Improving Social and Classroom Inclusion for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing–Jordan Brewer

Creative Works submissions for Cal U's Creative Works and Research Event This creative project and poster presentation discuss the importance of educating children about hearing loss in a manner that promotes inclusion and acceptance of others. People with differences or disabilities are highly susceptible to bullying and are much more likely to experience bullying than their normally developing peers, which is why it is crucial that myths and misconceptions about hearing loss be debunked. To improve children's attitudes about hearing loss, my group created a puppetry project to discuss hearing loss, sound amplification devices, and different modes of communication to prevent school age children from forming prejudices that are founded on misinformation. This puppetry project also promotes children to stand up to bullies, love their differences, and befriend others who are different than them. To obtain the information used in this study, I collected information from multiple research articles and gained input from two experienced speech-language pathologists who have experience working with children who are deaf/hh. My poster is divided into two portions: one portion is about the research behind why my puppetry project is needed in society, and one portion is about how my group scripted our puppetry project and what we will do with it in the future. The major theme of my poster and creative project is that, in order for children to be fully integrated into mainstream classrooms, people must actively work to reduce stigmas associated with hearing loss. Learn more at calu.edu/CUREvents