I had an audiologist tell me that 99% of the time when you add sign support to an implanted student the language level/development drops. I respectfully disagreed – Your thoughts?
Thoughts aside, there is no published evidence we know of to indicate that this is the case. You might recommend the following to the audiologist: Spencer, L. J., Gantz, B. J. & Knutson, J. F. (2004). Outcomes and achievement of students who grew up with access to cochlear implants. Laryngoscope, 114, 1576 –1581. They found that high school students with implants who also had sign language interpreters in the classroom were performing at a level comparable to their hearing peers, a result normally not obtained with longer-term use of implants by students without sign language support.
I need advice on my child’s upcoming IEP. He was diagnosed at birth with sensorineural hearing loss ( moderate). He will be turning 3 soon and the Local Education Authority District is taking over. We toured the Special Education preschool, and it lacks any children whom are DHH. Composition is mostly ADD, Autistic, and delayed children, which leads to a somewhat hectic/noisy environment. No FM system, teacher is an SLP but not sure if credentialed for DHH. Do we have a leg to stand on legally if we decide not to sign the IEP? The district has no DHH specific programs available, so the private school my child was sent to is an option.
In developing a child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the IEP team must evaluate a child’s needs, set annual goals, and determine services before placement is determined. If school personnel are proposing a placement before evaluation is done,and goals and services are determined, the school is not complying with IDEA.
Further, in developing the IEP the IEP team must consider “special factors” for deaf and hard of hearing students: ”[I]n the case of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, consider the child’s language and communication needs, opportunities for direct communications with peers and professional personnel in the child’s language and communication mode, academic level, and full range of needs, including opportunities for direct instruction in the child’s language and communication mode . . .” The IEP team also must consider the child’s need for assistive technology. And the school must ensure that parents have an opportunity to be part of the group that decides placement.
The U.S. Department of Education has clarified what the a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is for a deaf or hard of hearing child: “Meeting the unique communication and related needs of a student who is deaf is a fundamental part of providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to the child. Any setting, including a regular classroom, that prevents a child who is deaf from receiving an appropriate education that meets his or her needs including communication needs is not the LRE for that individual child.” (Deaf Students Education Services Policy Guidance http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9806.html)
In my view the right approach is to work with the school to
1. ensure appropriate evaluations are performed by qualified assessors – what is your child’s language level, primary language, how does your child communicate with others, what are the tools and approaches that support him in communication;
2. develop annual goals that will help your child reach appropriate developmental milestones and access the general education curriculum – for many deaf children goals are needed in the area of language and communication; and
3. determine appropriate services, based on goals, by qualified providers – providers could be teachers of the deaf, speech-language pathologists, sign language specialists, others.
Then the child must be placed in a setting where his IEP can be implemented. This could be within the district, outside the district, public or private. Services and settings must be provided at no cost to the parent. If, after going through these three steps, you become aware of a setting that will support your child’s IEP, you should recommend this to the school district. Often I hear from parents that they are the ones educating the educators, not the other way around.
Don’t settle for services and settings that don’t meet your child’s needs. Be an active participant in the development of your child’s IEP and subsequent placement.
I am the parent of a 17 year old male with a Nucleus 24 cochlear implant. He signs and speaks and has been going to a great high school, but is having difficulties in his reading and comprehension. He is currently reading around a 6 grade level. Are there any programs you would recommend to bring his levels up? I am being recommended Fariview (total communication) and Linda Mood Bell (oral only) by different sources and they are completely different from one another.
Congratulations to you and your son for all of your diligence with reading.
Does your son read 6th grade text fluently (between 120 and 150 words read orally per minute) and accurately (decoding 95 to 100 percent of the words or about one error for every 20 words)? Fluent reading does not mean reading fast but your son should use a speed for reading that reflects the mood and expression of the text. If he reads in a slow and labored manner, he will have difficulty comprehending text. There are some programs that focus on fluency (i.e. Read Naturally) but your son would need to have the auditory ability to distinguish the text read orally and then try to copy that text. Often times though enhancing background knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension strategies fluency increases. Repeated reading and some practice with chunking words into phrases have shown some success.
Once someone reads at the sixth grade level they tend to already be able to decode but have difficulty with more complex vocabulary and language structures. At http://www.meadowscenter.org/vgc/downloads/special_ed/SEDsecondaryoriginal/2000_enhance_read_2_SE.PDF there are wonderful resources from the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language (through the University of Texas at Austin) that provide strategies for all parts of the comprehension process (from activating prior knowledge, to monitoring and using repair strategies, summarizing, using visual imaging, asking questions and reflecting on the text).
Not knowing your son it would be hard to pick where to begin but ask yourself if he can decode words well (recognize the printed word)
- if yes don’t spend time teaching sound symbol
- if he struggles with the sounds of words and decoding, Lindamood-Bell and other companies have some great programs (LIPS, Seeing Stars) that may be of benefit.
Can he only say the words but not understand the meaning of the words?
- then lots of language
- possibly bits of Fairview may be a tool to help with understanding the various sign meanings (concepts) of different sight words)
- pre-expose to a variety of text specific words, concepts and there meanings
Does he read words quickly enough to make meaning from the words he reads?
- rereading, or partner reading
- chunking and phrasing of text
- Read Naturally or possibly Vocaroo (can record online)
Does he engage himself in the reading process by using comprehension strategies while reading?
- If he decodes at about the 6th grade level, I would focus on text based vocabulary and comprehension strategies.
- He should be able to establish a purpose for reading, see the text structure and begin to ask the right questions to aid in comprehension.
Developing the type of academic language and vocabulary necessary to succeed although daunting can be done. Three cheers for encouraging your son and keep up the great work.
I have a 7 yr old son who is in 1st grade. At birth he was thought to have CHARGE syndrome but after doing gene tests and chromosome tests it wasnt diagnosed due to normal results. He is proufoundly deaf in his left ear and has a mild/moderate loss in his right ear, which is aided. He has an interpreter at school and his teacher also uses an FM system, though it seems to be forgotten on some occasions. He started out the year doing okay but all of a sudden its the end of the school year and his reading is at a kindergarten level. Now the question has come up whether or not to retain him. His special ed team cannot come to an agreement on this, some of them say yes while others say no. The psychologist is the one saying he should go on to 2nd grade since the IQ tests they did with reasoning and puzzles (visual, no reading involved) had normal to high scores. Others believe it would be beneficial for him to repeat 1st grade to have time to learn skills he has not accomplished quite yet. So the professionals that I am relying on to lead him in the right direction have now left it up to me to decide. If he were to stay in 1st grade I feel he would like that he already knows some or mose of the lessons, have more time to learn how to read and figure out the sounds required to put the words together. But he may also be smart enough to go onto second grade though I fear he is already so far behind in reading that he will get frustrated and lose interest and know also know that he is struggling more then his classmates. But I also dont want him to feel like a failure if he were to stay in 1st grade again. Theres so many things too look at and think about. Initially I thought yes of course give him time and let him repeat first grade but then the psychologist said otherwise. Im really stressed about making this decision. Im also disappointed that the final decision is being left up to me since his team is 50/50 on what should be done. I want to do what is right for him. I want him to take pride in school and enjoy it. I dont want him to be left behind or pushed through and I dont want him feeling like a failure.
Great job mom on trying to look at all aspects of this for your son,if only this were an easy decision. It would be of interest to know why at birth tests were done to “rule out” CHARGE. Just wondering what red flag went up from the medical community that triggered that testing?
I believe, for him, he is very young to be using an interpreter and do wonder if that avenue is working. Having a mild/moderate loss in one ear does enable him to be able to receive significant amount of information from auditory means which hopefully is helping a great deal. I would assume the interpreter is there as additional support so he can use her/him as needed and when needed, correct? And you are so right, the FM system needs to be up and working daily, I would stress that.
The question of retention is such an important one for you and your son. I believe I would ask a series of additional questions to try and come to the best possible decision for him.
1. Does he emotionally fit with his current class?
2. Has he developed true “friends” for a 7 year old?
3. He is reading at a kindergarten level at the end of 1st grade, correct?
4. If he moves will he continue where he is or will he be expected to go straight into 2nd grade work?
5. Is the reading series and approach being used one that allows for children with additional learning
needs and support or if behind can help be provided?
6. Is it possible to have some one on one tutorial help if the decision to move to 2nd grade is made?
It’s very important to remember that at this age he probably is very flexible. He will adjust in either setting is my bet. You are right, he appears to love school right now and you don’t want him frustrated and loose that love of school. That is such a critical part in success of a child. Reading is the number one factor in my opinion for success now and later. I do respect the IEP team in “allowing” you to make this decision. And do remember while his IQ tests appear to be normal you are right that’s visual processing only. It appears he is having some learning problems related to reading and you are right on top of that, good job mom!
My almost 3-year-old daughter has a moderate to almost severe hearing loss in both ears (55-65 db). She uses ASL and also speaks while signing though her signing is more developed. She wears two hearing aids, since she was 1 year old. We use ASL at home (I am deaf myself) and also speak, at the same time. She is receiving services at a regional program and attends school a few times a month with other deaf children. This will soon increase to 2 mornings a week when she turns 3. We decided to add another school/Childcare, 2 mornings a week, that has all hearing students and the staff all knows a few signs while one staff knows more ASL though not fluent. That one staff isn’t always present. My concern is this: I believe she would benefit from more sign support either through an interpreter or a family friend (due to cost) to help serve as a bridge. She sometimes appears lost while looking around the classroom. She has had a difficult adjustment period though they have recently added more sign information and that has helped. Her regional teacher feels this school provides more auditory development for her, to hear and speak. There is a concern she may cling to whoever signs and not socialize much. I question whether anyone truly understands how much she catches with her aids. I wonder if it is best to provide extra sign support in the beginning and then taper off as needed when her abilities are clearly known. People have said she is only at the “other” school about 7 hours each week and all other times, she gets ASL. Will providing more sign support in this environment hinder her hearing / speaking abilities later?
The short answer to your question about whether or not sign language support will interfere with eventual spoken language development is an unqualified – NO. There is no evidence that signing interferes with speech if speech is feasible for a child and supported by her auditory and oral-motor abilities. How lucky for your daughter that she has fluent adult models for both ASL and English at home – and at the same time no less! The bigger issue seems to be what kinds of information your child has access to in the preschool class where less signing is available from the adults and virtually no signing is available from the children. Given your comment about her “difficult adjustment,” your child may benefit from more “scaffolding” for both social interaction and vocabulary learning in the new preschool setting. Providing more help in the beginning meets her immediate needs – always a good idea in the long run. It would be unwise to suppose that she is able to function in one modality – hearing, at one school and another modality – vision, in the other. Though she will almost certainly acquire two languages, she is one child with a singular need for optimal, that is to say dual, inputs in every linguistic encounted.
Satisfying social interaction is the most natural and powerful motivation for language learning. If socializing is a goal – and it should be at age 3, then having supportive adults to help navigate interactions with age peers is a good idea. This help could come from an interpreter or family friend as you suggest, if their role is clearly defined and reinforced by the other adults in the classroom. If learning language through listening and auditory skills are a goal, but the context is a preschool with hearing children who cannot sign, some kind of adult mediation is certainly warranted. Though always a risk when using interpreters, the signing adult need not be the sole source of either auditory or signed language input. Perhaps activities could be devised wherein the signing adult teaches a hearing age peer to be a partner in listening games. Similarly, the signing adults could serve as on-the-spot tutors for the hearing children to learn signs for key words that support spoken language vocabulary in the course of play-based interactions.
That your child is looking around confused, though distressing emotionally, is a good indicator that she knows that she does not know, and she is looking for a way in – an access modality. This sensitivity to needing language input is hard to teach, but something that her teachers can exploit every day. Given that the limits of her auditory-only reception are uncertain for now, and that she is looking for input on the hands, she should be given routine access to concurrent, or at the very least sequential, signed and spoken English whenever ASL is not being used. Routine access means that the speech she cannot perceive is supported by signs on the spot and the signs she knows are associated with spoken English words that will eventually become the basis of her ability to develop text literacy i.e., reading and writing.
A two-fold question:
1. Is there a quality note taking device on the market for use in a classroom setting?
2. What is your take on note taking (note taker) and /or note taking technology (if even developed) for a freshman boy going into highschool with a moderate to moderately severe hearing loss. He wears hearing aids and currently has an FM and classroom amplification in his middle school classrooms.
With regard to the first part of your question, Microsoft Onenote may be used with a tablet PC, networked or not networked with a second computer so that the deaf student may view the notes as they are taken during class (assuming there are the two networked computers.) C-Print research conducted at NTID (http://www.ntid.rit.edu/cprint/) has a notetaking prototype that is part of the C-Print Pro tablet version that the local BOCES and Rochester City Schools prefer to OneNote, but it is not yet on the market.
On the second part of your question, I would strongly urge you to request a notetaker for your son. And that should be a qualified, paid notetaker, not another student taking notes for him. If the school system resists, this is worth fighting for!
My daughter has a moderate/severe hearing loss. In school, she has a micro link FM system and a school aide. She has an IEP for this and recently was evaluated by a psychologist experienced with deaf and hard-of-hearing students who stated she would benefit from an oral interpreter. If I tell the school that I want an oral interpreter rather than the aide, do they have to honor this?
It is very good news that your child was evaluated by a psychologist with experience with deaf and hard-of-hearing kids. So often that does not happen! So that is a good start.
With regard to your question, there are four steps in IEP development:
1. Evaluation of the child and identification of needs
2. Development of annual goals to support the child in accessing and making progress in the general education curriculum
3. Determination of services needed to achieve those goals
4. Determination of placement.
When the psychologist says s/he believes the child would benefit from an oral interpreter, I take that to mean s/he is recommending this service under Step 3. Each step builds on the one above. IDEA requires that states “establish and maintain qualifications to ensure that personnel necessary to carry out [IDEA] are adequately prepared and trained . . .” So if the child needs a services to access to communication in the classroom that service must be provided by someone who is adequately prepared and trained – for example a trained and qualified oral interpreter – not an aide.
I would recommend that you first find out what the school sees as the purpose of the aide. To facilitate communication? To serve as a tutor? To make sure the child doesn’t wander off? The role of each service provider should be made clear, and services should link to the child’s annual goals and access to the general education curriculum. It is possible the aide serves some stated and needed role, but perhaps not. An untrained aide cannot fill the role of an oral interpreter.
Bottom line – if an oral interpreter is necessary to assist the child in meeting her IEP goals, a qualified interpreter must be provided. Based on the information provided, I would recommend that you ask for an IEP meeting and request that this service be listed on the IEP. If it is on the IEP it must be provided (as you point out!). If other members of the IEP team refuse to include it, they must provide the reasons why through a document called prior written notice http://idea.ed.gov/download/modelform2_Prior_Written_Notice.pdf. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may wish to exercise your due process rights at a higher level.
How is it that deaf and blind children learn to physologically communicate? In other words, how does one part of the brain compensate for another in the deaf and blind?
The best answer to the question comes from Dr. Jude Nicholas of the Resource Center for the Deafblind and Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. Dr. Nicholas has an excellent article on the Deafblind International Website http://www.deafblindinternational.org/PDF/Active%20Touch%20Article.pdf
In short, the answer involves the sense of touch ,including tactile sensation, tactile perception, and tactile cognition. Studies have demonstrated that individuals who are deafblind are more experienced in recognizing stimuli through active touch than are sighted-hearing individuals. This then leads to superior performance on tasks involving the tactile cognition tasks of tactile working memory and tactile memory. Individuals who are deafblind encode tactile spatial information more efficiently than do individuals who are sighted and hearing. Increased tactual experiences thus enables neuroplasticity or the reorganization of the nervous system.
I have a kindergarten who is in a mainstream school. We are currently getting a TOD for a hour a day, interpreter all day ans speech 3 days a week. She is testing above all of her hearing peers and are hopes are to keep it that way. We are currently using total communication and just recently had another hearing test. During this test the audiologist worked on her repeating her words which she is only getting 30% accurate. So are there any studies or research that say how we can help her. To us we know that she is using all of her skills and we are extremely proud of her.
From your question, I am not sure what type (if any) listening device your child is using. Hearing aids? Cochlear Implant? The other question I have is when was her hearing loss first suspected and/or confirmed. The exciting things are that she is performing as well as (and it looks like even better than) her peers. This index should bring you comfort that you are on the right path. I am reading between the lines a bit, but your information that she is repeating words at 30% accuracy indicates that she working hard to derive information from the listening-only condition. Again, I am assuming that the 30% number is representing that the test condition is “listening only.” I wonder how she does with “auditory- plus vision” condition, that is, does her score improve when she can listen and speech-read? If she has 50% accuracy when she is able to speech-read, we can assume she is using both vision and audition to understand speech that is spoken. Without more information it is hard to give advice, but here is what I know. We have research that indicates that there is a relationship between how well a deaf child uses sound cues and their eventual speech and reading scores. Having said that, in looking at one study, I can tell you that for 72 children who had four years of Cochlear Implant listening experience, guess what their average score on a word repetition task was? 35%. This tells us that your daughter is within the average range of deaf children for listening. My advice would be to target her ability to increase her word discrimination skills. Work on her ability to listen to and identify a closed set of words (vocabulary lists from her school units). Play listening games where you pronounce a word from a list and have her guess which word you said. Do this where she first watches you say the word, then when she is pretty accurate, stand behind her so she cannot see you and see if can understand the word. Another task is to have her tell you if two words “sound alike”. Let her watch you as you say two words that either rhyme (pick, kick) or do not rhyme (walk, doctor). When she is accurate at this task you can again make it harder by standing behind her as you pronounce the words. As her listening skills improve, you can then have her listen to a word and repeat it. Say “pink” when she is accurate with that do a “switch up” Now say “pink” without the /p/ sound (target: ink). These types of listening practice games will increase her phoneme (individual sound) awareness and ultimately yield a payoff for developing reading skills.
I am seeking current information on research based practices for children who are autistic and deaf.
This is an important topic, especially with recent data indicating a dramatic increase in the rate of autism diagnoses in the United States. However, research involving deaf children with autism is exceedingly rare, and educational research even rarer. At present, your best source of information (and references) would be Van Dijk, R., Nelson, C., Postma, A., & van Dijk, J. (2010). Assessment and intervention of deaf children with multiple disabilities. In M. Marschark and P. Spencer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education (Vol. 2). New York: Oxford University Press.