C has been receiving speech therapy since the summer through our state's Early Childhood Intervention program. Since we signed him up shortly before he discovered his hearing loss, it was just assumed that with the speech therapy alone, we would probably be able to get him talking. Since we found the hearing loss, he has been getting AI (audiology intervention) therapy as well. I have to say that, overall, I don't see a whole lot of results coming from these visits. Each therapist comes once a week for a 45 minute visit.
I do like his speech therapist. She is more willing to work with C in a way that fits his personality. His AI therapist isn't as good, in my opinion. She actually works with the public school district in a near by city that has a deaf education program. Her visits are what I consider to be more rigid. She expects C to sit and participate for the whole time. That is just not who he is. It honestly leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth for school based therapy programs. As homeschoolers, we are accustomed to working with our children is a way that works best for them. If that means sitting at a table doing workbook pages, fine. If it means letting them run around the living room while listening to a story, fine. It is one of our biggest gripes about the public school setting. Kids are forced to conform to someone else's idea of how a child learns best. I understand that they have to have some type of control in their classrooms sine there are so many different kids to deal with at one time, but we have the luxury to not have to conform to a whole group.
Since C will be turning three next month, we are starting the process of getting ready for him to leave the ECI program. After three, children who still need services are turned over to the school district. Sine our school district does not have a deaf education program, it is highly likely that they are going to want C to go to the district in the other city that his AI therapist works with. This is actually about 45 minutes away from us. Not exactly close.
C will have an evaluation done on Monday with people from our local district as well as people from the 'near by" district. They will then make a recommendation for services. What they are likely to recommend is that he attend the "near by" school for three hours a day, five days a week. Hubby and I have already decided that this is not an option we are comfortable with. We will see how wiling they are to work with us. If they aren't, well, we will just keep him home.
I have spent some time researching deaf education. Even though hearing loss in children is one of the most commonly occurring birth defects, there is not a lot of information out there on how to home educate a deaf or hard of hearing child. I have a feeling that there just are not a lot of us out there. If you want information on how to educate a child with various types of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, OCD, processing disorders, etc., there is a lot of good information. Hearing loss and deafness...not so much. Of course, the only real subject that you need a truly unique approach to is reading. A deaf child obviously can't be tought phonics like I taught my other kids. I have come across a few methods of teaching reading to a deaf child and hopefully will gain a better understanding in the next few years. Thankfully, we have a little time before it becomes an issue. Right now, we will be focusing on C's communication. We are going to learn to sign as a family and will continue to have him wear his hearing aids. Hopefully, we will start to see an improvement in his communication skills soon.
