Deaf Water Safety + More Online Resource for Deaf and Hard Of Hearing
When I began this site, I didn’t have too many great resources for those families interested in exploring ASL as a bilingual option for raising their child, or cued speech for that matter. Through this summer’s ongoing Joint Commission Of Health Care meetings to review and debate SB1741, I have gathered quite a few new resources and am excited to include them for people. (See below!)
Summer Water Thoughts
Our family has decided to learn some ASL, as we have found the pool, lake and beach a tricky place to communicate with a very active and confidently swimming Charlotte. I typically remind our cousins when we get together on vacations or go life guard to life guard and introduce myself, point out Charlotte and make sure they understand she is deaf, “That blonde girl in the strawberry swimsuit can not hear you or your whistle. While she seems ‘normal’ because she can talk to her friend, she can not hear anything while swimming, as she is not wearing her cochlear implant or hearing aid, which give her access to sound. If you need to get her attention, you will need to wave her down or have one of her friends get her attention. Then either you or they will need to get close enough to her for her to read your lips or ask her to get me and help her put her ‘ears’ on so you can educate her about water safety.”
It alway takes them a minute, but then they get it and really appreciate knowing.
MORE RESOURCES FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING
The Virginia Network of Consultants for Professionals Working with Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing: VNOC provides consultant services for children who are deaf and hard of hearing in school divisions and state operated programs in Virginia to promote and enhance educational services for the child or provide needed training for personnel.
Virginia School For The Deaf And The Blind: The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind provides superior education for students who are deaf/hard of hearing, blind/vision impaired, deafblind, and deaf or blind with other disabilities. Our welcoming, fully-accessible learning environment fosters self-confident students who are contributing citizens and life-long learners. At VSDB, students share equal experiences and challenges and, often for the first time, feel equal to their peers, make friends, and become leaders.
Northern Virginia Cued Speech Association: The Northern Virginia Cued Speech Association (NVCSA) provides Advocacy, Education and Support for families and professionals who choose to use Cued Speech with deaf or hard of hearing children.
The mission of Advocacy is two-fold. First, the NVCSA advocates the use of Cued Speech as a viable tool for teaching the spoken language of the home to children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Second, the NVCSA helps families advocate for Cued Speech within the framework of the child's individualized education plan (IEP) by providing the information and research findings to validate the parents choice.
Note: This reminds me a bunch of Visual Phonics, which really helped Charlotte learn the proper pronunciation of words - we still use it!
The Online Itinerant is an online training portal for professionals and families of students with hearing loss.
The American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC) is committed to empowering diverse families with deaf* children and youth by embracing full access to language-rich environments through mentoring, advocacy, resources, and collaborative networks.
*ASDC uses the term “deaf” to be inclusive of various hearing levels, including those who are seen as, or identify as Deaf, deaf, or hard of hearing.
NOTE: In our JCHC meetings, some people talked about a national Mentor Program they do, which both sides of the parties debating SB1741 agreed would be AMAZING to bring to Virginia!!
The National Center On Deaf-Blindness: In the U.S., there are roughly 10,000 children who are deaf-blind. Deaf-blindness is a low incidence disability and within this population of children there is great variability. Ninety percent of children who are identified as deaf-blind have additional physical, medical and/or cognitive disabilities.