Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Use an understanding of the administration of educational services for Deaf children in K-12  and post-secondary settings, including administrative responsibilities, position descriptions, contracts, policies, and evaluations to effectively advocate for themselves and work effectively as a member of the educational team.
• Use knowledge of etiology of hearing loss in children, co-occurring disabilities, language acquisition in Deaf and hearing children, best practices in behavior management, and current research regarding Deaf children and cognition to determine appropriate strategies to meet students’ needs.
• Integrate an understanding of differences in expectations of interpreters and student’s abilities when working with primary, middle, high school, and post-secondary students in order to work effectively with each age group.
• Integrate knowledge of laws that impact the education of Deaf and hearing children, the provision of interpreting services, and their effect on interpreters in the workplace.
• Act in accordance with the ethical and professional standards of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Code of Professional Conduct, and the Educational Interpreter Proficiency Assessment Guidelines for Professional Conduct for Educational Interpreters, applying the Demand Control Schema to analysis and decision making.

Activities include lectures, readings, discussions, ethical & logistical problem-solving, group or individual projects, guest lecturers, and panel discussions. 

Evaluation is based on group/individual projects, student presentations, papers, and exams or quizzes.

Course content includes:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Characteristics of Deaf learners
• Expectations of K-12 interpreters
• Legislation
• Technology
• Professionalism
• Language Acquisition