The Cochlear Implant School Toolkit

4 - Teaching a Child with a Cochlear Implant

Teaching strategy: Preteaching

A child with a cochlear implant must work harder than the rest of your students to understand what you say. Therefore, when you introduce new information, the child with a cochlear implant may concentrate on hearing instead of understanding new content.

Introducing new vocabulary, sight-words, and themes prior to beginning a new unit is called preteaching.

• Preteaching provides a knowledge foundation for a child with a cochlear implant.
• Preteaching often relies on the participation of the parents, but the same strategies can be adapted for implementation by teacher aides, interns, or older student helpers.
• Preteaching may help all your students maximize their learning.