The Classroom Computer as a Partner in Teaching Basic Skills to Hearing-Impaired Children

Personal computers are being used in a new way at Gallaudet College/Kendall Demonstration Elementary School: as teaching partners in basic skills instruction of hearing-impaired children. Operating as an active partner, the computer supports the speech curriculum by personalizing and extending teaching techniques related to existing textbooks. This approach provides both phonetic and phonologic practice. Benefits of this approach are the faster pace and better retention of the material by the students, peer support in performing exercises correctly, and positive social interaction. Other benefits include a marked improvement in teacher productivity and the byproduct exposure of the students to computers and to typing. In the application to be presented in this article, the computer has been programmed specifically to support teaching with the textbook Discovering Phonics We Use.