Inclusion of students with cochlear implants: overview of teachers

Abstract

This study refers to the education of deaf students who have been through cochlear implants’ surgery and are registered in public schools of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Recent technological advances have contributed to some new features in the field of school inclusion. Linguistic orientations for a student with cochlear implant involves spoken language. On the contrary, other deaf students, obeying to Decree 5.626/05, receive instruction in Brazilian Sign Language, as it is considered their first language (L1) and Portuguese, in written mode, as their second language (L2). Although they can also use Sign language and therefore need an interpreter, the students with cochlear implant need differentiated adaptations. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with seven teachers of different public elementary schools. Results show that besides the absence of FM equipment in those schools, there is still an unawareness from some teachers and other professionals of the consequences of cochlear implants, their specificities and the adaptations that are needed along learning process, which makes their day-by-day activities worse. Results also show that some of these implanted students often attend the resource room, therefore learning sign language. Some of them even prefer using sign language than speaking.