Teaching sound to the deaf

[Achebe]

Over the years I have taught poetry to a few hearing-impaired students and aside from recognising the letters, it's quite difficult for them to understand the sonic quality of poems and why it enriches the language.  

I devised a lesson using different textures to represent sound.  Silks and satins for sussuration, cotton wool for f and p sounds, pine cones for spiky sounds like k... how would you represent sounds using concrete objects?  Or maybe colours?

Very interesting. 
Did they gain an appreciation of sonics from this attempt, or was it just a bridge too far in the end?