Re: Re: survey: degree of loss/mainstream (v. long)

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I cannot give any advice as I can't compare various schools etc. and every

child and school is different anyway.

I can only tell you what works for us.

Christian, now 3y,8m, lost his hearing at the age of 7 months. He was hooked

up with bilateral implants the week before his first birthday. We did not

know what to expect or hope for so went ahead hoping for the best :-)

He and his older brother had been on the waiting list for the local English

school (we live in Germany) before Christian got sick with meningitis. When

we found out he was deaf, I called the school to take him off the list but

they said they would not take anybody off any list but would like to see

what happens. Although I was happy about that, deep inside I did not think

the English school would be an option.

He would have a hard time picking up his mother tongue let alone a second

spoken language.

Around his second birthday we contacted five German mainstream preschools

but they all refused to even have a look at him and give him a chance. We

were devastated. We were referred to the School for the Deaf but although I

did not know what else to do, I knew that that place would never be an

option for Christian.

The only chance we had (without taking legal actions and forcing him into a

mainstream place - I did not want that because in that case he would not

have been welcome there anyway) was the English school.

To cut a long story very short, he started at the English preschool in April

2003. At that time, his German was almost age-appropriate and his English

very, very basic (phrases like sit down, come to me, listen ...). But

everybody was happy to give him a chance, his teachers were really motivated

and caring.

From day one he has been the social center of the group and has done

amazingly well. He has got a new teacher now (another wonderful lady) and

there are a lot of new children in his group now as in September, the older

children went up to reception class.

So far we have not regretted our decision once. His language is coming along

nicely. They have just had their Christmas play and he did wonderfully. I

had asked the teachers to give me the text and songs so that we could

practice at home but that was not necessary. He picked it up just from

listening like all the other children did.

In fact, they put him in the front row because he was the one to sing

loudest and clearest :-)

He does not receive any special ed services at school as it is a private

school that is not acknowledged by German authorities but he is doing fine.

If thing continue to go well, he'll stay in that school for 12 years, which

means he'll stay with his friends, too. And I really don't think they will

give him a hard time because of his hearing loss.

I think it all depends on the child. Christian is a true mainstream kid. He

sees himself as part of the hearing world and wants to do everything his

brother and hearing friends do. I think it would have devastated him to be

sent to a different preschool.

With Christian, we have found that he is doing better when you expect more

from him. For him it is natural to grow up with two spoken languages. He

needs to organize both languages in his brain to be understood both at

school and at home (although English is part of our family anyway) and

because that is what needs to be done, he does it.

I don't think he would do half as well in one of the German mainstream

preschools. He would only have to deal with one language and things would be

much easier at first sight but the atmosphere would not be as loving and

supportive.

Sorry this is so long and I don't know if it is helpful at all because the

situation is completely different. What I wanted to say is that a lot is

possible if we expect a lot :-)

Best wishes and keep us posted, please.

Sabine in Cologne, Germany with

(12/98),

Christian (4/00; meningitis 10/00; 2 N24 1/01),

Florian (6/02)

and another one 8/04