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Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapists® James G. Watson, MSc, CED 544 Washington St.
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Essence of Education According to Ernstby Lea Donovan Watson, MS,CCCSLP,Cert.AVT. Former AVI Board Member, Marian Ernst, presented a view of educating children with hearing impairment at an AVCC parent meeting last year. At the outset of the talk she stressed the point that children learn so much out of school. "We live in such a culturally rich environment, make that available." Education leads to opportunities in life. The child will have a different outcome depending on education. "If your child is developing natural speech, why wouldn't you want your child to go to regular school?" she asked the group of fifty parents. Focusing on the primary goal for each section of the education process, Mrs. Ernst outlined the essential skills parents need to stimulate. Mrs., Ernst stated, "You need to have a plan. You are going to have problems, but put them in perspective." She suggested a variety of ways to help a child with a hearing impairment move through their regular school. In the preschool-kindergarten years the primary goal is socialization. For the child to leave the parents, acknowledge a teacher, make friends, and share ideas, the big step is to use language in a social way. Marian has a vast experience as a certified audiologist and speech-language pathologist over the years starting the first preschool program in Nebraska for children with hearing loss, working with Doreen Pollack in Colorado, and now as a certified auditory-verbal therapist working mainly with school age children in private practice in Colorado. With this overview of the education process, she emphasized the point that if a child enters first grade still needing to work on socialization skills, this is a red flag. "Socialization is very important for success as an auditory-verbal communicator." Marian explained. The primary focus for children in the first through third grades is reading. Marian stressed being interested in books; "For the parents and child to really ponder what’s happening on each page and for them to talk about it is so important." Other skills that help the child do well with reading are; a good vocabulary, knowledge of syntax and grammar, experience with language, knowledge of the sounds of phonics, good attention, and auditory memory. "What do we in the preschool years to help develop these skills?" she asked the parents and agreed with their answers of reading a lot and teaching lots of songs and rhymes. In order to build inner language and remember what the teacher says, the child must be exposed to lots of auditory memory experiences. Marion also suggested building personal scrap books for each child about; "Who I Am". Other children may overhear stories of grandparents, parents, and family life, but the child with a hearing impairment may need help developing those aspects of personal identity. Also in the first through third grades writing is important and experience with tools for writing was encouraged. Organizing information is the goal for children in the fourth-sixth grades. Parents can help by offering ideas and strategies for categorizing and classifying. Marian suggests buying an almanac and sharing lists and charts with the children. Help the children make charts of whatever they are interested in knowing. As they do this they will naturally see that time has dimension. They can generate questions about the information they are gathering. This helps stabilize the fluency of language and trigger their auditory memory. It is important for children to know that they can learn from these "fun" projects and to know that they can question information at this level. In Marion's experience, children find acquiring this concrete information easy. She suggested summertime for these projects and to think ahead to what they will be learning the following year in school. For example, if they will be studying U.S. history, then make a chart of all the presidents. Comprehension of language makes a huge expansion in this phase. Rhymes and poems at this age can include the famous; "Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, I love you". Marion suggests having the child make up many different endings to this poem keeping the rhyme going. Other singing ideas for children this age include learning cheers, chants, and even commercial slogans. Singing helps slow language down which helps both comprehension and motor control over articulation processes. Learning songs helps develop auditory memory. Children in grades seven-nine face the challenges of establishing their identity and are confronted with problem solving. Mrs. Ernst joins many other educators declaring these junior high years the most difficult. Now, if parents have been thinking ahead and stimulating many activities for their children, the children emerge with skills and certain interests in their adolescence. Mrs. Ernst recommends that the children "Be known for something that's not deafness". She sighted examples of her students who despite profound hearing impairments were known for their skills in flying or tennis, for being on the swim team or in 4H, even being known as Jewish or Catholic. Parents can really help encourage their child to develop itself. "If they get through junior high, high school is usually o.k.", Marion assured. She referred to the recent Miss America making a big difference for the self-esteem of young people who have hearing impairments in a regular high school. "College is usually a great experience, too", she continued, "The whole college experience is a re-affirmation of who they are." In conclusion, Marion Ernst asked what the role of the parent is in this process. In the younger years, the parents have a lot of work parenting and being the primary teachers. They create the rich language environment so vital for a child learning to use their residual hearing as the primary medium for acquiring language. As the child gets older Marion recommends that the parent act as coach rather than a parent or teacher. "When coaching your child you can give lots of examples. Other kids might have overheard the information, but you can show him how to hit the ball or help her with the math or spelling. Be the coach. Show them how to do it. It's O.K. because the other kids might have heard it, and you need to show your child how to do it. They may need you to show them many times. With multiple examples, you provide your child with the opportunity to look at the same problem from different points-of-view, even using different strategies in order to gain the sense of the thing. This lesson alone will provide a child with an important, life-long skill." |
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