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Distance learning is the new reality for teachers across the country. Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are working hard to make digital online learning accessible to students with hearing loss. I feel like I have learned so much new information about teletherapy in such a short period of time. I am by no means an expert in teletherapy or remote learning. I am just as much out of my comfort zone as anyone else! But I have had the opportunity to find some great resources for my students, some of which might be helpful to you. These are some of the resources I have found helpful for my students with direct Teacher of the Deaf services.

Early Intervention

I follow a parent coaching, routines based model. Therefore my activities do not look much different, rather the delivery model has changed. Here are two free webinars that I found very helpful:

Hearing First- Time for Telepractice

Elizabeth Rosenzweig PhD CCC-SLP LSLS Cert. AVT- Teletherapy 101

Preschool

This was the most challenging age group, in my opinion. I try to incorporate as much parent coaching as I can, however some families prefer a more traditional one-on-one session with activities on the screen. For reference, I primarily use Zoom which allows for screen sharing and mouse control.

Boom Cards

There are tons of Boom cards on Teachers Pay Teachers, some free and some paid. My favorite seller is Stacy Crouse, an AVT and actual teletherapist all year around. The two decks I recommend for young preschoolers are this learning to listen sounds one and this nursery rhymes one. These have been super engaging for my preschoolers. For my real little ones, I share my screen but I do all the clicking and dragging. For slightly older students (4 and 5 years old), I have been giving them mouse control and this allows them to click things on my screen. If they can handle it, it makes the sessions much more interactive and enjoyable.

ABCya

I really like the Preschool Skill section of this website. It has a bunch of open-ended games like putting toppings on a pizza, decorating a cake, making ice cream sundaes, etc. This is great for expressive language goals for little ones because they have to tell you what they want. They have many resources beyond preschool, but I have found that one section especially helpful.

Education.com

I have barely explored all this website has to offer, but everything I have used so far I have really enjoyed. I really like their phonemic awareness games. I am including the link to their preschool games section here . I have many students working on phonics and phonemic awareness skills so it’s nice to have a variety of games targeting the same skill.

Epic Books

This website has tons of great books. I pull the books up on the screen to read to my students. I have been starting nearly all my sessions with a book. It sets up a nice routine and it can tie into a lot of other activities.

Elementary

I have fewer resources for elementary because these students are typically more verbal and I can focus on conversational language and supporting academic work. Listening over video conference is a higher level listening skill on its own, and I tell my students that just by having a conversation we are practicing listening skills. That being said here are some resource options:

Annotating PDFs

For most of my elementary school students, I have been using my regular worksheets and resources and pulling them up on my screen. I use the annotation feature directly in Zoom and do the worksheet together.

Hearing Our Way Magazine

Hearing Our Way magazine has offered several of their magazines for free due to the pandemic. Dayna from TOD on Wheels created matching worksheets that are awesome companions to the magazines.

Google Slides

I have updated some of my Listening Fun self-advocacy resources to include Google Drive compatible versions. These have interactive elements (typing, clicking and dragging, etc.) that students can use to answer questions. I created a custom category for all my distance learning compatible resources so they are easy to find. This includes Google Drive compatible products, as well as some interactive PDFs.

Middle and High School

Similar to the elementary school students, I am not reinventing the wheel for teletherapy with my older students. I am using my existing worksheets/resources with annotation and focusing on conversational language. I created one self-advocacy at home resource that I have been using as a jumping-off point for self-advocacy discussions. One specific self-advocacy skill I am teaching my older students is how to use automatic captions on their computer.

The two options I teach them about are Google Docs (Tools→ voice typing) and Web Captioner. Both only work in the Chrome browser. Google Docs you need to leave the window open for it to “listen” and caption. Web Captioner you do not need to leave the window open. Automatic captions are not perfect, but I do think it empowers our students to give them a tool they can use when they need it.

Accessibility During Distance Learning

This could really be its own blog post. I spend a good amount of time making sure the instruction from the classroom teachers is accessible for my students with hearing loss.

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I made this printable with some video conferencing tips for teaching working with Deaf or Hard of Hearing students.

The main captioning tools I share with teachers are Google Slides, Web Captioner, and Youtube. I made these short, simple tutorial videos to share with teachers. Feel free to use them if they are helpful to you.

Adding Captions With Youtube

Using Automatic Captions in Googles Slides and Web Captioner

Final Thoughts

This was a huge brain dump of information of basically everything I am using to teach my Deaf and Hard of Hearing students remotely as an itinerant teacher. This is by no means a complete list, but it includes everything I have personally used so far. I hope some of these ideas are helpful for you and your caseload! If you have discovered any great resources, I would love to hear about them in the comments.