This course promotes skill development and attitudinal change towards communicating with a hearing loss. Participants, including individuals who have hearing loss and their partners, reflect on how hearing loss impacts communication. The course allows the students the opportunity to create more effective personal communication, to identify and select communication strategies and tools, to increase self-confidence levels, and to learn to self-advocate. The students practice speechreading; they detect differences in mouth movements, discriminate and identify visual aspects of speech, and incorporate visual information with what they hear with the goal of improving personal communication.
Prerequisites
Course type
This is a standalone course that can be taken individually without enrolling in a VCC program.
International students: Contact
[email protected]
to confirm whether this course is available to international students.
- Hearing anatomy and audiological testing
- Categories of homophenous sounds (e.g., /p b m/,/ f v/, /t d n l/, /s z/)
- Speechreading practice with words, sentences, and conversation practice
- Factors that affect the ability to communicate (i.e., environment, speaker, listener, message)
- Relaxation exercises
- Rearing assistive technology (e.g., hearing aids, telephones, FM and infrared systems)
- Conversational strategies (e.g., repetition, rephrasing)
- Communicating in difficult situations (e.g., telephone, restaurant, groups, children)
- Assertive behaviour (i.e., definitions, comparisons, practice, reflection)
- Body language and facial expressions
- Humour as a strategy
Contact Deaf and Hard of Hearing department (DHH) for an intake interview and assessment:
- Phone: 604.871.7342 (voice)
- Phone: 604.871.7241 (TTY)
- Email: [email protected]
- In person: Broadway campus
Course schedules
Select your program to see the available course schedules.
| CRN# | Duration | Delivery | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50002 |
April 14, 2026 to June 30, 2026 |
Online | Online | See full schedule | |
| 50003 |
April 14, 2026 to June 30, 2026 |
Online | Online | See full schedule |
Online courses listed without scheduled meeting times can be completed on your own schedule. All self-paced courses have on-campus tests. Off-site certified invigilation centres may be used at the student's expense.
Contact us
If you have any questions, please email at [email protected].
† This information is intended as a guideline only. Program and course details are subject to change with the approval of VCC's Board of Governors.