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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06174/700595-53.stm
The tour group watched in awe yesterday as 9-year-old Jennifer and 7-year-old Timothy Meyers snapped plastic blocks together, building a bridge and bantering with their friend Brayden LaVerde, 6.
The three students at the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, Shadyside, are deaf and have had cochlear implants since they were toddlers. Unlike a hearing aid, which amplifies sound, the implant is an artificial ear that functions as a substitute cochlea, a snail-shaped structure in the inner ear that translates sound energy into nerve impulses.
To the hearing visitors, six of the 2,000 attendees expected at the five-day AG Bell Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Convention, their goofy repartee sounded utterly age-appropriate and startlingly clear.
"Our children walk away with the ability to hear and talk," the school's education director, Sister Mary Jo McAtee, later told the busload of visitors who included an international cross-section of audiologists, speech therapists and parents of deaf children. She said it is important DePaul students understand they have a hearing loss, but the school's goal is to prepare the students to transition into mainstream classrooms. The school is tuition-free.
The school tour was the kickoff event for the biennial convention, which opens today at the David Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. The focus this year is on raising awareness about "the benefits of early diagnosis and intervention for children with hearing loss," said AG Bell spokesperson Christine Countryman.
Founded in 1908 by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, DePaul has 55 students from Pennsylvania and West Virginia and represents one approach for teaching deaf children -- developing oral language and listening skills. The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, based in Edgewood and founded in 1869, offers both American Sign Language and oral education to students from preschool through high school.
Barry E. Hirsch, a UPMC physician specializing in hearing loss and diseases of the ear, has served on the boards of both schools for six years, said parents of deaf children should understand the range of options available.
"All parents of deaf children should be aware that they have choices about their child's life and education. They can focus on the development of their child's active listening and learning of language. Parents may also chose to encourage communication and learning with the simultaneous approach of auditory training and sign language," he said.
If their brain development is normal, children who get implants at 12 months, Dr. Hirsch said, "can pick up their hearing and speech skills and match their hearing peers within one or two years."
When cochlear implants were introduced two decades ago, some parents thought the procedure was too invasive. These families objected to the idea of treating deaf children as disabled and depriving them of deaf culture by not teaching them sign language.
Mary Beth and Tim Kernan, of Beaver, decided to go the other route with their 6-year-old daughter, Meghan, who just completed kindergarten at DePaul.
"When-I-grow-up-I'll-be-a-veterinarian," she read, word by word, glancing back for reassurance at her teacher Cathy Woods just behind her. Her parents are still determining whether she is a candidate for a cochlear implant, which is not appropriate for all levels of hearing loss.
The tour group watched in awe yesterday as 9-year-old Jennifer and 7-year-old Timothy Meyers snapped plastic blocks together, building a bridge and bantering with their friend Brayden LaVerde, 6.
The three students at the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, Shadyside, are deaf and have had cochlear implants since they were toddlers. Unlike a hearing aid, which amplifies sound, the implant is an artificial ear that functions as a substitute cochlea, a snail-shaped structure in the inner ear that translates sound energy into nerve impulses.
To the hearing visitors, six of the 2,000 attendees expected at the five-day AG Bell Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Convention, their goofy repartee sounded utterly age-appropriate and startlingly clear.
"Our children walk away with the ability to hear and talk," the school's education director, Sister Mary Jo McAtee, later told the busload of visitors who included an international cross-section of audiologists, speech therapists and parents of deaf children. She said it is important DePaul students understand they have a hearing loss, but the school's goal is to prepare the students to transition into mainstream classrooms. The school is tuition-free.
The school tour was the kickoff event for the biennial convention, which opens today at the David Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. The focus this year is on raising awareness about "the benefits of early diagnosis and intervention for children with hearing loss," said AG Bell spokesperson Christine Countryman.
Founded in 1908 by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, DePaul has 55 students from Pennsylvania and West Virginia and represents one approach for teaching deaf children -- developing oral language and listening skills. The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, based in Edgewood and founded in 1869, offers both American Sign Language and oral education to students from preschool through high school.
Barry E. Hirsch, a UPMC physician specializing in hearing loss and diseases of the ear, has served on the boards of both schools for six years, said parents of deaf children should understand the range of options available.
"All parents of deaf children should be aware that they have choices about their child's life and education. They can focus on the development of their child's active listening and learning of language. Parents may also chose to encourage communication and learning with the simultaneous approach of auditory training and sign language," he said.
If their brain development is normal, children who get implants at 12 months, Dr. Hirsch said, "can pick up their hearing and speech skills and match their hearing peers within one or two years."
When cochlear implants were introduced two decades ago, some parents thought the procedure was too invasive. These families objected to the idea of treating deaf children as disabled and depriving them of deaf culture by not teaching them sign language.
Mary Beth and Tim Kernan, of Beaver, decided to go the other route with their 6-year-old daughter, Meghan, who just completed kindergarten at DePaul.
"When-I-grow-up-I'll-be-a-veterinarian," she read, word by word, glancing back for reassurance at her teacher Cathy Woods just behind her. Her parents are still determining whether she is a candidate for a cochlear implant, which is not appropriate for all levels of hearing loss.