All students love to listen to music and do hand motions, dances and singalong songs. Incorporating hearing-impaired students into these activities is easy. Bring in a large boombox, record player or CD player that has speakers students can touch and feel. As you play the music, be sure to turn up the bass and the lower end of the music with the controls. As the rest of the students listen to the song, hearing-impaired preschoolers can hold the speaker, put their hands on it, or, if it is large enough, sit on it. By feeling the music, the hearing-impaired student is able to use all of his or her senses and understand more about what is going on in the classroom.
Teach all students a song. Along with the lyrics, teach all students the sign language that goes along with it. Most likely, the hearing-impaired preschooler will have had sign or will understand sign language. By teaching all of the students the ways to sign the songs as they sing them, the entire class can sing a song together without leaving anyone out. Also, the students who are not hearing-impaired will have a better way to communicate with the preschoolers who are.
Have hearing-impaired preschool students work together with the rest of the class to create a system of colors and lights that can be used in the classroom. All students should work together and should vote on what should be used. Some ideas that teachers might help students brainstorm include having a teacher plug in a string of Christmas lights when assignments are five minutes away from being due, or having different-colored cards on each desk that can be turned over when students need help with a particular assignment. The activity of working together to make decisions about what color and light systems will be used is an excellent community-building activity and will help students understand the plight of hearing-impaired preschoolers.