Will I ever be less confused than I am right now?! ;-)

[Guest guest]

My son, Sam, turns 4 in April. He's hard of hearing...profound loss

in left ear (unaided), and severe high frequency loss in his right ear

(aided).

Sam's been in AVT for 18 months (that's how long he's been aided,

too). He's making good progress (we think). He's nowhere near age

level in speech, but has come so far from where he was 18 months ago,

when his vocab was about 3 words used consistently! Now he mostly

talks in 2-3 word umprompted statements and his pronunciation is

always improving -still a long way to go for the causual listener to

understand him well.

Sam's been in the special needs preschool in our local district for

nearly a year. Wonderful, committed teachers, but I'm starting to

believe that they are just not knowledgeable enough about hearing loss

to understand what he needs, the importance of his environment, etc.

As well as he's doing at home, Sam's not doing as well at school.

He's very quiet there, and gets easily overwhelmed with the noise

level - his school is in a middle school, kids change classes

frequently so there is a lot of hall noise, there's a " faux " wall

between the two preschool classes, etc. I know that the preschool

teacher worries about him, future kindergarten readiness, etc.

We really do love the teachers, aides, other students, and curicculum

at this preschool. It's language rich, and Sam is very happy there.

Although he is quiet there, when he comes home he gives me a complete

rundown… " spilled milk. left backpack. My teacher is pretty

& #61514; "

But there's an oral education preK-12 school about 30 miles from us.

It's a public school and about 30 districts currently send some of

their deaf/hoh students there. The kids follow the curriculum of that

local district with adaptations based on individual IEPs.

The preschool looks great. There are some hearing peers in the class,

and those kids stay until 10:30am every day. For the other kids, it's

an 8-2:30pm daily preschool. Most kids get pull out speech 3x per

week, two weekly individual auditory training sessions, daily small

group. There's an audiologist with a comlete testing room available

throughout the school day. Sam was THRILLED to be around other kids

with hearing aids and cochlear impants…it was adorable to watch them

compare their aids.

From K on, everything seems geared toward the individualized child.

Some only attend school at the center; others have partial inclusion

with the school connected to the center; others are totally

mainstreamed and just receive itinerant services at the center.

It was so awesome to walk into a 5th grade group language arts class

and see 4 hearing impaired students working with 3 teachers on their

assignment (pretty impressive letters to the editor about the

importance of saving endangered species!)

So…what to do? Stay in our district, give preK another year, and

mainstream here? Try to get our home district to allow Sam to be

schooled in this other district and worry about the level of

mainstreaming as he grows and develops? (this would be a MAJOR uphill

battle with our home district). Relocate to the district that has the

hearing center school?

So, will I EVER be less confused than I am today?!

Mom to Gabe, 6.5

And Sam, just shy of 4

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

The decisions that we make for our child are some of the most difficult to

make. You want to do the best for them, but then wonder if you are doing the

best things.

It sounds like Sam is doing well. Remember, he has only been " hearing " for 18

months. His speech is hearing age appropriate. As time goes by his language

will get better and be closer to his actual age. My daughter was diagnosis at 2

1/2 and has been wearing hearing aids since she was almost 3. She started out

with the expressive speech of a 14 month old. She is in Kindergarten now and

she is understood by almost everyone. We have all worked hard to get her this

point. She certainly doesn't have the best speech in her class, but she isn't

the worse anymore.

It's great that you are happy with the teachers and the curriculum. Those

things are so important to a child's development. However I would be concerned

about the placement of the class. It's hard to believe that they would house a

preschool program in a middle school, but I know that districts today have to

stretch their resources, so they go to where there is room. The constant noise

from the hallway and the faux wall would be two things that I would take

exception with. Your child needs to have optimal listening conditions (actually

all of the children in his class would benefit from that). The external noise,

while it can be somewhat tuned out by those with normal hearing, gets equally

amplified by his hearing aids.

He seems to be able to tell you what he sees at preschool, but does he tell you

what he heard at preschool? I'm guessing the progress that he has made so far

is because of the work you do with him outside of school. Does he have an FM

system for school? That would help get the teachers voice in his ear, but the

incidental learning from the other students wouldn't be getting in. When my

daughter is in noisy situations, she seems to " shut down " . She will go and play

by herself away from all of the noise. I know when that happens she stops

listening as well. Thankfully she knows when she is too tired to continue to

listen, so she leaves the situation. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this

before, but for our kids, listening and hearing is an exhausting thing.

If the preK is going to be housed in the noisy middle school next year then if I

was you, I would switch. This is the age when you want him to get as much

language in as possible. Although the preK class he is in right now is language

rich, the listening environment is not optimal. That affects what he actually

takes in. I would give him a solid base to grow on. It sounds like this might

be better found at the oral school, if for no other reason than the

environmental differences. Once he has been given a solid base, you may be

able to bring him back to your home school with supports.

Like I said before, the decisions that we make are never easy. Remember you can

always change your mind.

My apologies if this reply is choppy to read. My sinuses are acting up and the

medicine makes me a little loopy!

Debbie, mom to , 5 1/2 mod/sev SNHL and , 2 1/2 hearing

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were

and ask why not. G.B Shaw

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