RE: Hearing-Impaired Programs and Mobility Issues

[Guest guest]

-

I don't have any useful advice - but we did run into the same issue thirteen

(!!!) years ago. For 's first year of special education pre-school he

was placed in an Orthopedically Handicapped class, mobile with a walker,

with a full time sign language interpreter who doubled as a health aide for

trach care and tube feeding. The Deaf-Ed teacher had very much the same

response. Her justification is that otherwise unencumbered deaf

pre-schoolers are incredibly physical and physically active, and she felt

she could not keep safe in that environment. Two of the boys had

little functional language yet, no common language in the home environment,

and were still reeling from the effects of parental abuse/neglect and

attachment issues in foster/extended family placement. This only made their

behavior more difficult and challenging. was " mainstreamed " into the

deaf ed preschool for the second year (age four). It was frustrating, and I

still am not completely at ease with her decision because I still covet the

environment of complete total communication language immersion, but there

were some wild boys in that group who knocked down plenty the second

year!

Good luck-

Yuka

Hearing-Impaired Programs and Mobility Issues

> We are looking into hearing-impaired programs for her (she's had a

cochlear

> implant for a year now but not made much progress with it yet), and it

seems

> like everywhere we call is glad to talk to us and give us a tour of their

> facility...until we mention that she has CHARGE. Then, you can just hear

the

> whole tone of the conversation change. " Oh! Well, what other issues does

she

> have? Is she mobile yet? Well, you know, we don't accept children who

aren't

> walking. " So what are these kids supposed to do for services? It's like

> 's being denied communication help because of her mobility issues,

which

> in my mind are nowhere related! Of course, these are all private

programs, so

> they aren't bound by law to take her. And we really don't have any good

> public programs in our area.

>

> Has anyone else run into this?

[Guest guest]

This is an issue that has come up previously on the list and it makes me so

sad for those in this situation. It also makes me very grateful for the

educational programming has available.

We live in Indiana, and I have never heard of the Indiana School for the

Deaf (ISD) refusing educational placement for a child, regardless of

disability. (Ask Debra W. - ISD had Tryny there for a couple years, even

with all his medical aspects and the severe allergies.) The school has

actually gone to court to help parents place their children at ISD when LEAs

are not cooperative. At 27-months old started in a pre-school

program two days a week with only 4 other kids in the room with 4 adults.

She was trached, on oxygen, had to be suctioned constantly, tube-fed, and

wasn't walking. I took our home nurse with us and she handled the medical

aspects. The teachers concentrated on attention-getting and language

acquisition. I would sometimes be in the room to see the interactions, and

other times I went to a parent ASL class for an hour. I learned the most

from being in the classroom. Even if she'd been too unstable to attend

class at the school, there was/is still a home visitation program to access

for infants.

Then when she turned 3 years old, she was placed in the regular ISD

pre-school program; walker, g-tube and all. (The trach was gone at that

point, but we dealt with an open stoma for three months.) Maybe they were

less afraid for her to be in the program because they had already dealt with

her for a year?

has been in ISD her entire school career so far, and I don't foresee

any changes. She enjoys the school, has access to language at all levels of

activities - from the teachers to the staff in the dorm, and most

importantly her peers - that she can't get in a public/mainstream program.

Her ASL is now pretty good, and she is taking a definite interest in the

English language. She is wanting to write more actual sentences, not just a

few words that describe; but she has problems without promps. Last year

they had a Word Wall with color-coded words that they used to write every

day in a journal. Blue=nouns, red=verbs, green=adjectives. At the end of

the year they added more " English " aspects, like articles (a, an, the) and

" be " verbs (is, am, are, was, were) which are not used in pure ASL.

was held back in Kindergarten and first grade (did each twice)

because she was not ready to continue to the next level due to language.

She will be in fourth grade this Fall, and we feel she is ready to progress

with her peers. Her language arts skill level is somewhat mixed still

(reading/writing), but her ASL is really good for stories (receptive and

expressive), descriptions, expression of wants/needs, understanding

instructions, etc.

Without our Deaf School, would be nowhere near what she is today.

Our LEA wanted to place her in a " special needs " preschool with 4 other

children, none of whom were Deaf or signed. There would have been 5 adults

in the classroom (OT, PT, Speech, Teacher, Aide) and none signed. The LEA

said they'd place an interpreter with her. I asked how was to use

an interpreter if she didn't have ANY language yet. They couldn't answer

that one.

Anyway, I think it a shame in a time when Deaf Schools have declining

enrollments (ISD is on the rise, but that is pretty rare) that they are

refusing some of the children who most need their services. And when it

comes down to it, who are the individuals who in more recent years need

sign language access? In my opinion, there are going to be more and more

multiply disabled children that need acceptable programs for Deaf. When you

think about the fact that infants are surviving severe birth defects that as

little as 10 years ago would have seen them dead shortly after birth (many

of those problems cannot be completely corrected), and only 10% of Deaf

children are born into Deaf families, it stands to reason that there are

going to be fewer " deaf only " students and many more children with multiply

disabling conditions entering schools that need access to language. Whether

the school is a proponent of oral/aural, sign only, total communication,

cued speech...whatever....these schools need to recognize the need is there

and will only be continuing in the future. To deny these children is to

deny their own reason for existing. It is a sad situation, and

unfortunately the schools cannot see it.

Sorry about the soapbox, but I just can't stand it when I hear " denial of

access stories " about other deaf schools, public or private.

Friends in CHARGE,

Marilyn Ogan

Mom of Ken (14 yrs., ADD) and (11 yrs., CHARGE+)

Wife of Rick

oganm@...

oganr@...

Re: Hearing-Impaired Programs and Mobility Issues - Yuka

Thanks for your email, Yuka. How disheartening that this situation

happened

to you 13 years ago, and is still prevalent today!

That's kind of what's been told to us too by the programs we've checked

out

so far--they don't have enough staff to help with her mobility

issues,

to make sure she's safe and participating at the same level as the other

kids,

etc. And I can understand their point to a degree--but that doesn't make

it seem any less frustrating or discriminatory! It just seems like a

program

that wants to help kids with one disability (hearing impairment) would be

open to recognizing that other disabilities sometimes are present too and

would

be accepting of that. I feel like their message to parents is, " We'll

take

all hearing-impaired kids...as long as they're otherwise perfect. "

The whole situation really gets under my skin! Sometimes I think about

learning more about discriminatory law and advocacy so I can better deal

with

these situations. But I never know if that's really the solution. Do I

want my

daughter to go somewhere she's not welcome just because I pushed the

issue?

I'd rather find a program that embraces her for who she is...if there is

such a thing.

[Guest guest]

Marilyn,

HERE! HERE! (or is it HEAR! HEAR! ?) You are absolutely right.

pam

[Guest guest]

Marilyn,

HERE! HERE! (or is it HEAR! HEAR! ?) You are absolutely right.

pam

[Guest guest]

hi, tim didn't start his new school until last sept. , but I know they have

early intervetnion and pre-k there. there is at least one family on the

list that has experience at that level---however, we are in nj. if you want

more info --let me know. htere are at lest 4 choldren with charge at our

school, lakedrive school for the deaf and hard of hearing--mountain lakes

nj. they do have a web site. I am soooooooo happy with the school and the

actual school district is #3 in the state I believe.

maria mom to timmy 9 on 8/15, keegan 6 liam 3, wife to pat

Hearing-Impaired Programs and Mobility Issues

> Hi All,

>

> I was wondering if anyone on the list with a toddler in a hearing-impaired

> program has run into problems of finding programs that will accept a child

who

> is not walking yet. Our daughter is 2 1/2 and has not mastered

> walking on her own yet. She can roll, crawl, pull up on furniture and

cruise, and

> can walk with a walker, but she's still a ways away from conquering her

> balance problems.

>

> We are looking into hearing-impaired programs for her (she's had a

cochlear

> implant for a year now but not made much progress with it yet), and it

seems

> like everywhere we call is glad to talk to us and give us a tour of their

> facility...until we mention that she has CHARGE. Then, you can just hear

the

> whole tone of the conversation change. " Oh! Well, what other issues does

she

> have? Is she mobile yet? Well, you know, we don't accept children who

aren't

> walking. " So what are these kids supposed to do for services? It's like

> 's being denied communication help because of her mobility issues,

which

> in my mind are nowhere related! Of course, these are all private

programs, so

> they aren't bound by law to take her. And we really don't have any good

> public programs in our area.

>

> Has anyone else run into this? Do you know of good public

hearing-impaired

> educational programs (preferable total communication) for preschoolers?

Any

> help would be much appreciated!

>

> K of OH. Mother to , 2 1/2 (CHARGE) and wife to Arlin.

>

>

>