One thing I'm learning about our journey to next year's preschool placement is that it is dependent on so many different variables. I feel like we are caught in the middle of two worlds and I am struggling to understand what exactly is the best place for Christian. This whole process has also brought me back to the reality that Christian is indeed deaf, and despite his amazing progress and language skills, his disability has the very real possibility to impact him academically, socially, and emotionally.
Our family goal has always been for Christian to start his Kindergarten year at our neighborhood school. I've always looked at this goal, and then decided to work backwards and take the steps that I would need to get there. Every decision that we have made as a family regarding Christian's hearing loss has had this goal in mind. All of these decisions have been crystal clear and easy to make, from our decision to implant, our family communication strategy, and of course placing Christian in the program at the school he currently attends. Now, this decision for next year's placement is my greatest unknown. We have been in this protected bubble while attending Christian's current school. While a mainstream environment with typically hearing children making up 85% of the school's population, Christian has also had access to an audiologist on-site, SLPs in the classroom, and of course being in an academic environment that focuses on language and literacy. Knowing that we are not going back next year is terrifying to me. What will we do?
I have a list of about 5 neighborhood preschool programs in our area that we will visit and look into. 3 are parish based schools, one is a private learning center, and the other is an outdoor based program. The only thing they all have in common is that they are MUCH less expensive than our current placement. Some are co-ops, some are not. Some are play based, some are more academic. Some have great facilities, but so-so teachers, and others have fabulous teachers, but horrible facilities. As far as I know, Christian will be the only child with hearing loss in any of these programs. He will not have access to SLPs. There is no audiological support. Some of these classrooms have HORRIBLE acoustics.
Then, there is the county preschool option. Which, I am not excited about, nor do I think it is a good fit for Christian...as of now. I want Christian to be educated with his typically hearing peers, and the county program segregates the hearing loss children into their own preschool classes. While different modalities are taught in different classes (oral kids in one group, TC in another, Cued in another, ASL....), these kids don't even get to interact with hearing children during recess. The last thing I want is Christian ONLY with kids with hearing loss. However, I know that the teachers in the classroom are experts in hearing loss, and that Christian will have access to SLPs in that school. The county audiologist is housed in that building.
And in the middle of all of this, we are going through putting together our IEP with our county. Should we decide to not attend the DHOH preschool, at the minimum, we will receive an itinerant teacher....we hope. What this teacher can and cannot do is a mystery to us.
I wish I knew exactly what program would be the best fit for my little guy. He IS a super star. He HAS defied all the odds and his progress is amazing. We need to place him in a program that fits his needs and will help him succeed. I just don't know what the answer to that is. Yet.
7 comments:
Good luck, Tina! Choosing a school is so, so difficult. I'm hopeful you'll know right away which is right for Christian once you get out there.
Erin has an Itinerant Teacher of the D/HOH that visits her at her mainstream preschool once a week. She does a lot of the same things an SLP would do - as well as sound checks and room monitoring that an Audi would do. It has been perfect.
I know this is a hard decision. You have to follow your gut, you will not make a wrong decision. It does take a lot of work and you will second guess yourself. Please know there are options, he will succeed because failure is not an option.
Hi there,
I'm a blog lurker, and your last couple of posts have made me come out of my shell. I'm so curious which county you're in. Your description of Christian's school sounds a lot like a school about 45 minutes from me. I'm an SLP in Howard County, MD. I am on two teams: one that services deaf kindergarteners in an inclusion setting and one that services preschoolers with a variety of needs in private preschools and daycares, which is called the Pals program. We go into these placements to support students and work on their IEP goals in the setting where they would be if they did not have a disability. I wonder if such a thing could be worked out for Christian? If your district doesn't already have that sort of thing in place (I know that Howard County is more progressive with inclusion than most), perhaps they would be willing to pilot such a program. It's not a perfect solution for every child's needs, but it works well for many.
I hope you are able to find a good placement for Christian next year. I can imagine how difficult that must be!
Hi Tina- one option you might want to consider is having biweekly school visits from the Maryland School for the Deaf in Columbia. They send a team of a deaf educator and a SLP to visit your son at his school for one hour twice a month. They can help Christian's teachers address issues related to CIs and hearing loss as well as work with Christian one to one. By accessing this service, then you could take advantage of MSD's audiological services as well. Jen Mertes is the audiologist at MSD-CC. She used to work at the River school as well as JH. She is a wonderful audiologist and really good with mapping.
Oops, I don't know why that posted as anonymous... My name is Annie, and my blog is http://brightshinypenny.blogspot.com.
I know this is such a hard decision, but you will be there to support Christian and advocate for his needs, no matter where you end up. He'll be fine, because you'll make sure of it! From my own experience (with my own deaf mainstreamed son), though, I would say that the school with the best teachers, who are caring and willing to go the extra mile (learn about CIs, figure out exactly what Christian needs, etc) would be better than a good environment with so-so teachers. That probably doesn't make your decision much easier, but something to think about...
Thank you everyone for your wonderful insight and comments. I had no idea about the program through MSD and will be sure to check it out!
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