Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HoH) experience unique challenges in public school settings. They often face academic and social obstacles that their normal hearing peers do not encounter. D/HoH adolescents especially tend to have less positive notions about themselves. Often they feel isolation and alienation from peers in inclusive classrooms because of the language barrier. Due to this, social interactions that could foster feelings of belonging and friendship with hearing peers are limited. During adolescent, children tend to shift their allegiance from their family to their peers. Peers provide them with social support and validate their self-worth. The D/HoH student who is unable to establish positive social interactions will most likely have trouble with his or her self-esteem, self-concept, and the ability to self-advocate. Audiologists can provide personal adjustment counseling to their clients who are dealing with the social and psychological adolescent developmental issues such as self-esteem, self-concept, and self-advocacy (Rall & Montoya, n.d.). History of Deaf Education in America

The education for Deaf children in America primarily consisted of private tutoring or schooling in Europe in the early eighteenth-century. European schools used the oral method, which made use of speech, lip-reading, and written language to facilitate learning. They also used the manual method that used signs and writing. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet visited the Royal Institute for the Deaf in Paris in 1815 where he met a deaf teacher, Laurent Clerc. Upon returning to America, he and Clerc founded the American Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817, the first deaf school established in America (Kutler, 2003). By the late nineteenth century, many American states had established their own schools. These schools primarily used American