Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss: What Parents and Educators Need to Know

We cannot overlook the reality of bullying and students with hearing loss. It takes a heavy toll on a child’s emotional well-being, their confidence in school, and their ability to make friends. Because communication gaps can easily lead to social isolation, teasing, or painful misunderstandings, it is up to us as parents and educators to keep a close eye out for the warning signs and step in with real support. Every single child deserves to walk into a classroom where they feel completely safe, understood, and supported enough to truly thrive.

Key Takeaways About Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

• Students with hearing loss experience bullying at higher rates than their hearing peers.
• Social isolation can increase bullying risk.
• Strong self-esteem helps reduce vulnerability.
• Self-advocacy skills support safer peer interactions.
• Teachers and parents play a critical role in prevention.
• Cyberbullying is a growing concern for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Why Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Remain a Serious Concern

• Communication differences
• Social isolation
• Use of hearing technology
• Difficulty following conversations
• Being perceived as different
• Lack of peer understanding

Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss: Research That Matters

“I know how to handle bullying in my classroom!” may be a battle cry from any experienced and successful teacher, but the landscape of bullying has changed.

 

For starters, bullying most often occurs when adults are not watching. It happens online with social media, email, or texting. It happens in private places where those who bully are most powerful, and those who are bullied are most vulnerable.

Even more significantly, current research on bullying targets a high incidence of bullying in the deaf/hard of hearing student population. Traditional approaches to modifying and ending bullying behaviors, as well as methods and curricula for teaching social skills, need an update.

Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss: What the Research Shows

• In 2018, the University of Texas found that adolescents with hearing loss endured a significantly higher incidence of bullying versus the general population (50.0% vs. 28.0%), particularly for exclusion (26.3% vs. 4.7%) and coercion (17.5% vs. 3.6%). Children younger than 12 years with hearing loss reported lower rates of bullying (38.7%) than adolescents with hearing loss, but rates did not differ significantly. Author of the study, Dr. Andrew Warner-Cryz, revealed, “I thought more children and adolescents with hearing loss would report getting picked on, but I did not expect the rates to be twice as high as the general population.”
• A 2018 study by Van den Bedem, N.P., published in the International Journal of Language and Communicative Disorders, found that students who had lower language abilities were more vulnerable to victimization if they lacked understanding of their own emotions and levels of anger, sadness, and fear. Another red flag for teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing is that their students may lack self-esteem or feel isolated or different from the larger population of hearing students.
• A 2013 Gallaudet study on bullying and school climate found that 812 deaf and hard-of-hearing students in eleven U.S. schools reported instances of bullying at rates 2-3 times higher than reported by hearing students. Deaf and hard of hearing students reported that school personnel were less likely to intervene when bullying was reported. The study examined perspectives among deaf and hard-of-hearing students in residential and large day schools regarding bullying and compared these perspectives with those of a national database of hearing students. The participants were 812 deaf and hard-of-hearing students in 11 U.S. schools. Significant bullying problems were found in deaf school programs. Results indicate the need for school climate improvement for all students, regardless of hearing status.

Real Examples of Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

In 2016, the story of a deaf high school student in Nebraska was reported on television news. Students had taken his backpack during a lunch period and dumped it in a toilet. Contained inside were his tablet, school supplies, homework, debit card, and his cochlear implant. The student, Alexis Hernandez, reported, “Those students think it’s ok to bully a deaf student, but it’s not. It’s not OK to bully someone who is disabled, deaf, or hard of hearing. Or anyone for that matter.”

Incidents of “put-downs,” teasing, rummaging in school bags or desks, and stealing among students in an urban program for deaf/hard-of-hearing students give further anecdotal support. In one story, a teacher reported to the administration that teasing a deaf student about his speech and hearing aids went unheeded until parents called the principal directly. After all, the principal had reasoned, there had been no physical harm.

Warning Signs of Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

• Sudden reluctance to attend school
• Increased anxiety
• Withdrawal from friends
• Refusing hearing devices
• Drop in academic performances
• Frequent complaints of illness
• Emotional outbursts
• Avoidance of social situations

Common Types of Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Experience

The National Deaf Children Society (NDCS) in the UK provides the following comprehensive description of bullying in their publication: “Bullying Advice for Parents of Deaf Children.”

Bullying may comprise one or more of these behaviors:

• Verbal: name-calling, insulting, teasing, ridiculing
• Emotional/indirect: ignoring or deliberately excluding, spreading rumors or nasty stories, turning friends against the child, laughing at them or talking about them behind their back, taking, hiding, or damaging their personal belongings, drawing unkind pictures of the child, using a feature of the child’s disability to bully them (e.g., deliberately making loud noises near a deaf child who is known to find loud noises unpleasant, creeping up on them from behind to scare them, or deliberately making a noise when the teacher is giving instructions).
• Physical: any physical contact that would hurt, such as hitting, kicking, pinching, shoving, tripping up, or pulling out hearing aids.
• Manipulation/controlling behavior: using the child’s vulnerability as a way of controlling them or making them do something the bully wants them to do.
• Cyberbullying: using electronic media (internet, mobile phones) to bully someone. This includes bullying through text messages, instant messaging, email, chat forums, online games, and social networking websites.

Reducing Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Through Self-Esteem

Healthy self-esteem is the gatekeeper.

If individuals value themselves, feel worthy, loved, and able to handle rejections and bounce back, they possess qualities that naturally help guard against bullying or becoming bullies. Take teasing, for instance. Although it can become ugly and demeaning, there is a place for gentle teasing that allows individuals to laugh at themselves in a healthy way. We all make mistakes! We’re “human.”

Teaching Resilience and Self-Esteem Through Fictional Role Models

Two well-known stories give us perfect examples of what healthy self-esteem looks like. Characters in books or movies so often provide our best “teachable moments” for learning about behaviors in the real world. These are two heroes of fiction for kids of all ages: J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and R. J. Palacio’s Auggie Pullman of Wonder.  

In her insightful work, “Harry Potter and Hearing Loss – A Whimsical Look at Similarities and Successes,” Karen Anderson draws comparisons between J. K. Rowling’s famous Harry and his experiences as a new student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with the experiences of deaf/hard of hearing students in the mainstream.

There were many times when Harry was an outcast, made fun of, and treated poorly by groups of students. He usually did not react or lash out at his tormentors… He did not ask to be special. But Harry, with the help of his friends and teachers, persevered, tried his hardest, and was true to who he was as a person. Therefore, he succeeded against all odds. 

Most children who are deaf or hard of hearing do not wish to have a hearing loss. It is not fair that they need to wear amplification or have therapy and other services that most children do not need. It is not fair that they face listening and understanding challenges in many situations that are effortless for their peers who have typical hearing…. Ultimately, children with hearing loss will be successful because they try hard and have support and assistance from their families and teachers. They need to believe in themselves and that they can succeed. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing, with the help of their families, friends, teachers, and therapists, must persevere and be true to who they are as people to be able to succeed in a hearing world.     

Entering a mainstream school for Auggie Pullman in R. J. Palacio’s Wonder is another example of confronting and dealing with diversity. Augie’s facial deformities set him far apart from the norm, making him vulnerable to the stares and smirks of other students. He persevered, but not without the support of his family, friends, and teachers.

Two clear lessons about self-esteem from these two fictional characters: 

• Positive self-esteem is an anchor (our “gatekeeper”).
• It takes a “village” of support to maintain it.

Building Self-Esteem to Prevent Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Risks

There are many exercises that can help foster a healthier sense of self-esteem for our children and students. A few suggestions for teachers and parents:

• Allow mistakes and accidents to happen.
• Do not shame and blame others
• Accept differences in other people, families, and cultures
• Find the humor in your own missteps and mistakes
• Make an effort to talk about the things for which you are grateful
• Find ways to help others

Strategies for Addressing Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

Incorporate routine screening for bullying via direct questions:

• 

  Image Credit: OOliinyk / Shutterstock (Asset ID: 24702856)

  Ask the child about friends. A response of “none” or “few friends” deserves additional prompting (i.e., “Why do you think this is?”)

• Inquire if the child avoids going to school and find out why.
• Ask the child directly if he or she has experienced bullying. If the child answers yes, ask follow-up questions and refer the child to school and community resources.

 

Address developing skills to reduce victimization in the student’s IEP:

Issues related to peer victimization can be included on individualized education plans or 504 plans in the following ways:

• Informing teachers and classmates about hearing loss.
• 

  Image source: Modified stock photo / iStock photo stock library.

  Providing a safe environment statement to designate a “home base” where a student can go when feeling unsafe and/or a “safe person” with whom a student can discuss difficult situations.

• Including strategies to reduce vulnerability by targeting social pragmatic skills (e.g., taking turns and asking questions; reading facial expressions and body language) via one-on-one instruction, role-playing, or social stories.

Teacher Strategies for Preventing Bullying and Supporting Students with Hearing Loss

• Keep the discussion of bullying behavior alive and ongoing, not a lesson plan to be covered, completed, and put away.
• Organize a social skills group to help children develop social competencies in a supportive environment.
• Clinicians can also help patients address assertiveness and/or self-advocacy, with specific training to identify and report bullying, say “no” to stop the situation, and request assistance from a trusted source.
• Give your students a safe and open communication pathway for reporting incidents of bullying.
• Recognize that bullying will most often happen when you are not watching. In the lunchroom, the bathrooms, the playground, and the hallways. Just because you did not see it does not mean it did not happen!
• Be a listener.
• Be supportive.
• Report incidents to your school administration as promptly as possible.

Parents’ Strategies for Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

• Talk to your child about feelings, openly and often. They need to know that when things go wrong, you will be there to support them.
• Stay closely involved with school administrators and teachers.
• Be ASSERTIVE with school personnel when your child reports bullying behaviors.

How Schools Can Prevent Bullying & Protect Students with Hearing Loss

Include:

• Disability awareness education
• Inclusive classroom practices
• Peer education
• Social Skills Support
• Adult supervision
• Reporting procedures
• Postice School Climate

Cyberbullying and Students with Hearing Loss?

While our deaf and hard-of-hearing students find invaluable and positive connections online, the potential for negative interactions is, unfortunately, highly correlated with increased internet use.

PACER has developed a comprehensive website, PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, which lists the following attributes of online bullying: a) electronic forms of contact, b) an aggressive act, c) intent, d) repetition, e) harm to the target (Hutson, 2016).

The technology, accessed through computers or cell phones, used to cyberbully includes the following: Personal websites, blogs, e-mail, texting, social networking sites, chat rooms, message boards, instant messaging, photographs, and video games (Feinberg & Robey, 2009)

PACER concludes that those who are most at risk of cyberbullying are those who experience lower self-esteem, social isolation, and academic problems.

The joys of communicating online for our students who are deaf or hard of hearing are threatened by the simple act of “logging on.”

How to Prevent Cyberbullying and Victimization of Students with Hearing Loss

• RECOGNIZE: By being fully aware of what websites are being used. If we as adults continue to make excuses about our lack of skill or disdain for social media, we are inadvertently providing limitless opportunities for our children to be vulnerable to cyberbullying.
• REACT: Explicit teaching about security and boundaries
  • Passwords cannot be shared, even with close friends.
  • Do not allow people to be “friends” on Facebook or Instagram unless they are real friends!
  • Do not post pictures on Facebook or Instagram without the permission of each person in the picture. Even better: do not post pictures on Facebook or Instagram.
  • Do not respond to emails or texts from people you do not know.
• RAISE AWARENESS: The following is a comprehensive list of materials available from Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center website.
  • Cyberbullying Starts Earlier Than You Might Think — Here’s How to Protect Your Child Now
  • What Every Parent Needs to Know About Protecting Their Child from Cyberbullying
  • Helping Your Child Understand Cyberbullying
  • Cyberbullying: What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Children
  • Safety in the Online Community: A conversation with your 13-year-old about Facebook and Instagram – Facebook and Instagram partnered with PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center to create this guide to help parents talk with their teens about using social media.
  • What Parents Should Know About Bullying – This guide, created in partnership with Verizon, offers a comprehensive overview for parents to learn what they can do to address and prevent bullying, featuring a section on mobile and online safety.
  • Teens Against Bullying on Cyberbullying – Teens Against Bullying is a place for middle and high school students to find ways to address bullying, to take action, and to be heard.

How to Prevent Cyberbullying: Hands Off the Keyboard Until You’re Calm!

• https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/just-equitable-schools/core-values/preventing-violence-bullying
• https://stompoutbullying.org/get-help/about-bullying-and-cyberbullying
• https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/digital-awareness-for-parents

APPs to Lock Inappropriate Websites:

• Mobicip. This free app blocks sites, including chat sites and social networking apps that may be inappropriate, depending on the age of the user. There are three restriction levels.
• FamiSafe. Designed to block inappropriate websites for business employees or family members. Detects and alerts parents to explicit content on all social media platforms
• Internet Blocker – Freedom. Used worldwide to help protect children from harmful threats.
• Cold Turkey. This app will temporarily block websites from target devices.

Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Prevention Checklist

Parents and educators can ask:

• Does the student feel safe at school?
• Are communication needs being met?
• Does the student have supportive friends?
• Do adults regularly check in with the student?
• Does the student know how to report bullying?
• Are hearing devices respected by peers?
• Is disability awareness taught in the classroom?
• Does the student feel included in activities?
• Are bullying concerns addressed promptly?
• Is the student developing self-advocacy skills?

 

Frequently Asked Questions: Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss

Why are students with hearing loss at a higher risk for bullying?

Students with hearing loss are often targeted because communication breakdowns can easily be misinterpreted by peers as social awkwardness, snobbishness, or a failure to respond. Bullies frequently exploit these moments of vulnerability. Additionally, wearing highly visible technology like hearing aids or cochlear implants makes these students stand out in a mainstream classroom, which can unfortunately invite unwanted attention and peer victimization.

What are the warning signs that a DHH student is experiencing bullying or exclusion?
Because many children hide their distress out of shame or fear of looking even more different, parents and educators must watch closely for these subtle behavioral and emotional shifts:

• Technology Rejection: A sudden, fierce refusal to wear hearing aids or cochlear implants or use the classroom FM/Roger system.
• Somatic Complaints: Frequent morning headaches, stomachaches, or constant requests to visit the school nurse right before unstructured social periods like recess or lunch.
• Social Withdrawal: Retreating to solitary activities, a sudden drop in academic participation, or a reluctance to talk about classmates.
• Passive Masking: An increase in smiling and nodding along with peers even when they clearly did not hear or understand the conversation, signaling an intense fear of being left out.

The Bullying vs. Social Exclusion Matrix.
It is vital for school teams to understand that victimization isn’t always loud or physical; quiet exclusion hurts just as deeply.

Type of Victimization	How It Manifests in School	Hidden Impact on the Student
Overt Bullying	Direct teasing about hearing aids, hiding a student’s FM transmitter, or mimicking speech patterns.	The student rejects their hearing technology to avoid standing out or becoming a target.
Relational Exclusion	Passively leaving the student out of group chats, games, or lunch tables because “it takes too much effort to repeat things.”	Severe feelings of isolation, low self-concept, and believing their hearing loss is a social burden.

What should parents and teachers do when bullying and students with hearing loss become a concern?

• For Parents: Listen with deep empathy without immediately rushing to “fix” it. Document every incident with dates, times, and specific behaviors. Reach out to the school administration and your child’s Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) immediately; early intervention is key.
• For Teachers: Never dismiss a communication breakdown as a simple misunderstanding. Explicitly document your classroom observations, investigate peer dynamics promptly, and ensure the student feels safe and protected from retaliation while things are sorted out.

Where does bullying most commonly occur for students with hearing loss?
While a student may be perfectly safe during structured classroom time, their vulnerability skyrockets during unstructured periods like recess, physical education, and lunch. These spaces are incredibly loud, echoes are amplified, and multiple conversations happen at once.

Because a student cannot track acoustic cues over long distances, they may miss a peer calling their name, which typical-hearing kids interpret as being stuck-up or rude. This misunderstanding easily opens the door to social isolation and teasing.

How can an IEP team legally address bullying and social isolation?
Bullying is not just a behavioral issue; it is a direct barrier to a student’s Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Because anxiety and exclusion directly impact learning, the IEP team can explicitly add measurable goals targeting self-advocacy scripts, situational problem-solving, and emotional resilience. Furthermore, the IEP can mandate specialized training so every general education teacher, recess monitor, and bus driver knows how to safeguard the student’s social inclusion.

Can you provide an example of an IEP goal designed to prevent bullying or social isolation?
Yes. Bullying goals should never just say “the student will feel safe.” They must focus on teaching measurable, proactive self-advocacy skills. Here are two examples an IEP team can use:

• Self-Advocacy Goal (Teasing): “Given a scenario involving peer teasing or awkward questions about hearing technology, the student will independently utilize a pre-practiced, confident self-disclosure script to address the peer in 4 out of 5 opportunities.”
• Situational Problem-Solving Goal: “When experiencing a communication breakdown or social exclusion during unstructured times (recess/lunch), the student will independently identify the barrier and report it to a designated school ally or teacher within the same school day.”

The Three-Tier Anti-Bullying Framework
Schools can implement this actionable, three-part approach to create a naturally protective classroom culture:

• Proactive Disclosure & Scripting:
  • Tier 1: Student Empowerment.
  • Equip the student with direct, confident scripts to explain their technology to classmates. Normalizing their devices early strips away the mystery that often fuels peer teasing.
• Building Empathy & Circle of Friends:
  • Tier 2: Peer-Level Action.
  • Create a “Circle of Friends” or peer-support dynamic in the mainstream classroom. Train typical-hearing peers on basic communication etiquette, transforming them into natural allies.
• Staff Training & IEP Safeguards:
  • Tier 3: Systemic School Policy.
  • Ensure all school personnel recognize that missing communication cues can be exploited by bullies. Write social-emotional safety goals directly into the IEP document.

How does cyberbullying specifically target deaf and hard-of-hearing youth?
With the rise of group chats, gaming lobbies, and social media platforms, cyberbullying frequently targets the communication vulnerabilities of DHH students. Bullies may intentionally leave a student out of group texts, post captions that mock their speech patterns, or send uncaptioned video messages knowing the student cannot access them.

What Adults Can Do: Parents and educators must teach digital self-advocacy. This includes showing students how to utilize speech-to-text apps, activate auto-captions in video apps, and confidently use blocking or reporting features on social platforms.

What are the long-term effects of bullying on students with hearing loss?

• Increased anxiety
• Depression
• School avoidance
• Lower academic performance
• Reduced self-esteem
• Social withdrawal
• Technology rejection
• Higher risk of future mental health concerns

 

Additional Bullying and Students with Hearing Loss Resources:
Self-Concept: How the Child with Hearing Loss Sees Himself
Self-Concept: Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Self-Concept: School-Age Children with Hearing Loss
Self-Concept: Assessment & Strategies for Adolescence
Supporting Self-Concept in Students with Hearing Loss: 3 Go-To Ideas
Self-Identity and Hearing Loss
Addressing Self-Esteem and Issues of Fitting In
Teens and the Price to Pass as ‘Normal’
Bullying / Teasing Happens!
Reducing the Impact of Stigma and Teasing
Supporting Mental Health of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in the School Setting
What I Wish My Educators Had Known: 20 Tips from Mainstream Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Individuals

 

References

• Warner-Czyz, A. D., et al. (2018). Effect of hearing loss on peer victimization in school-age children. Exceptional Children. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0014402918767634. Download from: https://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Children-with-hearing-loss-face-more-bullying-2018.pdf
• 2016 news: https://www.newschannel5.com/news/national/burke-high-school-investigating-bullying-incident-after-it-goes-viral
• Van den Bedem, N.P., et al. (2018). Victimization, bullying, and emotional competence: Longitudinal associations in (Pre)Adolescents with and without developmental language disorder, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 2028-2044.
• Goberis, D., Beams, D., Daples, M., Abrisch, A., Baca, R. & Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (2012). The Missing Link in Language Development of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: Pragmatic Language Development. Seminars in Speech and Language, (2012), 33:4, 297-309.
• Bullying Advice for Parents of Deaf Children. National Deaf Children Society in the UK. Download from: https://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Bullying-Advice-for-Parents-of-Deaf-Children-NDCS-UK.pdf
• Warner-Czyz, A. D. (2018). Peer victimization of children with hearing loss. The Hearing Journal, October. Download from: https://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Peer_Victimization_of_Children_with_Hearing_Loss.4.pdf

 

Author: Webpage posted October 2019. Author Jean Snowden, NBCT. Jean has had 30 years of experience as a teacher of the deaf in varied settings and also experience teaching English as a Second Language. She has been an author of the Language Strategies and Social Strategies sections of the Supporting Success Teacher Tools e-magazine. Jean is the co-founder of Jack Apps Education and is a teacher-author at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Originally published: Oct. 2019
Last update: June 2026