Hear Me Out: Behavior Management Techniques and Their Impact on Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers in early childhood education mainstream classrooms use behavior management techniques. More specifically, the first purpose was to study the practices used with children with hearing within normal limits and children who are deaf or hard of hearing in mainstream classroom settings. The second purpose was to study the knowledge and levels of comfort that general education teachers have with students with hearing loss, as well as the teachers’ levels of training to teach students with hearing loss in mainstream classrooms. The researcher generated an online survey which included Likert-scale type questions and open response questions pertaining to these topics. The researcher concluded from this study that most teachers use positive reinforcement with all students; teachers use behavior modeling, concise directions, and visual behavioral scales with students with hearing loss; and most teachers are comfortable teaching in a mainstream classroom with students with hearing loss despite not receiving (sufficient) training