Guest guest Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hi K, Our 2 1/2 year old daughter, Hadley, will be enrolling in our local Montessori school come September. She has a severe (70db)bilateral loss and wears hearing aids. There are a couple families I know of who have sent their HOH child to Montessori schools for a few years and I've been bouncing questions off of them (accommodations, teacher inservicing, etc). Our decision to send Hadley there was pretty easy: her September birthday prevents her from going to most other preschools until next year (Montessori enrolls at 2.9); we always intended that our children would go to Montessori for a few years since it is a philosophy that we follow at home; our communication method (AVT) blends well with Montessori. The only other preschool we considered was one in a local music conservatory, but it paled in comparison to the Montessori school. Our plan is to have Hadley attend for a few years and then enter the public schools, probably for first grade. I do share the same concern that Hadley's speech is not as articulate as I'd like, but I know that being in a room full of kids up to 6 years old will be a huge help for her. Plus, once I observed in the room and asked to have the youngest kids pointed out to me, I saw they managed to have a great time and blend in, even with their own artic problems. Please do share your findings, as we seem to be on the same timeline. I can be emailed privately too, if this gets off topic. Kerry in Boston, Mom to Hadley, 2.5, severe bilateral loss, Cx26, AVT Montessori? Hi all. My husband and i are doing the whole private/public debate right now... one thing we've noticed is that in Seattle, a lot of the non-religious private schools are Montessori-based. Anyone have any experiences with a hearing impaired kid in a Montessori program? Our son has mild/mod loss (doesn't hear under 45db). He's new to our family (adoption) and we're still trying to get things sorted out. He *seems* to understand what we're saying to him, but his speech is almost entirely incomprehensible. Montessori is less structured in some ways, but the schools have small class sizes and are willing to be accomodating. Any comments? K. All messages posted to this list are private and confidential. Each post is the intellectual property of the author and therefore subject to copyright restrictions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hi K, Our 2 1/2 year old daughter, Hadley, will be enrolling in our local Montessori school come September. She has a severe (70db)bilateral loss and wears hearing aids. There are a couple families I know of who have sent their HOH child to Montessori schools for a few years and I've been bouncing questions off of them (accommodations, teacher inservicing, etc). Our decision to send Hadley there was pretty easy: her September birthday prevents her from going to most other preschools until next year (Montessori enrolls at 2.9); we always intended that our children would go to Montessori for a few years since it is a philosophy that we follow at home; our communication method (AVT) blends well with Montessori. The only other preschool we considered was one in a local music conservatory, but it paled in comparison to the Montessori school. Our plan is to have Hadley attend for a few years and then enter the public schools, probably for first grade. I do share the same concern that Hadley's speech is not as articulate as I'd like, but I know that being in a room full of kids up to 6 years old will be a huge help for her. Plus, once I observed in the room and asked to have the youngest kids pointed out to me, I saw they managed to have a great time and blend in, even with their own artic problems. Please do share your findings, as we seem to be on the same timeline. I can be emailed privately too, if this gets off topic. Kerry in Boston, Mom to Hadley, 2.5, severe bilateral loss, Cx26, AVT Montessori? Hi all. My husband and i are doing the whole private/public debate right now... one thing we've noticed is that in Seattle, a lot of the non-religious private schools are Montessori-based. Anyone have any experiences with a hearing impaired kid in a Montessori program? Our son has mild/mod loss (doesn't hear under 45db). He's new to our family (adoption) and we're still trying to get things sorted out. He *seems* to understand what we're saying to him, but his speech is almost entirely incomprehensible. Montessori is less structured in some ways, but the schools have small class sizes and are willing to be accomodating. Any comments? K. All messages posted to this list are private and confidential. Each post is the intellectual property of the author and therefore subject to copyright restrictions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2004 Report Share Posted February 18, 2004 > Anyone have > any experiences with a hearing impaired kid in a Montessori program? Our profoundly deaf son was in a Montessori nursery from age 9 months till 3y 3m, often 8am-6pm, 5 days a week. It worked well for us, eventually. He was the only child with a HI there and that was new to all staff. We had to emphasise repeatedly that his aids need to be on at all times, as soon as he waked up from a nap (not after 15 minutes) etc. They were OK about the TOD and speech therapist going there once a week. They were great at treating him like any other child, we never felt he wasn't included in activities or marginalised in any way. Dominic has learnt very good social skills there and has made many friends whom we still see occasionally (in fact he's going to a daily summer camp this August with one of his friends from his former nursery). He's now 4y 3m and has been at a different nursery for the past year, the one attached to the mainstream school he'll attend from September. At his new nursery they seem to get far more done in a 2.5 hour day than during a whole day at the Montessori nursery, but the children are that little bit older and the activities more structured. Good luck with your choices. (I forgot to mention we are in the UK.) Cristina & Dominic (4y3m, prof. deaf-Cx26, HAs-being evaluated for a CI) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 20, 2004 Report Share Posted February 20, 2004 I would highly recommend visiting several schools, if you have not already done so. I am in a similar situation with my daughter Jessie who was also adopted. Jessie has a moderate loss and has been aided since 14 month. She is now 2 1/2 and I will be sending her to two different pre-schools this September. She will go for a couple of hours to our towns integrated pre-school which has half special-Ed kids and half typically developing kids. She will then take a 5 min bus ride to a catholic based preschool for a couple more hours. I knew that I wanted Jessie to get the small class size and services she needs in the town pre-school, but I also feel that she is able to handle a regular pre-school environment. My first choice for the private pre-school was going to be another religious based pre-school but I changed my mind after my visit. When I told the teacher that Jessie was hard-of-hearing she laughed and said that would come in handy here. Well, that joke did not go over very well with me. She then changed the subject and I had to bring up the issue again -- she did not even ask one question or seem to care at all about Jessie's hearing loss. Then, I visited the program that I ultimately decided on. The teacher asked questions about what Jessie needed, was very open about working with Jessie's TOD and wanted to be as accommodating as possible. I just had a strong parental feeling that this is the right place for her. By the way, I am not affiliated with either religion of the pre-schools that I looked at, and that was not a problem at all for us. So, my point is that you can gain a lot by visiting the schools you are thinking of using. You might want to visit soon while classes are still in session, if you have not already visited. I think it is best to go twice if possible, and bring your child at least once to see his reaction. I found it helpful to talk to the director as well as the teachers and aids who will be working with the children. Hope this helps. H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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