Great news about language development!

[lletiecq]

My 29 month old daughter who has a moderate/severe hearing loss just was assessed to have the language skills of a 33-36 month old by her speech therapist. We are very pleased with this since we have worked so hard, between signing, speaking, speech therapy, fm systems, etc.

The only thing that worries me is the stories of parents whose children lost special education services because the kids don't have speech issues, as if hearing loss is only an issue of fixing pronunciation errors.....sigh.....

At this point, we keep our once a month speech therapist until December. We are waiting for an evaluation by the county schools to see what they say. I am not too concerned now, but I don't want to have things messed up later due to me actually doing a good job now with her language development.

[ST! LeeAnn]

That is wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
LeeAnn

[MmaBasotho]

Congratulations on the great work you're doing! I think that calls for ice cream all around :D


The only thing that worries me is the stories of parents whose children lost special education services because the kids don't have speech issues, as if hearing loss is only an issue of fixing pronunciation errors.....sigh.....

I wouldn't worry about this. Your daughter (and mine) have what is called in Early Intervention a "qualifying disability." So she definitely won't lose EI services. Beyond that, the fact of her hearing loss should continue to provide you with all the reason you need to continue speech therapy. If anyone gives you a hard time about it, direct them to your audiologist.

But only after you finish patting yourself and your daughter on the back. Great work!

[jenml]

The only thing that worries me is the stories of parents whose children lost special education services because the kids don't have speech issues, as if hearing loss is only an issue of fixing pronunciation errors.....sigh.....



Speech is just a related service, it is not sped services alone. With the "disability" of hearing loss (I affectionately put it in quotes becasue many Deaf folks don't see it as a disability), she should continue on an IEP throughout her school years, even if it's just for modifications and accommodations to her program (of which language is a major part... so I don't see how speech would be cut... as she gets older, there will be different speech related issues, such as vocabulary development, especially as the curriculum gets more advanced, etc...). Remember, speech therapists work on laguage, too, not so much just the actually producing words and stuff. It's about expressive and receptive language, word meaning, word usage, syntax, grammar, vocabulary, multiple meanings... so much.).

Anyway (as I ramble)... seems to me that she would continue to receive/be eligible for services based on a qualifying disability alone, and then whatthe services will look like over the years may change depending on her needs as she changes (which is why teams evaluate and reevaluate her needs at least once a year at the annual).

HTH

[aligreat]

The federal law directing special education services for children from birth to age 5 is Public Law (PL) 99-457, which was passed in 1986.

"Congress defined the purpose of PL 99-457 as follows:
1) To enhance the development of infants and toddlers with disabilities and to minimize their potential for delay..."

In California, "Deafness" is one of the "disabling conditions" identified as qualifying a child for services. I'm sure that this is the case in your state as well.

It sounds like you are doing a great job of minimizing your child's potential for delay. Your school district should help you to keep up the good work.

[junethomp]

That's great...keep up the good work and worry about the small stuff later.
june

[hohgrrrl]

The only thing that worries me is the stories of parents whose children lost special education services because the kids don't have speech issues, as if hearing loss is only an issue of fixing pronunciation errors.....sigh.....
It's awesome that your daughter's doing so well language wise.....but yes it is a double edged sword. The educators think that "oh they're not really deaf or "oh they don't really need special ed stuff."
I was in the same sitution. I didn't have language delays, but I still have significent articualtion, pitch and volumne issues.
My best advice as someone who's been there and done that, is to be open minded about educational placement. Don't automaticly think that a hearing school with regular classes would be the best fit. Maybe first off, you could have her attend a public hearing preschool, and then attend a Deaf program. That way you can find out who provides the best services, and what kind of program would be the best for your daughter.
.
We are waiting for an evaluation by the county schools to see what they say.
What about an evalution by the state School/program for the Deaf? They can really help you and give you lots and lots of leads and advice!

[Jenrose]

It goes the other way too.... Shiny stopped being hard of hearing and so they refused to send out an ASL tutor.

Yet sign is still her most likely shot at having expressive language.

Grr.

Thank heavens for Signing Time. She is finally, at age 2, starting to sign along with some of it....