I have a 10 year pupil who is registered as profoundly deaf. She started playing in November of 2005. I would like to give her the opportunity of entering for Grade 1 in a visit to be organized at her school along with her friends. Has anyone had any experiece of teaching such a pupil?

1985?????!!!!!

Can't offer any advice Ian, but welcome to the forums

Yes, that's exactly what I thought. Did you mean 2005, IanC ???

Hi Ian.

My daughter is between severely and profoundly deaf. She is going to do Grade 4 clarinet in the summer God willing. She's been learning 3 years - so not hugely fast progress, but not slow either. I can PM you if you like.

I don't think you should hesitate to progress your student - and the special needs options for the Aural test in AB exams are getting sl-ight-l-y better. I do think it is harder for my girl and probably other hearing impaired students sometimes to get a really good tone - but as a wind teacher you will appreciate that they are not alone in this!

I think in teaching music to hearing impaired (I teach a few such piano) the motto is - prepare to be amazed....

Good luck to both of you

I taught a profoundly deaf clarinet pupil a few years ago. Two difficulties I found:

- not really knowing how to describe the sound to her, as what she heard was distorted by her hearing aids. Tried to say "that is a good sound. How does it sound to you? can you make it again?""

- we needed to rehearse a LOT what would happen in the exam situation, as she was quite shy and would tend to guess what someone asked her, rather than asking them to repeat it. By enabling her to be aware of the sort of things she would be asked, if she felt she had to guess then at least it would be an educated guess.

She had enough hearing to do the nomal aural tests although the singing wasn't very good. Any way she got a Distinction at Grade 1 and was so pleased - I think being measured against hearing people and coming out on top was a real confidence boost for her.

Sadly, soon after that she developed really bad tinnitus and could no longer play.

I wish you luck with your pupil Ian - I'm sure she will do you proud!