How to Communicate With a Deaf Child
Communicating with deaf children is extremely important for their confidence. You must encourage them to communicate on a regular basis so that they get good confidence from these situations. You must have a basic knowledge of some of the standard signs of communicating so that the child can understand what you are trying to say to him or her.
One of the most important things is to have the child’s full attention when you are communicating. Try to communicate with the child when there are few people in the room to avoid any distractions.
Instructions
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1
Do not differentiate
The most important thing is to never differentiate a deaf child from others as that could hurt their confidence. You should treat them like any other child and they should be encouraged to communicate on a regular basis with people. -
2
Learn gestures that are common
You must learn some of the most common standard gestures that are used to communicate with deaf people. The basic signs include gestures for food, feelings, family and needs. In this way, you will be able to communicate the most basic things with a deaf child. -
3
Give them confidence
Confidence is extremely important for deaf children. They may not be able to listen but you must not let them think about this disability. They should have good confidence in what they do otherwise they will not try to communicate and will suffer with inferiority complex eventually. -
4
Get the child’s attention
Always make sure that the child has your attention when you tend to communicate with him or her. The best way of doing this is a gentle tap on the back or the shoulder before you start to express. As they cannot listen, there may be cases where they might get distracted. So, always make sure that they have your attention. A good way of avoiding distraction is to communicate with the child in a room or a place where there are not much people. -
5
Hear carefully
These children cannot listen to themselves but you can listen to what they say. Carefully listen what they are saying and gently stop them with a gesture so that they know where they are wrong. Ask them to repeat until they get the mistake corrected.
