I am very fortunate to work with three hearing impaired students who are at elementary level and, even though it's been quite difficult to adjust, it's been very rewarding!

I suggest that you get lots of visual images, make your worksheets colourful and that the place that you teach in has plenty of wall displays and pictures.

There are lots of everyday relevant real life activities that you can
do - practising filling in forms, labelling pictures with the correct vocabulary, practising the spelling of numbers, miming actions as well as text messaging - a format that most people are using day-to-day! (You'll find that your students will teach you most of the jargon and code words!)

Your student may have a friend who he/she signs with and this friend may be able to act as a translator for your instructions. The students that I work with state that building up their vocabulary is really important to them. They also eagerly use the Internet and Information Technology to communicate their feelings and also to read about what's happening in the world. I hope that you have the resources to do the same!

Jackie Poulouktsis, Greece
I have one visually impaired adult student who is trying to learn English entirely through aural means. He does not read braille but managed to get a degree in law, so he is obviously very bright. The problem is that I'm sometimes struggling to fill the hour long lesson as he cannot make use of visual prompts or read texts, so the onus is on me, as I have to do all the reading. The usual listening exercises on tape are not much help as the exercises all involve writing down information as it is heard. Despite all the barriers we seem to be doing quite well , and he tapes every lesson and revises at home, but I'd be grateful of any advice, tips etc which would make things easier. Thanks.

Dorjejalpo, Tibet
Don't worry about your students, please teach them as much as you can, those students will be fine if you are a good teacher!