Whenever I can, I take my children on a field trip where they can use their acquired language. I take the children to McDonald's and each child is able to order their own meal. Another aspect of my job is that I enjoy teaching the children to sing. The most challenging aspect of my work is educating children that are not only hearing-impaired, but also have a secondary handicap such as a vision problem or a learning disability. When people think about deaf education, signing is what first comes to mind.
Signing is prominent in our society because it is so visual.
The news media does features on signing. There are also strong advocates of deaf culture and sign language. Often children who should be placed in oral deaf education classes have been placed in total communication classes or communicatively handicapped classes. The teachers in the toal communciation and communicatively handicapped classes often do not have the oral deaf education background to properly assist those children who need to develop spoken language. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for these children with oral potential to develop spoken language.