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TheChadronNews.com - Chadron, Nebraska's News Leader » Chadron » Headlines
CindyLee Banks still remembers the first time she experienced the thrill of music.
“I remember that first day in band. The harmony with all the instruments together was phenomenal,” she said. “I love music. I love sound.”
For CindyLee hearing that harmony was a powerful moment. Her family believes a bout of mumps during childhood decreased her hearing capabilities but was never able to specifically trace her loss to the illness. She got her first hearing aid when she was 11 and her second at the age of 15.
Years later, when her son Paul was born she experienced deafness from a new angle – that of a mother of a deaf child. A state law requiring hearing tests for newborns went into effect just three days before Paul was born. He didn’t pass that test in the hospital, so CindyLee said she knew right away there were problems. Doctors conducted a follow-up test a month later to make sure, and the results were the same. Paul was severely to profoundly deaf in both ears. He was fitted for hearing aids, and CindyLee said he enjoyed the sounds of claps and snaps, but no one was sure what else he was hearing.
Paul was also eventually diagnosed with autism – he has some repetitive hand and leg movements typical of the disease – and with mild cerebral palsy – he didn’t walk until he was two and a half.
After visiting so many doctors, CindyLee said the best advice she received came when a doctor told her to simply take her son home and love him.
“My family and I had to accept him for who he was. Everything else is a bonus,” she said.
When Paul was three, he began attending the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind. As he grew, hearing aids became harder to manage since they wouldn’t fit for very long. Every growth spurt meant the ear molds no longer functioned properly. In addition, his school encouraged families to focus on sign language so Paul quit wearing hearing aids.
Because of her own hearing loss, CindyLee learned sign language in high school and took four semesters of it in college. She’d always intended to teach her children sign language so she communicated with Paul that way.
Last year, however, the family moved to Chadron and Paul, now a fourth grader, and his sister, Megan, a first grader, started school at East Ward. CindyLee received a new assignment from her employer, FamilySearch, and was told she could live anywhere.
She chose Chadron because she wanted to raise her children in a small community and several family members settled here two years ago.
It was a little nerve-wracking taking Paul out of a school for the deaf to enroll him in a district that didn’t have another deaf student, CindyLee said.
“But I just had faith that things were going to work out.”
It became more apparent to her that they would indeed work out as the school year approached last fall. The entire team that works with Paul set up a conference call with CindyLee and planned out how to help him make the transition. CindyLee served as her son’s interpreter for the initial weeks of school until the district was able to hire Bridgette Bartyzel. Since Megan’s classroom is just down the hall from Paul’s she also helped interpret when no one else was available and the teacher needed assistance.
The old saying “it takes a village to raise a child” embodies the spirit of teamwork the school district has fostered to help Paul, CindyLee said.
His classroom teacher, Donna Piercy, works with Bartyzel and Rachel Tidemann, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing from Sidney who visits the classroom twice a week. Jeri Blanford is Paul’s resource teacher for reading and has helped him move from a first grade to third grade level this year alone. Paul works from the fourth grade spelling list, and it’s his best and favorite subject, CindyLee said. Angel Lindsey is Paul’s math resource teacher and says he’s made “leaps and bounds” in that subject as well.
And now, just as it did for his mom, music has become an important part of Paul’s life. After several years without them, he began using hearing aids again in December. His new doctor, Dr. Nancy Gwaltney in Rapid City, researched all of the technology available and found ones that are allowing Paul to experience sound. Music has become an important subject for him, and CindyLee said he recently asked for a CD player of his own. He was also among the elementary students who had the opportunity to play their recorders with the Omaha Symphony when the group performed at Memorial Hall.
The hearing aids do more than just let him hear the world around him, though. They are helping him learn to speak. Speech pathologist Paula Peterson and communication assistant Lisa Jamison work with Paul for 30 minutes each morning and spend 30 minutes with him in class twice a week.
“We try to keep him in the class as much as we can,” Peterson said.
They started working with him in 15-minute increments to allow him to become accustomed to the sounds around him and have increased it as his listening and speaking skills have grown. His vocabulary has increased to include words like “yes,” “no,” “wow,” “mom,” “snow” and “cat” and he recognizes the sounds of many more.
His hearing aids work with a FM system that has a microphone his various teachers wear. The microphone transmits their voices directly to his hearing aids, and that, in conjunction with sign language, allows Paul to take an active part in class.
The team effort among the staff, parents and even Paul’s classmates is important, Tidemann said. Paul’s friends at school and at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are learning sign language. Both elementary students performed a song in sign language during a music program, and the church’s children’s program has performed songs in sign language during services. Classmates are teaching him to play football and basketball, and the Boys and Girls Club has served as an additional social network. Site director Nichole Koerwitz knows sign language and has been a tremendous asset, CindyLee said.
“Chadron has just taken Paul and embraced him … both of my kids actually,” CindyLee said.
Paul has thrived under the care of his teachers and the hearing aids have offered him a new range of experiences to embrace. It’s easy to see from the smile on his face while he works on his speech activities that he’s excited about those possibilities.
“It’s fun to watch Paul enter the world of sound,” CindyLee said.
CindyLee Banks still remembers the first time she experienced the thrill of music.
“I remember that first day in band. The harmony with all the instruments together was phenomenal,” she said. “I love music. I love sound.”
For CindyLee hearing that harmony was a powerful moment. Her family believes a bout of mumps during childhood decreased her hearing capabilities but was never able to specifically trace her loss to the illness. She got her first hearing aid when she was 11 and her second at the age of 15.
Years later, when her son Paul was born she experienced deafness from a new angle – that of a mother of a deaf child. A state law requiring hearing tests for newborns went into effect just three days before Paul was born. He didn’t pass that test in the hospital, so CindyLee said she knew right away there were problems. Doctors conducted a follow-up test a month later to make sure, and the results were the same. Paul was severely to profoundly deaf in both ears. He was fitted for hearing aids, and CindyLee said he enjoyed the sounds of claps and snaps, but no one was sure what else he was hearing.
Paul was also eventually diagnosed with autism – he has some repetitive hand and leg movements typical of the disease – and with mild cerebral palsy – he didn’t walk until he was two and a half.
After visiting so many doctors, CindyLee said the best advice she received came when a doctor told her to simply take her son home and love him.
“My family and I had to accept him for who he was. Everything else is a bonus,” she said.
When Paul was three, he began attending the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind. As he grew, hearing aids became harder to manage since they wouldn’t fit for very long. Every growth spurt meant the ear molds no longer functioned properly. In addition, his school encouraged families to focus on sign language so Paul quit wearing hearing aids.
Because of her own hearing loss, CindyLee learned sign language in high school and took four semesters of it in college. She’d always intended to teach her children sign language so she communicated with Paul that way.
Last year, however, the family moved to Chadron and Paul, now a fourth grader, and his sister, Megan, a first grader, started school at East Ward. CindyLee received a new assignment from her employer, FamilySearch, and was told she could live anywhere.
She chose Chadron because she wanted to raise her children in a small community and several family members settled here two years ago.
It was a little nerve-wracking taking Paul out of a school for the deaf to enroll him in a district that didn’t have another deaf student, CindyLee said.
“But I just had faith that things were going to work out.”
It became more apparent to her that they would indeed work out as the school year approached last fall. The entire team that works with Paul set up a conference call with CindyLee and planned out how to help him make the transition. CindyLee served as her son’s interpreter for the initial weeks of school until the district was able to hire Bridgette Bartyzel. Since Megan’s classroom is just down the hall from Paul’s she also helped interpret when no one else was available and the teacher needed assistance.
The old saying “it takes a village to raise a child” embodies the spirit of teamwork the school district has fostered to help Paul, CindyLee said.
His classroom teacher, Donna Piercy, works with Bartyzel and Rachel Tidemann, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing from Sidney who visits the classroom twice a week. Jeri Blanford is Paul’s resource teacher for reading and has helped him move from a first grade to third grade level this year alone. Paul works from the fourth grade spelling list, and it’s his best and favorite subject, CindyLee said. Angel Lindsey is Paul’s math resource teacher and says he’s made “leaps and bounds” in that subject as well.
And now, just as it did for his mom, music has become an important part of Paul’s life. After several years without them, he began using hearing aids again in December. His new doctor, Dr. Nancy Gwaltney in Rapid City, researched all of the technology available and found ones that are allowing Paul to experience sound. Music has become an important subject for him, and CindyLee said he recently asked for a CD player of his own. He was also among the elementary students who had the opportunity to play their recorders with the Omaha Symphony when the group performed at Memorial Hall.
The hearing aids do more than just let him hear the world around him, though. They are helping him learn to speak. Speech pathologist Paula Peterson and communication assistant Lisa Jamison work with Paul for 30 minutes each morning and spend 30 minutes with him in class twice a week.
“We try to keep him in the class as much as we can,” Peterson said.
They started working with him in 15-minute increments to allow him to become accustomed to the sounds around him and have increased it as his listening and speaking skills have grown. His vocabulary has increased to include words like “yes,” “no,” “wow,” “mom,” “snow” and “cat” and he recognizes the sounds of many more.
His hearing aids work with a FM system that has a microphone his various teachers wear. The microphone transmits their voices directly to his hearing aids, and that, in conjunction with sign language, allows Paul to take an active part in class.
The team effort among the staff, parents and even Paul’s classmates is important, Tidemann said. Paul’s friends at school and at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are learning sign language. Both elementary students performed a song in sign language during a music program, and the church’s children’s program has performed songs in sign language during services. Classmates are teaching him to play football and basketball, and the Boys and Girls Club has served as an additional social network. Site director Nichole Koerwitz knows sign language and has been a tremendous asset, CindyLee said.
“Chadron has just taken Paul and embraced him … both of my kids actually,” CindyLee said.
Paul has thrived under the care of his teachers and the hearing aids have offered him a new range of experiences to embrace. It’s easy to see from the smile on his face while he works on his speech activities that he’s excited about those possibilities.
“It’s fun to watch Paul enter the world of sound,” CindyLee said.