Bullying and the DHH student

Bullying is becoming a prevalent issue in today's schools and communities. There have been studies conducted to gain insight to possibly reduce the amount of bullying occurring in our schools. Though there have been studies conducted for specific populations within Special Education; one group of students who have been overlooked are the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students in mainstream school settings. Hearing students who grew up in a different culture might not understand the struggles and experiences of their DHH counterparts. This project outlined a unit of study that was implemented in American Sign Languages classes to reduce miscommunication and misunderstandings between DHH students and hearing students. There were 100 participants who were taking American Sign Language Level 1 as their language requirement to graduate high school. It focused on exposure to Deaf culture, the Deaf community, and the Deaf experience in hopes of fostering camaraderie and friendships between DHH students and hearing students.