Samantha Kennel....that is awesome! YAY!!! Continue with the Sign.....I mean your son won't need it the way that someone with very severe expressive issues will, but its a tool that will and can significently help him! Rememeber being fluent in ASL gives all the advantages of being bilingal or multilingal in spoken languages does.
Well I think that your list of worries is an excellent argument for going with a full toolbox approach. You have stated that she has done very well orally with minimal therapy. That's awesome! That means that she doesn't nessarily need VERY intensive oral intervention. Some "enrichment" with AVT would be good. After all a lot of speech therapists really have little to no training with dhh kids. From what I understand, oral sucesses are sucesses whether they have tons and tons and tons of therapy or just minimal therapy.
I think doing so will help you with your decisions. It really does make a good addition to your library, (and if I do say so myself should be required reading for ANY parent/family of a hoh kid) and will be fun for Toes to read when she's older. Oh I can totally understand that! What state are you in? Have you contacted the Deaf Schools in your state? What about the state Deaf organization? Are you looking in the right places? I have to admit........while Deaf schools tend to be better then Blind schools academicly, Blind schools have something called a short term placement. Most kids at Blind Schools are MR. Most just blind and low vision kids are mainstreamed. But they do go to Blind schools for things like O&M and Braille classes and things like that with tthe short term placement. Wish Deaf schools had something like that. I know I gave you the link for both Hands and Voices and American Society for Deaf Kids....they might be able to really really help you! We might be able to help you too!
You live in Ohio? so do I, what city do you live in? You can private message me if you want.
.....Is that the Ohio School for the Deaf? Or are you talking about the self-contained classroom/ regional magnet programs? (the ones where they are located at a public school
). Will she be able to meet her full potential if she is in a mainstream school? Are there options out there for CI kids that address their specific needs that I am just not able to find in my area? What I am seeing so far gives me the impression that since the CI "movement" is still relatively new, there are not a lot of programs in place for them. It is an All Deaf solution or a Mainstream solution.
WOW! So much advice! Thank you all very, very much.
I only have a minute, so I can't comment on everything just yet... but,
- Columbus is also far away - 2 1/2 hours.
- No, we are not rural in the least.
My thought with Millridge is basically to do what Jillio and DD are suggesting - go talk to them and see what they do and then see if our local district can adopt some of the same methodologies. Millridge actually works directly with 21 districts in the area giving just that kind of advice, but not districts as far away as we are. *sigh*
Right now, she is in a mainstream daycare and has therapy every other week. We would go every week, but we are appealing for more visits and the $150 therapy visits are getting a little tough to manage. And we are not eligible for any assistance from the state on that.
Daycare is doing a great job with her. She actually talks more at school than at home. But I am always wanting to push for more.
Here is the thing that sparked this recent journey...
I was watching "Through Deaf Eyes" on PBS and a Deaf woman was describing her childhood education. She said so much time was spent trying to teach her to speak, that she never received any real education in math or sciences or whatever.
That *really* struck a cord with me. Now, i know Erin wouldn't need to spend that much time learning to speak. She is already well on her way. Her CI has removed many barriers that the woman on Through Deaf Eyes had to overcome.
But, my concern is that she might have to spend too much time compensating for general communication deficiencies and that could hamper her learning options.
I was trying to explain this to our RIHP person and she said "Oh. So what you are saying is, 'Why should I settle for mainstreaming'." Which is a concept I hadn't considered before seeing that documentary. It was always as though mainstreaming was our goal - but what if we can do better than that?
Erin is very bright (I know... Mommy Brag
Even comparing CI kids to HOH kids doesn't exactly do the communication issues justice. The two disabilities are different, in my opinion.
That is what keeps me up nights.
I guess I went over my minute.
WOW! So much advice! Thank you all very, very much.
I only have a minute, so I can't comment on everything just yet... but,
- Columbus is also far away - 2 1/2 hours.
- No, we are not rural in the least.
My thought with Millridge is basically to do what Jillio and DD are suggesting - go talk to them and see what they do and then see if our local district can adopt some of the same methodologies. Millridge actually works directly with 21 districts in the area giving just that kind of advice, but not districts as far away as we are. *sigh*
Right now, she is in a mainstream daycare and has therapy every other week. We would go every week, but we are appealing for more visits and the $150 therapy visits are getting a little tough to manage. And we are not eligible for any assistance from the state on that.
Daycare is doing a great job with her. She actually talks more at school than at home. But I am always wanting to push for more.
Here is the thing that sparked this recent journey...
I was watching "Through Deaf Eyes" on PBS and a Deaf woman was describing her childhood education. She said so much time was spent trying to teach her to speak, that she never received any real education in math or sciences or whatever.
That *really* struck a cord with me. Now, i know Erin wouldn't need to spend that much time learning to speak. She is already well on her way. Her CI has removed many barriers that the woman on Through Deaf Eyes had to overcome.
But, my concern is that she might have to spend too much time compensating for general communication deficiencies and that could hamper her learning options.
I was trying to explain this to our RIHP person and she said "Oh. So what you are saying is, 'Why should I settle for mainstreaming'." Which is a concept I hadn't considered before seeing that documentary. It was always as though mainstreaming was our goal - but what if we can do better than that?
Erin is very bright (I know... Mommy Brag
Even comparing CI kids to HOH kids doesn't exactly do the communication issues justice. The two disabilities are different, in my opinion.
That is what keeps me up nights.
I guess I went over my minute.
That's ALSO a very good point. Even many "superstars," have significent issues with incidental learning (just picking stuff up) Maybe by adding Cued Speech, and Sign and other tools, that would really enhance her learning. Erin might be a visual learner, so in that case, her CS/Sign skills could really come in handy, so she could learn content, instead of solely concentrating on the proper way to intone "Boo-be-bah".....Also, just b/c Erin looks to be developing oral skills, it doesn't mean that she'll be really amazing at it. Just means she won't have a HUGE gap between her chroniclogical age and her expressive spoken language, the way a lot of oral dhh kids do. She might not have to have formal spoken language therapy, but then again many if not most orally skilled dhh kids have to have speech therapy for all of their childhoods. (and while language therapy can be fun, speech therapy can be horrible!)
