Miss-Delectable
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/l...un23,0,6419139.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
Emily Flamme ran around the classroom, smiling brightly as she chatted with friends. She stopped to point to a board with words to a favorite song.
"Kindergarten, here we come, we know we'll have lots of fun!" she sang enthusiastically, giggling as she recounted her preschool graduation this week at the Cleary School for the Deaf in Nesconset.
A year-and-a-half ago, Emily couldn't sing.
Emily, 4, was born severe to profoundly deaf. But she participated Wednesday in Cleary's largest graduating class of preschool students with cochlear implants. The 16 students, who now have near-normal speech and listening skills, will be mainstreamed this fall to their local public schools throughout Suffolk County.
"The cochlear implant is a miracle," said Lisa Flamme, 37, of Mount Sinai, Emily's mother. "If this was 20 years ago, she would be learning sign language."
Cochlear implants - devices surgically placed above the ears that allow the deaf a sense of hearing - have been in use for about 20 years. But they were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in children as young as 1 until 2000, said Lynn Spivak, audiologist and director of the Hearing and Speech Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
In 2002, Cleary, which enrolls students through the 12th grade, developed a preschool program for children with implants and digital hearing aids.
The pre-school program incorporates normal hearing students whose parents opt to have their children serve as speech models for hearing-impaired students.
"It's been absolutely terrific," said Fran Holtzman, a teacher at Cleary since 1989. "Just walking into the classroom you would not be able to tell the difference between hearing and non-hearing children."
Songs and conversation fill halls and classrooms at Cleary as students use language to express their emotions in preparation for mainstream schools.
"They are so ready," teacher Linda Geiger said. "I get goosebumps just thinking about it."
Geiger's son, now 24, did not receive a cochlear implant until he was 15, when his prime opportunity to develop early language skills had past.
"He was not included so when I sit here and watch this, it thrills me because these kids can go home and speak," Geiger said.
It also thrills Thomas Pannullo, whose son Christopher graduated with the help of a digital hearing aid. Christopher, 5, will enter Bartland Avenue Elementary School in Patchogue-Medford in September.
Having a digital hearing aid and normal hearing students in the class produced a remarkable improvement in his son's language skills, Pannullo said.
"They basically turned a non-speaking child into a speaking child," he said. "They gave us the gift of conversation."
Hearing made digital
Some of the graduates of the Cleary School for the Deaf in Nesconset had cochlear implants that allow them a sense of hearing. They are among the first generation to receive the implants as young as 1 year of age. Here is a look at how the implants work:
1. Sound is captured by the speech processor, digitized by a computer chip and sent to the transmitting coil.
2. Transmitting coil sends digital code to the receiver/stimulator under the skin via FM signals.
3. The receiver/stimulator delivers appropriate electrical energy to the electrode array.
4. The hearing nerve is stimulated by electrodes that the brain perceives as sound.
Emily Flamme ran around the classroom, smiling brightly as she chatted with friends. She stopped to point to a board with words to a favorite song.
"Kindergarten, here we come, we know we'll have lots of fun!" she sang enthusiastically, giggling as she recounted her preschool graduation this week at the Cleary School for the Deaf in Nesconset.
A year-and-a-half ago, Emily couldn't sing.
Emily, 4, was born severe to profoundly deaf. But she participated Wednesday in Cleary's largest graduating class of preschool students with cochlear implants. The 16 students, who now have near-normal speech and listening skills, will be mainstreamed this fall to their local public schools throughout Suffolk County.
"The cochlear implant is a miracle," said Lisa Flamme, 37, of Mount Sinai, Emily's mother. "If this was 20 years ago, she would be learning sign language."
Cochlear implants - devices surgically placed above the ears that allow the deaf a sense of hearing - have been in use for about 20 years. But they were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in children as young as 1 until 2000, said Lynn Spivak, audiologist and director of the Hearing and Speech Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
In 2002, Cleary, which enrolls students through the 12th grade, developed a preschool program for children with implants and digital hearing aids.
The pre-school program incorporates normal hearing students whose parents opt to have their children serve as speech models for hearing-impaired students.
"It's been absolutely terrific," said Fran Holtzman, a teacher at Cleary since 1989. "Just walking into the classroom you would not be able to tell the difference between hearing and non-hearing children."
Songs and conversation fill halls and classrooms at Cleary as students use language to express their emotions in preparation for mainstream schools.
"They are so ready," teacher Linda Geiger said. "I get goosebumps just thinking about it."
Geiger's son, now 24, did not receive a cochlear implant until he was 15, when his prime opportunity to develop early language skills had past.
"He was not included so when I sit here and watch this, it thrills me because these kids can go home and speak," Geiger said.
It also thrills Thomas Pannullo, whose son Christopher graduated with the help of a digital hearing aid. Christopher, 5, will enter Bartland Avenue Elementary School in Patchogue-Medford in September.
Having a digital hearing aid and normal hearing students in the class produced a remarkable improvement in his son's language skills, Pannullo said.
"They basically turned a non-speaking child into a speaking child," he said. "They gave us the gift of conversation."
Hearing made digital
Some of the graduates of the Cleary School for the Deaf in Nesconset had cochlear implants that allow them a sense of hearing. They are among the first generation to receive the implants as young as 1 year of age. Here is a look at how the implants work:
1. Sound is captured by the speech processor, digitized by a computer chip and sent to the transmitting coil.
2. Transmitting coil sends digital code to the receiver/stimulator under the skin via FM signals.
3. The receiver/stimulator delivers appropriate electrical energy to the electrode array.
4. The hearing nerve is stimulated by electrodes that the brain perceives as sound.