The following is the first of a two part posting from a colleague of mine. Deborah Pergament is an attorney in Chicago, Illinois who has dedicated her professional life to serving the needs of children in the area of special education, family law and juvenile justice. She has successfully tried and won a recent case on behalf of a child with a cochlear implant and has several more pending. This posting should enable parents to make more informed decisions in determining the appropriateness of a school placement for their son or daughter who has a cochlear implant ("CI").
When asked to compare the impact of her two disabilities, Helen
Keller in her advancing years, replied that she had concluded "after a
lifetime in silence and darkness that to be deaf is a greater
affliction than to be blind…Hearing is the soul of knowledge and
information of a high order. To be cut off from hearing is to be
isolated indeed."
The futures of the profoundly deaf historically
have been marked by isolation from the hearing world and extremely
limited literacy with its concurrent limitation on educational and
employment opportunities. The advent of cochlear implants has altered
the fate of many children with hearing impairments. Hearing impaired
children, who were once most likely destined to be permanent additions
to special education services and reliant as adults on sign-language
interpreters, are now more likely to join the academic, social, and
professional mainstream. The key to making this happen is for
children to receive intervention for hearing loss as soon as possible,
i.e., cochlear implants combined with an intensive, oral/aural
education which requires children to make full use of their implants
A
five-year National Institute of Health Study, published in 2005, was
designed to document the effects of various education and
rehabilitation models on the deaf child’s ability to understand,
produce and read English while using a cochlear implant. This NIH
study determined that children enrolled in classrooms with an oral
emphasis maintained a highly significant advantage, even after all
factors that were believed to affect performance outcome had been
removed. Children whose educational programs emphasized speech and
auditory skill development demonstrated better performances than those
in programs using sign. (See study funded by NIH confirming these findings)
In 1997, IDEA was amended to include the
provision that IEP teams must consider the deaf child’s “mode of
communication” in placement decisions. 34 CFR §300.324(a)(2)(iv). A
number of due process cases from across the country all decided after
1997 support the position that an oral placement is minimally
appropriate and the use of sign language is not appropriate for oral
deaf/hard of hearing children using a cochlear implant.
Unfortunately, many school districts, including some of the nation’s
largest, have not altered their programs and services for the deaf/hard
of hearing to meet the needs of students with cochlear implants. Too
often, these schools fail to understand the interplay between the
auditory capabilities and service needs of children with cochlear
implants and the importance of appropriate acoustical modifications.
Most importantly, these school districts remain unwilling to shift away
from the use of total communication to the use of spoken language in
the instruction of children with implants. I have had the incredible
privilege of representing parents seeking appropriate public educations
for their children with cochlear implants and working with these
families to ensure that their children have access to the world of
knowledge and information. My firm’s staff and I are ardent supports
of oral education and auditory habilitation for children with cochlear
implants. Through our representation of individual families and public
advocacy, we are working to ensure that children with cochlear implants
receive the opportunity to learn to hear and to speak with their
implants.
This article is intended to provide guidance for
parents of children with cochlear implants during the often confusing
and arduous task of evaluating possible school programs and placements
for their children. Although I focus on evaluating public school
programs designed especially for hard of hearing/deaf students, the
checklists can be adapted to evaluate private programs or to specify
accommodations and modifications in IEPs of children with implants
participating in mainstream classes.
SETTING UP YOUR VISIT
You should follow the school’s policy for visits. Generally, schools
with nothing to hide welcome prospective parents and the opportunity to
“show-off” their facilities, students, and staff. However, when
schools sense a parent may be contemplating a due process complaint or
other action over a program that offers an inadequate classroom
environment or the lack of an oral/aural program, they are much less
welcoming. When forced to accommodate parents of children with
cochlear implants investigating programs, District’s may “stage visits”
by limiting the amount of sign language used that day or only allowing
tours of certain classrooms. Therefore, ask questions, try to speak to
parents of children in the program, and make multiple visits if
possible.
ACCOUSTICAL MODIFICTIONS
Children still learning to
make sense of the input they receive from their implants need
environments conducive to hearing. “Children who use cochlear
implants (as with children who use hearing aids) experience significant
difficulty listening and learning in classroom environments with
background noise and typical classroom commotion. Consideration of
classroom acoustics is crucial.” ( For guidelines for transitioning to less restrictive placements Download Transition.pdf
.) Appropriate acoustic management
includes the use of acoustic tiled ceilings, carpeting over more than
2/3 of the classroom, drapes at window walls, sound absorption panels
or acoustic wall coverings to reduce reverberation, low HVAC noise
levels, closing classroom windows and doors to dampen ambient noise,
and good lighting without buzz from fluorescent fixtures.
When touring a classroom you should look for the following:
1) Floor Treatments:
Is 2/3 of room carpeted?
2) Wall Treatments:
Are there acoustical panels or other devices to deaden sound?
3) Window Treatments?
Shades?
Draperies?
Other?
Were the windows open?
4) Was the door to the classroom kept closed?
5) Was the hallway noise and did the noise seep into the classroom?
6) Is the heating/cooling/lighting system noisy?
If it is a cold
day, ask what happens during hot weather? Are fans used, air
conditioning units, are windows opened? The most appropriate answer is
that central air conditioning is used. Be concerned if noisy fans are
used and the windows are opened especially in high traffic areas.
7) Was ambient noise present (e.g. fish tank/water fountain noise?)
8) Is the school located near a source of noise? (e.g., construction site, hospital, fire/police station?)
9) Where is the classroom located within the school? Does this add to the noise level?
10) Does the teacher/staff use the “one voice rule?” (This means that teacher encourage the students to speak one-at-at-time).
11) Ask if rooms are regularly checked for sound levels?
By whom?
Are there sound level standards that the schools use? Where can those be found?
How often are the facilities checked for compliance?
What is done to remedy unacceptable conditions?
12) What acoustical modifications are available for classes with hearing children (e.g., physical education, music, art).
Are those classrooms modified?
Is an FM system available in those classes?
Is preferential seating available?
What training do teachers in mainstream classes undergo to work with hearing impaired children?
Try
to talk with those teachers and observe them conducting a class with
implanted children. Do they make an effort to ensure the children’s
participation and understanding? Do the children act as if this is a
regular occurrence or does it seem staged for your benefit?
13) What type of assistive tech are the CI students provided? Is
it an individual FM system? Or are there sound-field systems in each
classroom?
The second part of this posting will examine the specific factors that constitute an appropriate placment, and what to look for to determine if in fact a class is an oral/aural setting.