Miss-Delectable
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PennLive.com
Mary Sechman wanted her deaf son, Josh, to succeed in the hearing world.
Josh started speech therapy when he was 9 months old and joined hearing classmates at Forge Road Elementary School, where he was well-liked and was a good athlete. Something was missing, though.
He wasn't happy, he wrote in an e-mail from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Pittsburgh, where he graduated June 7. Living among deaf peers has opened many more opportunities.
"I didn't really communicate with my hearing friends, and I had a hard time understanding them," he said of his years in Palmyra.
Since transferring to the deaf school for his high school years, he comfortably travels around the country on his own. He will represent the United States on the men's deaf basketball team for the Pan American Games in Venezuela in August. He was named Mr. Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and competed in the Mr. Deaf America competition in South Carolina, placing third.
While Mary Sechman and her former husband, Alan, also of Palmyra, were content with Josh's progress during his first years in school, as the educational concepts became more abstract, he started to struggle.
When he was 10, he went to a class for the deaf in Lebanon offered by the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. He returned full time to Palmyra for middle school, accompanied by a translator.
"He wanted to come back to Palmyra to play sports," Mary Sechman said. "It worked well, but socially, things started to change. The IU and Palmyra school district pushed for the school in Pittsburgh, but I didn't want him so far from home."
According to Mary Sechman, a member of the Palmyra school board, "it was always my dream for him to graduate from Palmyra."
One summer, Josh signed up for a basketball camp at Gallaudet University, the college for the deaf in Washington. For the first time, he saw what it was like to be among deaf peers. His roommate attended the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Pittsburgh.
Mary Sechman wanted her deaf son, Josh, to succeed in the hearing world.
Josh started speech therapy when he was 9 months old and joined hearing classmates at Forge Road Elementary School, where he was well-liked and was a good athlete. Something was missing, though.
He wasn't happy, he wrote in an e-mail from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Pittsburgh, where he graduated June 7. Living among deaf peers has opened many more opportunities.
"I didn't really communicate with my hearing friends, and I had a hard time understanding them," he said of his years in Palmyra.
Since transferring to the deaf school for his high school years, he comfortably travels around the country on his own. He will represent the United States on the men's deaf basketball team for the Pan American Games in Venezuela in August. He was named Mr. Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and competed in the Mr. Deaf America competition in South Carolina, placing third.
While Mary Sechman and her former husband, Alan, also of Palmyra, were content with Josh's progress during his first years in school, as the educational concepts became more abstract, he started to struggle.
When he was 10, he went to a class for the deaf in Lebanon offered by the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. He returned full time to Palmyra for middle school, accompanied by a translator.
"He wanted to come back to Palmyra to play sports," Mary Sechman said. "It worked well, but socially, things started to change. The IU and Palmyra school district pushed for the school in Pittsburgh, but I didn't want him so far from home."
According to Mary Sechman, a member of the Palmyra school board, "it was always my dream for him to graduate from Palmyra."
One summer, Josh signed up for a basketball camp at Gallaudet University, the college for the deaf in Washington. For the first time, he saw what it was like to be among deaf peers. His roommate attended the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Pittsburgh.
