Special Education - focus on Hearing and Communication, including inclusive education

• September 17, 2026: Professional Development Day on Self-Regulated Learning in the Hearing and Communication Program: At the request of the principals of all 14 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, Melanie Pospischil and Oliver Schneider organized a full-day workshop. The focus was on innovative learning, the development of a new learning culture, and the question of how schools can further develop their own learning approaches in a forward-looking way. It was an intensive day filled with extensive exchange, discussion, and shared perspectives on how learning can be reimagined and redesigned.
• September 1, 2026: Welcome! Since September, Sophia Vogt, Clara-Marie Borchert, Ela Beysun, and Bryan Savkin have been supporting the department team. Sophia Vogt works as a research assistant. Clara-Marie Borchert assists with public relations as a student assistant. Ela Beysun and Bryan Savkin work as student assistants on the ElSiE research project.
• August 2, 2026: LMU published an article about the work of the Chair for the Promotion of Education and Participation of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People. In the article, Cornelia Ruppert and Laura Avemarie explain the importance of German Sign Language for a successful school education and emphasize the need for professionals proficient in sign language in early intervention, daycare centers, and schools.
• July 21, 2026: Lillian Siebert and Katrin Steiner represented the department at ICAP 2026 in Florence, an international conference in the field of applied psychology. There, they presented a paper on the relationships between linguistic, communicative, and cognitive abilities and the social-emotional development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• July 2, 2026: Save the Date: To mark the start of the 2026/2027 winter semester, the PIR Chair is offering orientation days (PDF, 140 KB) for first-year students.
• June 10, 2026: Laura Avemarie represented the department at the EARLI Joint SIG 4 & SIG 11 Conference 2026 in Helsinki. There, she presented findings from the ReaDi research project on the effectiveness of a training program for professionals in reading aloud digital and multilingual picture books.
• May 29, 2026: As part of the symposium “Early Intervention—Effective Support 2026” in Bergisch-Gladbach, Marike Dorhs gave a presentation on the development and promotion of executive functions in preschool children with deafness or hearing impairment. She also led a workshop in which participants were able to explore the topic in greater depth and gain insight into the “Hexe-Mini” support program.
• April 28, 2026: Lillian Siebert represented the department at the 2026 Bilingualism Matters Symposium in Milan, where international researchers and professionals exchanged views on current perspectives on multilingualism. In the session on bimodal bilingualism, she presented preliminary findings from the 2Bi research project in her talk titled “Development of deaf and hard-of-hearing first graders receiving bimodal-bilingual instruction.”
• April 27, 2026: Laura Avemarie was appointed by the Executive Board as LMU’s Anti-Discrimination Officer. In this role, she advises and supports academic staff in cases of violations of personal rights, particularly in cases of sexual harassment or discriminatory behavior. We warmly congratulate her on this appointment and wish her every success in her new role.
• April 1, 2026: Welcome! Oliver Krebs has been supporting the department team as a student assistant on the 2Bi project since April.

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