Deaf Mentoring

By Dawn Watts and Tabitha Belhorn, Ohio H&V

A Deaf/hard of hearing (D/hh) Mentor is a d/Deaf adult who works with a d/Deaf student and/or family to provide guidance and support. The guidance and support provided depend on the unique needs of the student and family; these needs are often identified through the IFSP or the IEP. Some states offer D/hh Mentors as part of their Early Intervention system to support families with language development, acceptance of their child’s disability, and as a role model to the family and child. Other times the D/hh Mentor is provided as a related service on a student’s IEP and can address needs such as language development, social-emotional development, academic needs, supports through post-secondary transition related to employment or independent living and more.

Research studies show that D/hh Mentors have the ability to provide assistance to families with a deaf child under their roof. D/hh Mentors empower families to understand that their deaf child is different but not in a hopeless situation. D/hh Mentors help families cope with their child’s deafness. Some mentors help families to understand the significance of using American Sign Language with their deaf child to develop language skills and interact with their child during family reading time to build cognitive skills before reaching school age.

The need for D/hh Mentor services are becoming more recognizable and many IFSP and IEP teams are open to the idea of providing a D/hh Mentor, but often do not know where or how to start. I was lucky enough to work with a school team in our state who loved the idea of using Deaf Mentors, especially with teenage students utilizing a transition plan. The school district kept in mind the needs of students and created a new contract position and job description for these services.  The job description is a great starting point for IEP teams and school districts to use to begin providing D/hh Mentor services locally.

The following is a sample of D/hh Mentor job profile derived from a school district.

Role of a Deaf Mentor:

• Communicate with the deaf/hard of hearing student using the student’s preferred mode of communication appropriate to student’s age and development (American Sign Language; Pidgin Signed English (PSE), Signing Exact English (SEE), or other.
• Model and encourage student’s interpersonal skills to empower self-advocacy*
• Assist the educational team in developing self-advocacy skills for deaf/hard of hearing students to foster independence in a variety of appropriate settings*
• Provide an honest awareness of personal experiences and perspectives
• Conduct home visits to provide support and advocacy
• Support students and families whose choices may differ from your own
• Build a positive connection with the student so that he/she may ask about new encounters, questions or concerns and help guide the student to express his/her feelings or needs
• Share experiences as a deaf/hard of hearing person in a hearing world that worked or didn’t work and why
• Provide exposure and information regarding the Deaf community and Deaf Culture including the American with Disabilities Act as it pertains to deaf/hard of hearing persons in conjunction with the IEP goals, 504 services, transition goals and activities.
• Discuss and model appropriate responses to emergency situations.

Safety and Ethics:

• Current background check including fingerprinting is required
• The Deaf Mentor is a role model and should conduct him/herself in a professional manner, i.e. to include including respect for families, confidentiality, and following documentation guidelines.
• The Deaf Mentor must have the ability to interact with a variety of children, adults and family members in the home and community setting.

*The role of a Deaf Mentor is not to supplant or replace the role of an Intervention Specialist, Transition Specialist or Supplemental Services Teacher. The Deaf Mentor role is intended to supplement the work of the educational team and provide insight beyond what supports staff in a hearing world can provide. A Deaf Mentor provides a unique perspective and credibility to a student’s whole child experience empowering the student for success in his/her school, community and career.

As you can see, the profile is written in a way to address the unique needs of the deaf student, including social-emotional development and self-advocacy skills. It is also written in a way that services can be provided at school or in the home and that distinction can be very important. One of my favorite parts of the profile is the last paragraph that describes how a D/hh Mentor is not replacing other services but providing supplemental services and adding a deaf person’s perspective to the team.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with Dawn Watts as a Deaf Mentor. As a mentor, Dawn is able to share her perspective and knowledge with the IEP team to improve student outcomes. Dawn has worked with a variety of families and students and a variety of IEP goals, shared with us here. 

Mentoring Experiences:

Deaf Children of Deaf Parents

I worked with three deaf children whose parents are deaf. The deaf children struggled with comprehension and were unable to understand story situations during reading time in school. I taught the children to put themselves in a story and visualize themselves in story sequences. I encouraged the three children to look at the book illustrations first, then signed the stories in American Sign Language to connect meaning to print. The children were able to understand what a given story was about through my descriptions, using facial expression and body movement. I also encouraged the children to discuss the story. This helped them improve reading comprehension and they developed language skills through American Sign Language and English. I also created vlogs to show that these three deaf children have the ability to express themselves in ASL. These children are now doing very well in school.

Working with a Student who is Deaf with Additional Disabilities 

Another experience was working with a deaf child who had additional disabilities and is part of a hearing family. She was diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a cognitive impairment.  She used American Sign Language as her primary mode of communication. Her parents and hearing siblings showed a desire to learn ASL; however, their efforts to find an ASL class had not been successful. I offered support for the hearing parents to learn ASL and advised them to take one step at a time for their daughter to overcome adversity.

This young student attended a mainstream school with hearing peers. She had a limited scope of the world due to her cognitive impairment. She was obsessed with one book about animals that was filled with illustrations, but she was not interested in any other books that would help her gain additional knowledge of the world. In the family’s home environment, I joined the hearing siblings to interact with their deaf sister by teaching them and communicating with them in American Sign Language.

During the IEP meeting at the deaf girl’s school, one important discussion was focused on mentoring to help the IEP team understand the significance in reducing the student’s behavioral patterns that made learning difficult through reading time with hearing siblings. My focus was on modeling compassion through patience and positive repetitive reinforcement in work with a deaf sibling who has another disorder.

Mentoring a Deaf Student in Middle School

I worked supporting a deaf student who had two hearing siblings and attended middle school. As a deaf role model, I worked with the student on how to deal with job search efforts, learning about ADA rights in community settings, including asking for interpreters in meetings and events. I also encouraged this student to show self-advocacy in making requests for support services in school and in community settings.

Every week, I took the deaf student to a local farm where I do volunteer work, and I encouraged her to observe and later discuss how I worked with hearing people within that work environment.

Mentoring a Hard of Hearing Student

Finally, I worked with a hard of hearing junior high school student who used a cochlear implant. She was a brilliant student who desired to learn about differences in hearing loss: profoundly deaf; moderately deaf; hard of hearing; how it impacts life in a hearing environment. She was interested in how a deaf adult deals in a hearing world, and what obstacles they might face.  

I spent an hour and a half of our time together teaching the hard of hearing student new signs in American Sign Language (different from what she knew in Signing Exact English or SEE). The student loved my life story and asked a lot of questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  A few months ago, she made an effort to set up an ASL Club with a videophone as an after-school activity. She hoped to show high school students taking ASL how Deaf people sign and more about Deaf culture.

Deaf/hh Mentors have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with students and families. Deaf Mentors are vital to the success of the child and family, to bring a sense of acceptance and shared experience to the table. Parents often feel alone on their journey and welcome a relationship with a D/hh Mentor.

If you would like to have a D/hh Mentor, you can request this service in your IFSP or IEP meeting. When you make your request, please share with your team the reasons for your request and how you believe it will benefit your child and family’s development. If your district has never provided this service before, work together to find a solution to meet your child and family’s needs.  ~

Editor’s note: If you or your school district needs additional help locating or creating a Deaf Mentor service or program, check out the latest guide: https://www.handsandvoices.org/fl3/topics/dhh-involvement/programs.html and the most recent survey of mentor programs in the United States: https://infanthearing.org/dhhadultinvolvement/states/index.html. For additional questions or comments, please contact the authors: Dawn K Watts, dawn.watts7@gmail.com, or Tabitha Belhorn, advocate@ohiohandsandvoices.org.

H&V Communicator – Winter 2019