties or limitations in their communication. However, without the need to reach this threshold, lower values in the loss of acoustic sensitivity also lead to limitations and learning difficulties. The understanding of hearing barriers and their implications for learning are addressed in this research, making a description of them and analyzing different cases that may be presented in the classroom.

Additionally, this work analyzes different proposals for action and intervention measures with students with hearing difficulties through curricular adaptation and personalized attention, as well as the educational implications that these barriers may cause on students in Compulsory Secondary Education. In this way, it is intended to provide teachers with a resource that allows them to deal with students of these characteristics with greater sensitivity, helping them to follow the normal course of the course and achieve the same academic successes as their peers. In addition, it is necessary to highlight the importance of managing spaces and times within the classroom to promote peer learning and reduce the differences between students with and without learning difficulties.

Keywords:

Hearing barriers, special educational needs, neuroscience, teaching intervention.