“Talk is cheap unless you’re deaf. Then, it’s priceless.”
This is the motivation behind the Moog Center for Deaf Education. People who hear clearly tend to take for granted the ability to speak. On the other hand, for the deaf community and a hearing-impaired child, the opportunity to speak is invaluable.
The Moog Center for Deaf Education is an independent, not-for-profit school that provides educational services to children with hearing loss from birth through their early elementary years.
The goal at the Moog Center is to have the children mainstreamed into education and society. Although sign language is commonly used to bridge the gap between a hearing person and a non-hearing person, the Moog Center does not offer it.
They believe that students with hearing impairments who can learn to speak have a better chance of becoming mainstreamed. Their programs have experienced great success, with 80 percent of their students aged 5 to 6 having comparable language ability to their hearing peers.
This means that those children will be able to attend kindergarten at the same time as their hearing peers. In order to maintain such a success rate, the Moog Center offers a variety of programs: The Family School Program, The Preschool and Early Elementary Program, and The Mainstream Program.
The Family School Program, available for newborns through 3-year-olds, helps families work with their children before they are old enough to attend school full-time.
The Preschool and Early Elementary Program, available for children beginning at age 3, focuses on teaching children how to listen, talk and learn academic skills for successful participation with their hearing peers in elementary school.
Lastly, the Mainstream Program provides academic and language support to children with hearing loss who are being educated in the mainstream. In this program, workshops are conducted with teachers and parents to help them better understand their children and aid them in their learning.
Many people are needed to help support the work of the Moog Center. Contributions of money and time help provide more children with the opportunity to learn and to talk. Families whose children attend Moog Center for Deaf Education often cannot afford the tuition; therefore, donations are a considerable part of what pays for the education programs.
Old Newsboys Day donations help to buy hearing aids for young children and infants so they may hear earlier in life, a factor which is critical to language development. Whole generations of children’s lives are being impacted through grants provided by Old Newsboys Day.
The Moog Center also welcomes volunteers.
“The students love when older kids help out,” says Mary Shortal, Moog Center Primary Department Coordinator. “It gives them a chance to interact with others and play with new people.”
To get more involved or to find out more information, contact The Moog Center for Deaf Education through their website
Moog Center St. Louis - Home or by calling 314-692-7172.
