Chapter 2: Friendships and Social Access: Outside Looking In

1. What are some of your earliest school memories? Do you agree with the authors that these memories are about connections and friendships?


2. In discussing the effect of gender on friendships, the authors surmise that “hearing girls would befriend deaf girls and occasionally deaf boys, but rarely did hearing boys befriend deaf peers of either gender.” Does that jibe with your experience?


3. Only 12% of the study participants had deaf friends during middle and high school, yet the overwhelming feeling was that these friendships were lifelines and extremely important. The data also showed that only 25 percent had hearing friends, and these friendships were often superficial. Why do you think it is that these issues don’t get more attention? Why doesn’t research explore these issues more deeply?
4. In addition to friendships, conversations are also greatly missing for many deaf schoolchildren and teens. Have you heard the term ubiquitous conversations before? After reading this section, is it clear to you what this means and what is missing? Was Hopper’s research an eye-opener for you?
5. Does the term bystander resonate with you? Think about a time when you were a bystander. How did you feel in that role?
6. A theme emerges that neither deaf students nor educators know how much conversation and information is missing throughout the school day. This study suggests it is a lot! Yet, both adults and students tend to consistently overestimate how much is understood and thus believe everything is fine when clearly it is not. What ideas do you have for hitting home that these missing conversations are happening everyday are a huge problem?

Chapter 3: The Struggle to Shape an Identity

1. What is the hearing standard? How do you understand this concept?
2. Think back to your adolescence and early adulthood. Think about, in particular, the term psychosocial mutuality. Was your self-concept and how others viewed you ever in conflict? How did you resolve this for yourself? Is this concept helpful to you in understanding your identity journey?
3. The study participants had strong feelings about the importance of the role of parents in their school life to the point where they said if parents could not, for whatever reason, fight fiercely for their child, that child would be better off in a deaf school. They also said it is totally unfair that educational success depends so heavily on parental involvement as it leaves out so many deserving students. Do you agree or disagree with these statements? Why?
4. Being viewed as “the deaf kid” comes with a ton of baggage and is a label that is enormously difficult to crack. Discuss how this is harmful to both the deaf/hard of hearing student and to their hearing peers and teachers. What do you think can be done to crack that label?
5. On page 57, Oliva and Lytle state, “Having deaf peers seemed to serve as a protective buffer to self-esteem.” Moreover, increased self-esteem resulted in more and better friendships with both deaf and hearing peers. This is an important message to get across to parents. What ideas do you have for getting this message out?
6. The study participants said that being involved in extracurricular activities and sports did not make them happier and more successful students. Yet this contradicts most research findings, which say participation makes a difference. In your own experience, which of these findings seems most accurate?

Chapter 4: K–12 Interpreters and Other Placement Issues

1. P.L. 94-142, which later became IDEA, was passed in 1975, and yet in the year this book was published (2014), parents too often still had to fight for interpreters and transcription services for their schoolchildren. How do you make sense of that?
2. Study respondents had strong words (both positive and negative) to share about their interpreters. Which of the stories in this chapter touched you the most?
3. Several participants in this study mentioned needing protection from the adults in the school setting, most often meaning their teachers and interpreters, who were sometimes mean or unprofessional and, more often, simply clueless or lacking in skill. What ideas do you have for adding a layer of protection and oversight for deaf children in the general education classes? How do we make the student-interpreter relationship safer?
4. Are you familiar with the pull-out time to the “resource room?” Were you surprised to read that this was often viewed as not helpful and even hated? Suppose you were able to design a truly helpful and enjoyable resource room. What would this look like?

Chapter 5: A System in Need of Reform

1. What does LRE (least restrictive environment) mean to you? Did you change your thinking after reading this chapter?
2. Suppose school systems started to view LRE not as placement decisions, but as how deaf and hard of hearing students actually learn. What changes do you think would result?
3. Federal legislation for EHDI (Early Infant Hearing Detection and Intervention) has made a huge difference for deaf and hard of hearing infants and young children. Over the years, deaf and hard of hearing adults have become increasingly involved with those organizations, bringing with them their value of American Sign Language, bilingualism and Deaf mentoring. Unfortunately, there is nothing like this for school-aged children. Imagine there was such an organization, backed by law. What would it look like and how could it positively impact deaf and hard of hearing schoolchildren and their families?

Chapter 6: K–12 Interpreters and Mediated Education: More and Better Is Not Enough

1. Did you have an interpreter in your K–12 years? Or perhaps, were you such an interpreter? Do the stories in this chapter mirror your experiences? What would you add?
2. The authors make a strong argument for direct communication in the classroom. This means teachers and peers must learn and use some basic ASL regularly. Do you think this is a realistic expectation? Can you see it having a chance of success? Why or why not?
3. The EIPA (Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment) is the certification standard for classroom interpreters. Were you surprised to read that the majority of K–12 interpreters score far below the expected 4.5 or 5.0 level and that the weakest interpreters are often working at the elementary school level? What implications does this have for classroom learning and socialization?

Chapter 7: Summer and Weekend Programs: If You Build it, They Will Come

1. As a child, did you attend a summer camp? What was this experience like for you? Can you relate easily to the stories in this chapter?
2. It seems the very best thing deaf camps do is provide deaf and hard of hearing kids with “others like me” in a natural environment where communication is direct. Here the magic is that campers can focus on being a regular kid and not a deaf kid. Discuss why this is so magical.
3. How can we create more experiences where solitaires – especially those who are oral – are exposed to, and hopefully then connect to, signing deaf peers?
4. Why are parents so often resistant to sending their deaf or hard of hearing child to a deaf camp? What can be done to change this?

Chapter 8: Scholars, Parents, Advocates, and Allies: Working for Change

1. This chapter highlights efforts from different individuals and groups that the authors feel are making a difference. Which of these endeavors did you most connect with?
2. While reading this chapter, did you start thinking about where you could best make a contribution to making life better for deaf and hard of hearing school children?
3. Were you familiar with the term audism before reading this book? Can you give some examples of audism you personally experienced?
4. Do you have any personal experience with Deaf Mentors? Please share.

Chapter 9: Turning the Tide: Making Life Better

1. What are your thoughts on why it has traditionally been so challenging to improve the education system for deaf and hard of hearing K – 12 students, no matter what setting they are in?
2. What do you think of the proposed new profession “deaf educational specialists?”
3. One of the vitally important components of developing this new profession is to finally create some fairness and equity for students so that it no longer matters if you have or don’t have middle class savvy parents who are able to find time to show up at the school to meet with teachers and other personnel to advocate for their child. This professional’s job would be to advocate in the best interest of each individual student and they would have the knowledge to do it. Do you think this is a something that would make a difference?
4. Hopper’s idea of using text translators in the school is something that technology has actually made possible today. Can you see it working in ways that make a difference?
5. What other ideas do you have to make life better? Do you have the resources to put your ideas into action?
6. Do you know of relevant research that has taken place since the publication of this book in 2014? What ideas do you have for what needs to be done at this point?