Putting your deaf children in which schools...and why?

huneybear75

huneybear75

New Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
I'm curious about one issue, What would happen if you had a deaf child of your own, and which school would you enroll your child in? Mainstreamed or deaf institute, and why?
 
Originally posted by huneybear75
I'm curious about one issue, What would happen if you had a deaf child of your own, and which school would you enroll your child in? Mainstreamed or deaf institute, and why?
Click to expand...

Okay, interesting question. A deaf child.. ::sighs:: this is a hard one for me, because I myself am deaf... I went to a deaf program, which was great, great for socializing... but on the other hand, education sort of :barf: which is why I went to a hearing school, mainstreamed alone.. better education....
But at first, first- I'd put my child into a deaf program with hearing kids... and a small group of deaf people. Let her/him continue that.. and if he/she is outleveling the education there, I would try and put him/her in a hearing school.. and hope for the best.
 
Well.. I grew up here in Indiana School for the Deaf for 15 years. I've seen all around different deaf schools. And I defenifly will put my kid in ISD. There's some explanation here about ISD.

What about ISD.. I went to ISD since 15 years.. I've compared to another deaf school since and there some postive and negative in here.. But most postive things..that ISD do have high and good education. I had many mainstreaming friends who I've met and moved to our school.. Some of them are lucky and some of them not, because as for not lucky kid.. If they joined ISD really late in high school..whew..its too late for them unless they 'll change and learn faster.. If join ISD in middle school or elementary ...they'll be fine.
Many outsiders friends or other students from other deaf school..they usually thinks we're all smart students here or all big head around here.. I don't believe that.. I'm still senior right now..here ISD.. And I've seen for 15 years here... We're all like one big family.. TRUE.. Whenever there's new student joined, they're part one of our family too. I strongly suggest if there's mainstreaming students outhere.. Join to ISD soon as possible!! Its for your future!
 
When I have my own children, if he or she turn out to be deaf. I would put him to maintsteam with deaf programs. Hopefully, if she or he can be motive to learn how to become oral. It will help push him into excellent english, if possible. I know, it's cannot be problem but hey it's school's program what they can do their best.
 
I already have a child of my own who is hard of hearing and he is currently attending PSD (Pennsylvania School for the Deaf) for Transition class (Head Start class) and will be transferring to an catholic school for the deaf and hard of hearing this fall. This school is very good, has excellent education program and good discipline, and gives their students an head start to mainstreaming classes, good speech therapy program, and has both oral and ASL communication skills (total communication).
 
I would put my child in the public school. However, it really depends on how strong my child would be. Most of important, it is important that you have different education materials besides just a school.

My idea is to put my child into public school with an interpreter and IEP set up. Also take my child with us to deaf events. That's another different education area. Hopefully this child would have deaf friends who could help fill in the "Deaf" education too. Mostly important, don't ever neglict your child. If you do, that child would set up some kind of roadblock for you. It'll be very hard for you to get around it.
 
will be transferring to an catholic school for the deaf and hard of hearing this fall.
Click to expand...
St. Rita's?
That's awesome that even thou your son is HOH you're giving him a Deaf education and the best of both worlds! I think initially for preschool and kindergarten, that I would send my kids (and my kids are in all likihood going to be deaf as I have a 50% chance of passing my syndrome on. Even if I don't have kids nautrally I am going to try to adopt a deaf or hoh kid)
As for me...I would start my kids out at a deaf school, for preschool and kindergarten. Then if I felt they were ready, I would mainstream them. The reason I would do this is so that they would get nessary services and a foundation for their later education. I think part of the reason why achiement has been so low even with EI, is b/c a lot of kids tend to fall through the cracks and not recieve appropreate services. Before mainstreaming them, I'd check out the programs at the local schools and to also check if there were any other deaf/hoh kids. I was always the only one who wore hearing aids, and I can clearly remember thinking that I was the only hoh kid in the entire world! I'd also send them to deaf camps and have them be involved in deaf culture from the start!
 
I would definitely place my child at a deaf school where he/she has full access to communication and language at all times instead of partial at mainstreamed programs.
 
Teekie said:
I already have a child of my own who is hard of hearing and he is currently attending PSD (Pennsylvania School for the Deaf) for Transition class (Head Start class) and will be transferring to an catholic school for the deaf and hard of hearing this fall.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, what level of hearing loss does your son have? I know people have all different definitions of where deaf and HOH are, would be interesting to compare to other conceptions of HOH if placements are available for HOH kids in some deaf schools.

My HOH daughter is currently in a split placement, mostly mainstream nursery and attending a deaf nursery once a week and deaf events as often as possible. I'd love for her to continue in the deaf school because of its facilities, staff attitudes and small class sizes. She fears to speak when others will hear her, we think she is scared of doing it wrong, she won't even speak to me if another person might her what she says, so she signs with me in public what signs we have both learned. She loathes large crowds and is ironically very noise sensitive, so the noise of 30 kids in a classroom is really uncomfortable for her, and then when people talk quietly she can't hear it.

I think it's an attitude thing for us, though. Mainstream staff just don't understand that it's possible for a child to be able to hear OK one to one and nearby in a quiet room yet still struggle as soon as ANY of that changes, so one to one in a noisy room, or several speakers in a quiet room she can't cope at all. There is far too much "can you cope just this once without..." (insert FM system, subtitles on the DVD, Soundfield system) because she doesn't seem to their uninformed opinion "that deaf". If she were absent for a whole term there would be uproar about the missed parts of her education, but if a piece of technology doesn't work for a term they don't react. I don't want her to miss even 10% of her education. If the mainstream options were better I'd be happier with them, but the staff are ill-trained and ill-informed and many are not mentally adjusted to wanting DHH kids.

If we had the money then we'd take the Deaf school place for her first primary year and just pay for it, then you don't have to meet the city's idea of "deaf enough". Most of all is that she just loves her Deaf nursery and the Deaf Children's Society weekends. She hardly speaks, but she talks all week about wanting to go back to the school. What matters more than where the child is happy?

Unusually for a special needs placement, the school is mostly DHH kids with no intellectual impairment or learning disability. Many of the DHH kids with learning disabilities end up transferring to the speech and language mainstream units because they are all learning disability places. My daughter's hearing would qualify her for the S&L placement but they advise against it (and I agree) because of the low achievement level. Those are the places that are meant to be for her and they are now filled with other kids who couldn't get special school placements and teachers are too scared to teach them in mainstream.
 
My daughter (3 y/o) is currently in a public school EC DHH program but will be transferring to WSD after we move next summer. if we stayed here, she would eventually be mainstreamed for Kindergarten. Even now, after only 6 months of the EC DHH, I see gaps and it worries me. The communication and emotional needs of individual DHH kids are impossible to meet in a mainstreamed environment, IMHO.
 
roserodent, teekie's post was in 2003. I think she has not been around here lately since 2004???
 
Luckily my son and daughter have perfect hearing, but if they were like me I think I would rather they went to a specialist school. Kevin.
 
shel90 said:
I would definitely place my child at a deaf school where he/she has full access to communication and language at all times instead of partial at mainstreamed programs.
Click to expand...

Ditto.

One of my son's buddy hails from Haiti and was adopted nearly 3 years ago. When he first arrived, he only knew 12 signs at the age of 6. Now, He's 9 years old and he has been really booming up with his vocabularies. He at first was very resilent and wouldn't talk to anyone. That isn't the case anymore now that he loves to socialize with my son and friends. His mother sometime joked that he can't even rest his hands down at once, ha. But, that is why it has really improved his signing skills and vocabularies because of total access to communication and language.
 
If I Deaf children, I would put them in Deaf school. I would not put them in mainstream cos they all bad I been to (I been to 4 different mainstreams).
 
shel90 said:
I would definitely place my child at a deaf school where he/she has full access to communication and language at all times instead of partial at mainstreamed programs.
Click to expand...

Ditto, however where I live here, then I may have no choice to put kids in the mainstreamed program. In reality, i may have move to other state where the deaf school is.
 
y HOH daughter is currently in a split placement, mostly mainstream nursery and attending a deaf nursery once a week and deaf events as often as possible. I'd love for her to continue in the deaf school because of its facilities, staff attitudes and small class sizes. She fears to speak when others will hear her, we think she is scared of doing it wrong, she won't even speak to me if another person might her what she says, so she signs with me in public what signs we have both learned. She loathes large crowds and is ironically very noise sensitive, so the noise of 30 kids in a classroom is really uncomfortable for her,
Click to expand...
Well at least she.'s getting intervention at a deaf nursery. And at least you guys are going to Deaf events. Maybe you could talk to the people at the Deaf school if it might be possible for the government to pay for her to go there.
A lot of times its in how you spin things. Maybe have the Deaf school perform an evaluation and have it spun, so she can go to Deaf School......
you could spin it like " she is very sensative to noise so couldn't function in a noisy hearing classroom.
 
Back
Top