Jaden, Cedric, Danielle, and Ty Reader
Danielle Reader reveals her rivoting journey as she searches for the right school for her son
Life at an Oral School My son Jaden attended an oral school for one year—from the age of 2½ to 3½—right after having cochlear implant surgery. I had heard, many times, from the audiologist, speech therapists, and teachers that the window of opportunity for a child to acquire speech was very small, more specifically: 0-5 years of age. We were told that our son was on the older side of that window and that he would need all the auditory training possible—at school, during speech therapy sessions, and from us at home—in order to be “successful.” Needless to say, we spent each and every day focusing on his hearing and his speech. It became apparent to me, within a few months, that our sweet little boy was not getting what he needed. Each day after class, I would talk to the teacher and the speech therapist. They told me that I needed to be patient...that I needed to be persistent in speaking to him and expecting him to use his voice. I made weekly calls to the audiologist. Visit after visit, he constantly told me that I just needed to “wait and see.” How much longer could I make my son wait? Obviously, our concern had been on Jaden being able to hear and speak. All other development, at that point, was on ‘the back burner.’ I didn’t realize the damage that our choices were making.
“My husband and I were still blinded and trusting of these ‘professionals’ who were ‘leading the way’ for our son— leading him nowhere.”
Awakening Every so often, the school would hold parent education meetings. On this particular day, there was a parent education meeting being held by a woman who was writing a book on oral deaf education, cognitive development, and so on. As I sat and listened to her, I came up with some questions that I had been wanting answers for. I assumed this woman knew her stuff, and since we were on the subject of cognitive development in children after being implanted, who better to ask? At that time, it was apparent that what our son was desperately in need of was language; however, after voicing my concern many times, they had me believing they knew best. So, I asked this “national level” professional, how long a child could go without language before cognitive development would be affected? Believe it or not, she couldn’t answer my question! Her answer to my question was, “I don’t know.” It was that day that heaven’s light shown down and the blinders we had been wearing were stripped away. I was shocked! Then again, it was just confirmation for me. My gut had told me for some time that he needed more. During the last few weeks before our IEP meeting, I asked for the teacher at the oral school to start using signs with my son. The school refused as they were an oral school and couldn’t use signs in front of the other children. The speech therapist, who my son saw everyday for 45 minutes, chuckled when I asked her to sign; she didn’t know ANY signs! I began searching for a school that would sign with my son, however, I was still unaware of American
California News | January October 24, 30, 2008 2009
Sign Language being a language in itself and still unaware of how a Deaf child acquires language. I still didn’t know that this visual language was what he needed. We were advised that a total communication classroom would be the best place for his needs to be met; there would be signing and talking. I started visiting total communication classrooms and decided that our school district’s Deaf/Hard of Hearing classroom was the best for him. The Road to Enlightenment My son spent a year in our school district classroom. By the time he started there, at 3½ years old, his lack of language had affected all areas of his development. The teacher had very long, hard days with him and his tantrums. Even though he had some receptive and expressive signs, he didn’t have language. He didn’t socialize with the other children; he didn’t know how. He was not able to sit for a story during story time. He had no understanding of his world around him. The teacher had other children in the classroom with ages varying from 3-7 years old. With a few of the students being hard of hearing, she felt she needed to sign to them using
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