N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N D E A F E D U C A T I O N VOL. 12 • 2011

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intervention

ODYSSEY • CLERC CENTER MISSION STATEMENT

The Clerc Center, a federally funded national deaf educationcenter, ensures that the diverse population of deaf and hardof hearing students (birth through age 21) in the nation areeducated and empowered and have the linguisticcompetence to maximize their potential as productive andcontributing members of society. This is accomplishedthrough early access to and acquisition of language,excellence in teaching, family involvement, research,identification and implementation of best practices,collaboration, and information sharing among schools andprograms across the nation.

Published articles are the personal expressions of theirauthors and do not necessarily represent the views ofGallaudet University or the Clerc Center.

Copyright © 2011 by Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc

National Deaf Education Center. The Clerc Center includesKendall Demonstration Elementary School, the ModelSecondary School for the Deaf, and units that work withschools and programs throughout the country. All rightsreserved.

The activities reported in this publication were supported byfederal funding. Publication of these activities shall not implyapproval or acceptance by the U.S. Department of Education ofthe findings, conclusions, or recommendations herein. GallaudetUniversity is an equal opportunity employer/educational institutionand does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, nationalorigin, religion, age, hearing status, disability, covered veteranstatus, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation,family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, source ofincome, place of business or residence, pregnancy, childbirth, orany other unlawful basis.

On the cover: Early intervention and family outreach contributeto deaf and hard of hearing children’s lifelong success.Cover photo by John T. Consoli.

We would like to thank all of our student models from theClerc Center’s Early Childhood Education program fortheir assistance in illustrating this issue.

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Subscription Information: Please e-mail Odyssey@gallaudet.eduwith your mailing address if you would like to receive your copy ofOdyssey in the mail, or give us your e-mail address if you wouldlike us to notify you when Odyssey is available online. Website: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu.

T. Alan Hurwitz, President, Gallaudet University

Edward Bosso, Vice President, Clerc Center

Susan Jacoby, Executive Director, Planning,

Development, and Dissemination

Danielle Yearout, Director, Public Relations and

Marketing

Catherine Valcourt-Pearce, Managing Editor,

Catherine.Valcourt-Pearce@gallaudet.edu

Susan Flanigan, Coordinator, Marketing and

Public Relations, Susan.Flanigan@gallaudet.edu

Jennifer Yost Ortiz, Manager, Public Relations and Publications

Myra Yanke, Editor

Patricia Dabney, Circulation, Patricia.Dabney@gallaudet.edu

John T. Consoli, Image Impact Design & Photography, Inc.

LETTER FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT

By Edward Bosso

HOW FAR WE’VE COME:

HOW FAR WE’VE YET TO GO

By Barbara Raimondo

REACHING OUT TO FAMILIES OF DEAF

AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN IN

ILLINOIS: A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT

By Karen Aguilar, Marcia Breese, Gail Olson,Cheri Sinnott, and Michele Westmaas

ISD OUTREACH: BUILDING CONNECTIONS

TO EMPOWER INDIANA FAMILIES WITH

YOUNG DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

CHILDREN

By Cindy Lawrence

IT’S ABOUT LISTENING TO OUR FAMILIES

AND THE NEEDS OF THEIR CHILDREN:

THE FAMILY EDUCATION AND EARLY

CHILDHOOD DEPARTMENT AT THE

MARYLAND SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

By Cheri Dowling, Deborah Marquez, Lori Moers,Mary Ann Richmond, and Maryann Swann

EFFECTIVE PARTNERING OF STATE

AGENCIES TO ACHIEVE EARLY HEARING

DETECTION AND INTERVENTION

BENCHMARKS

By Joanne Corwin

DEAF ROLE MODELS MAKING A CRITICAL

DIFFERENCE IN NEW MEXICO

By Stacy Abrams and Rosemary Gallegos

A TEAM APPROACH TO QUALITY

PROGRAMMING FOR DEAF AND HARD OF

HEARING STUDENTS

By Priscilla Shannon Gutiérrez

BLENDED OUTREACH: FACE-TO-FACE

AND REMOTE PROGRAMS

By Diana Poeppelmeyer

THE TIME IS NOW: WISCONSIN’S

JOURNEY TOWARDS IMPROVING EARLY

INTERVENTION SERVICES

By Marcy Dicker

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C L E R C C E N T E R N E W S

60 KDES Students Play Tennis on WhiteHouse Lawn

60 Artist-in-Residence Touches Lives of Clerc Center Students

61 MSSD Academic Bowl Team Takes Third Place in National Competition

61 New Clerc Center Publications and Products

62 Successful Year in Sports for KDES and MSSD Students; Athletic Director Recognized

62 Clerc Center Hosts Food Safety Event

63 New Resources Coming in 2012-2013

64 CALENDAR

I N E V E RY I S S U E

FEATURESN E W D I R E C T I O N S I N D E A F E D U C A T I O N

V O L . 1 2 • 2 0 1 1

PREPARING PROFESSIONALS TO

WORK WITH INFANTS, TODDLERS,

AND THEIR FAMILIES: A HYBRID

APPROACH TO LEARNING

By Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, Beth S. Benedict, and Nicole Hutchinson

PICTURING TIME: VISUAL

TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING THE

CONCEPTS OF YESTERDAY, TODAY,

AND TOMORROW

By Julia Weinberg

LETTER FROM THE CEASD PRESIDENT

By Ronald J. Stern

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Correction: In the Spring/Summer 2010issue of Odyssey, a word was inadvertentlyadded to a sentence in Margarita Sweet’sarticle, “Helping Children with SensoryProcessing Disorders: The Role ofOccupational Therapy,” changing itsmeaning. The sentence should have read as

follows: “However, for some people who have intact sensorysystems, this experience can be very challenging. They may feeluncomfortable standing close to strangers, lose their balance onunstable surfaces, depend on their eyes or take extra time to findan object inside a bag, or simply avoid taking the train duringrush hour.” We apologize for the error.

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LETTER FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT

We all know that plants need water to grow and mature, toestablish strong and complex root systems, and to thrive inall kinds of conditions. Although this is a fairly simplisticdescription, it very much mirrors the brain’s need forlinguistic input. Research is plentiful and unequivocal interms of the critical importance of early languageacquisition and the impact on linguistic and cognitivedevelopment. In short, the brain needs language to growand mature, to establish complex systems, and to thrive inall kinds of conditions.

In my 27 years in the field of deaf education, one of themost important changes has been the focus on earlyintervention. The Joint Commission on Infant Hearing(JCIH) position statement released in 2000 set evidence-based goals designed to ensure that babies with hearing lossdo not lose valuable time in language development. Thesegoals are to: 1) Screen all babies for hearing loss prior toleaving the hospital, 2) definitively diagnose babies as deafor hard of hearing by 3 months of age, and 3) enroll themin early intervention programs by 6 months of age.

Schools and agencies that serve deaf and hard of hearingchildren in states nationwide strongly support these goals,and many of these programs have strengthened their earlyintervention and outreach efforts in response. Theirchallenge has been in creating and implementing seamlesssystems that take families of these children from thescreening process through early intervention servicedelivery. Increasingly limited financial resources, the lack ofenough trained professionals to work with these families,and state-specific issues such as rural or transientpopulations are among the specific barriers that states mayface.

Many of these schools and programs have found solutionsto their individual challenges in achieving the goalsoutlined in the JCIH position statement. I am grateful tothe authors from schools and agencies in the states ofIllinois, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Texas, andWisconsin for sharing in this issue of Odyssey how theyfound ways to allocate their resources and/or work withother agencies to provide these critical services. You willalso find in this issue an overview of early intervention, adescription of what Gallaudet University is doing to helpwith the shortage of trained professionals in the field, andan article about a strategy that a professional uses to helpfamilies communicate more effectively with their youngdeaf or hard of hearing children. We hope that these articleshelp give you ideas about strategies you can implement in

your program or state. Here at the Clerc

Center, early interventionand early languagedevelopment are also atop priority. We continueto seek and share bestpractices in supportingearly languagedevelopment in babiesand young children whoare deaf or hard ofhearing. We are excitedabout new resources that will be shared as a result of ourcurrent strategic plan work. Two Clerc Center teams areworking on important goals in early intervention andlanguage development:

• The Early Intervention Action Plan Team hasidentified evidence-based factors that positivelyimpact linguistic competence in young deaf and hardof hearing children through a review of the research.These factors are essential components in resources andprograms for deaf and hard of hearing students. Theteam will next identify programs that are using thesecomponents in practice to support the development oflinguistic competence to learn about the strategiesthey use. By 2012, the team will disseminateevidence-based strategies for early intervention servicedelivery.

• The Family and Professional Resources Action PlanTeam will use established criteria to identify resourcesfor families and professionals that support thedevelopment of linguistic competence. The goal is toidentify and disseminate resources for service providersand resources for families that support the developmentof linguistic competence for deaf and hard of hearingstudents from birth through 21 years of age.

Together, we can work to improve access to effective earlyintervention services for babies and children who are deaf orhard of hearing in an effort to ensure early linguistic andcognitive development.

Thank you for joining us in this issue of Odyssey.

—Edward BossoVice President Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education CenterGallaudet University

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Early Childhood Intervention:Foundations for Success

2011 ODYSSEY 3

The February 2011 National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI)conference marked its tenth annual event. During the opening plenary, speakers lookedback and described the progress and accomplishments of past years. They highlightedactivities of the various federal agencies, medical organizations, and individuals whohelped move EHDI systems to where they are today. In this article, I would like tohighlight the progress made towards providing family support and including the Deafcommunity in these systems.

Twenty years ago, when she was 11 months old, my daughter was identified as deaf at anational children’s hospital. Although I was horrified to know that she had missed nearly ayear of language input, I was told how “lucky” it was that she was identified so “early.” I leftthe hospital with no information about what to do next, whom to contact, or what earlyintervention services were available.

Five years later my son was identified at the same hospital. Since his sister was deaf, Ithought it would be a pretty good idea to get his hearing levels checked. He really wasidentified early—he was only a few weeks old. Again, I left the hospital with no informationabout what to do next, whom to contact, or what early intervention services were available.

I am grateful that things have changed. Prior to the proliferation of EHDI services, the average age of identification of a deaf child

was 2.5. A hard of hearing child might have been identified as late as age 4 or 5. For manychildren, late identification impacted language-learning ability.

Today, it is not uncommon for a child to be identified within the first few months of birthand for the child and family to be on a good path early on. Now, nearly 100 percent of allbabies born in American hospitals have their hearing screened within the first day or two oflife. So EHDI’s task is complete, right?

Not so fast. EHDI systems are based on a “1-3-6” plan. By 1 month old, the child should have his or

her hearing screened. If the screen indicates that he or she needs a confirmatory hearingassessment, then that assessment should take place by the time the child is 3 months old. Ifthe child is found to be deaf or hard of hearing, he or she and his or her family should beenrolled in a quality early intervention program by the time the child is 6 months old.

Unfortunately, this is not happening in many cases. First, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that many

children who are referred from the screen for confirmatory testing do not receive this follow-

Barbara Raimondo,Esq., is a long-timeadvocate for the rights ofdeaf and hard of hearingindividuals and theirfamilies. She has presentedon and written aboutnumerous topics, includingearly hearing detection andintervention, test equity,civil rights, familysupport, deaf-hearingpartnerships, and parentand Deaf communityinvolvement. She has beenassociated with theAmerican Society for DeafChildren, the Conferenceof EducationalAdministrators of Schoolsand Programs for the Deaf,the Maryland School forthe Deaf, the NationalAssociation of the Deaf,and other organizations.Raimondo is forevergrateful for the supportand information shereceived through KendallDemonstration ElementarySchool’s Parent-InfantProgram when her childrenwere young. Raimondowelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle atbaraimondo@me.com.

OVERVIEW

EARLY HEARING DETECTION

AND INTERVENTION:

how far we’ve come,how far we’ve yet to go

By Barbara Raimondo

Photos by John T. Consoli

ODYSSEY 2011

up. Next, of the children who receivefollow-up and are identified as beingdeaf or hard of hearing, many of thosechildren and families are not connectedwith early intervention (Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, 2007).Third, one study showed that whilemost early intervention programs haveprofessionals on staff with an earlychildhood special education background,less than half have professionals whoreceived their training in the educationof deaf children (Stredler-Brown &Arehart, 2000). This indicates thatmany families are not receiving thespecialized services necessary.

Research documents that earlyidentified children who receiveappropriate early intervention servicesfrom qualified providers achievesignificantly higher language outcomesthan those who do not (Yoshinaga-Itanoet al., 1998). These critical elements—“early identified,” “appropriate earlyintervention services,” and “qualifiedproviders”—must be in place. In theirabsence, early identification may bedetrimental. This is because familiesmay feel confused and helpless about

finding information andservices, and they may even feelangry. These feelings can affecttheir sense of well-being andeven the child’s developmentbecause the parent-childrelationship can be impacted bythe family’s sense of well-being(Sass-Lehrer, 2002).

So, things aren’t so great. Onthe other hand, it is not allgloom and doom either. Statesystems do recognize the needfor screening, follow-up,information for parents, andlinks with early intervention.While families in the past eithermissed early intervention alltogether or found it only bychance, systems today areworking towards a seamlesstransition from screening toidentification to earlyintervention and are starting totake into account the quality of

that intervention.In my view, one of the most important

pieces to look at is the representation ofthe Deaf community in these systems.This is for several reasons. First, whensystems value and respect deaf adultsenough to make them key players intheir work, that shows they value andrespect deaf babies as well. Every parentwants his or her child to be valued andrespected. Second, who better to informhearing people about the lives of deafpeople than deaf folks themselves? Themost caring and well-intentionedhearing person cannot fully know whatit is like to experience life as a deafperson in our society. The third reason isbased on simple justice and commonsense. Would there be, say, an importantmovement to improve the education andlives of women that is run solely bymen?

While other elements are critical—such as accurate evaluation of the child’shearing levels and parent-to-parentsupport—in my view the area of biggestlack is involvement of the Deafcommunity. In other words, it is well

understood that families need thesupport of other families and thathearing assessment technology must bereliable. However, it has taken longer fordecision makers in EHDI systems torecognize the need for Deaf communityinvolvement. Let’s review the progress.

National EHDI ConferenceDuring the first National EHDIconference, attended by several hundredpeople, there was one deaf presenter—who was also the only deaf attendee—and a handful of parents. The rest of theconference-goers were professionals (i.e.,state EHDI coordinators, pediatricians,audiologists, etc.). At the 2011conference, there were dozens of Deafcommunity members and allies andmany parents. This recent EHDIconference had a greatly increasednumber of presentations by deafindividuals. There were alsopresentations by hearing speakers thatwere focused on supporting deafchildren, such as through the use ofvisual communication. One of thekeynote speeches was given by HowardRosenblum, the new director of theNational Association of the Deaf. Lastyear the Antonia Brancia Maxon Awardfor EHDI Excellence was presented toDr. Beth Benedict, the first deafrecipient of this award.

National Center on Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) E-BookNCHAM has been publishing an on-lineresource guide for EHDI issues. Thelatest version (National Center onHearing Assessment and Management,2011) includes a chapter on theimportance of, and strategies for,including members of the Deafcommunity in EHDI programs.

Consensus ReportSeveral years ago a group of stakeholderscame together to identify criticalelements in EHDI systems (Marge &Marge, 2005). Among them were

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representatives from GallaudetUniversity, the U.S. Department ofEducation, state EHDI systems, parentorganizations, and others. That meetingresulted in a report, Beyond NewbornHearing Screening: Meeting the Educationaland Health Care Needs of Infants andYoung Children with Hearing Loss inAmerica. Recommendations from thatreport included:• EHDI systems should subscribe to

the wellness model upon which thephysical and psychosocial integrityof children and adults who are deafor hard of hearing is based.

• Early interventionists and healthcare providers must becomeknowledgeable about differentmodels of the deaf experience...as alife experience and/or culturalcommunity....

• Early intervention programs shouldrecruit trained adults who are deaf orhard of hearing to serve on thecoordinated service team.

Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH)JCIH, composed of medical,audiological, and educational

organizations, haspublished seven

positionstatements onEHDI since1971. Its2007 paper(Joint

Committee onInfant Hearing,

2007) advised that“adults who are deaf

or hard of hearing shouldplay an integral part in the EHDIprogram” and families “should beoffered opportunities to interact withother families who have infants orchildren with hearing loss as well asadults and children who are deaf or hardof hearing.” It also noted that “Almostall families choose at some time duringtheir early childhood programs to seekout both adults and child peers” who are

deaf or hard of hearing. It stated “. . .intervention programs should includeopportunities for involvement ofindividuals who are deaf or hard ofhearing in all aspects of EHDIprograms.”

JCIH is working on a positionstatement on early intervention that isexpected to be completed in 2011. Thispaper includes further recommendationson Deaf community involvement;language development, including signedlanguage; and skills of the earlyintervention provider.

Information for ParentsEHDI systems are providing familieswith more information, and manypositive resources are available. For

example, the California Department ofEducation, along with others, recentlyreleased a video on the benefits of usingAmerican Sign Language with youngchildren (Through Your Child’s Eyes,2011).

Despite these movements in the rightdirection, EHDI systems have yet tomaximize partnerships with Deafcommunity members. These statementsfrom these influential professionalbodies are encouraging, yet there stillare very few—if any—deaf individualswith decision-making authority in thesesystems.

EHDI programs and EHDI Deafcommunity involvement have come along way in 10 years, but there is muchroom for improvement in both areas.

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References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Annual EHDI data. RetrievedMarch 7, 2011, from www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/EHDI/data.htm

Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. (2007). Year 2007 position statement:Principles and guidelines for early hearing detection and intervention programs.Pediatrics, 120, 898-921.

Marge, D.K., & Marge, M. (2005). Beyond newborn hearing screening: Meeting theeducational and health care needs of infants and young children with hearing loss inAmerica. Report of the National Consensus Conference on Effective Educationaland Health Care Interventions for Infants and Young Children with Hearing Loss,September 10-12, 2004. Syracuse, NY: Department of Physical Medicine andRehabilitation, SUNY Upstate Medical University.

National Center on Hearing Assessment and Management. (2011). The NCHAMe-book: A resource guide for early hearing detection & intervention. Retrieved March 7,2011, from www.infanthearing.org/ehdi-ebook/index.html

Sass-Lehrer, M. (2002). Early beginnings for families with deaf and hard of hearingchildren: Myths and facts of early intervention and guidelines for effective services.Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Documents/Clerc/EI.pdf

Stredler-Brown, A., & Arehart, K. (2000). Universal newborn hearing screening:Impact on early intervention services. The Volta Review, 100(5), 85-117.

Through Your Child’s Eyes. (2011). Produced by D. J. Kurs in cooperation withCalifornia State University, Northridge, and the California Department ofEducation. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from www.csun.edu/ ~tyce/index.html

Yoshinaga-Itano, C., Sedey, A. L., Coulter, D. K., & Mehl, A. L. (1998). Languageof early- and later-identified children with hearing loss. Pediatrics, 102(5), 1161-1171. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/5/1161

In Illinois, several organizations collaborate to provide a comprehensiveapproach to family outreach for families of students who are deaf andhard of hearing. Some of the agencies that work together in this effortare CHOICES for Parents, Illinois Hands and Voices, Guide By YourSide, Illinois Service Resource Center, Illinois School for the DeafOutreach, and Hearing and Vision Connections. This network ofsupport provides such services and resources as parent-to-parentnetworking, in-home individual support, training, parent groups, andconferences.

CHOICES for Parents is a statewide coalition of parents and professionals thatprovides parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing with support, resources,information, and advocacy. CHOICES for Parents provides one-on-one parent supportas well as activities throughout the year for parents and families.

Through collaboration with the Illinois Deaf Latino Association, outreach andsupport to Latino families is provided. A Deaf Awareness Day event and parentworkshops occur annually, and sign language classes are taught in Spanish to parentswho primarily speak Spanish.

The CHOICES for Parents READ Program ensures that children with hearing lossand their schools have books available to them. Through collaboration with theAmerican Library Association, Hall-Erickson and GES Exposition Services, CHOICESfor Parents distributes books throughout the state to programs and schools with deafand hard of hearing children to promote early literacy.

Children and Hearing Loss is a free resource manual that is filled with informationabout hearing loss, early intervention, technology, education, pediatricians, and more.Produced by CHOICES for Parents, the resource is available in English and Spanish.

Every spring on Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (EHDI) Day, CHOICES forParents honors those who have gone above and beyond in infant identification andfollow-up. CHOICES for Parents works with the Illinois Governor’s Office to proclaimEHDI Day annually in the state. During the event, parents are invited to share theirstories on receiving the news of their children’s hearing loss and the support that theyreceived.

Karen Aguilar is thecoalition director forCHOICES for Parents, astatewide coalition ofparents and professionalsthat provides information,support, and resources tofamilies whose children havea hearing loss.

Marcia Breese is theoutreach coordinator for theIllinois School for the Deaf(ISD), which providestechnical assistance,consultation, training, andsupport to students withhearing loss in Illinois.

Gail Olson is the programcoordinator for Hearing andVision Connections, astatewide earlyintervention training andtechnical assistanceprogram specific to infantsand toddlers with visionand/or hearing loss.

Cheri Sinnott is thedirector of the IllinoisService Resource Center(ISRC), a statewide agencyin Illinois that providesbehavior support forstudents who are deaf andhard of hearing.

Michele Westmaas is atrainer/consultant with boththe Illinois School for theDeaf Outreach andHearing and VisionConnections, planningstatewide conferences forparents of children withhearing or vision loss.

The authors welcomequestions and commentsabout this article atkgaguilar@aol.com,marcia.breese @illinois.gov,gail.olson@illinois.gov,cheris@isrc.us, michele.westmaas@illinois.gov, respectively.

By Karen Aguilar, Marcia Breese, Gail Olson, Cheri Sinnott, and Michele Westmaas

REACHING OUT TO FAMILIES OF

DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING

CHILDREN IN ILLINOIS:

a collaborative effort

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Photos courtesy of Carrie Balian

2011 ODYSSEY

As a result of CHOICES for Parents’collaboration with Illinois Hands &Voices and the Illinois EHDI program,the Illinois Guide By Your Side Programwas implemented in 2009. IllinoisHands & Voices is a parent-drivenorganization dedicated to supportingfamilies who have children who are deafand hard of hearing without a biastoward communication modes ormethodologies. Illinois families receivesupport in order to improvecommunication access and educationaloutcomes for their children throughworkshops, parent gatherings, and thenational newsletter, Hands & VoicesCommunicator.

The Illinois EHDI program works toimplement mandated newborn hearingscreening no later than 1 month of age,diagnosis no later than 3 months of age,and intervention no later than 6 monthsof age. The EHDI program encompassesoutreach and support to parents,hospitals, family physicians, stateagencies, and providers regarding thediagnosis and follow-up of children withhearing loss. The Illinois EHDI programstate partners are the University ofIllinois at Chicago Division of

Specialized Care for Children, theIllinois Department of Public Health,and the Illinois Department of HumanServices. In addition, the programcollaborates with numerous groups toincrease newborn hearing follow-up,diagnosis, intervention, parent support,and continued surveillance of hearingprior to entering school.

Guide By Your Side providesunbiased emotional support andresources by trained parent guides tofamilies with children who have ahearing loss. Parent guides are parentswhose children have hearing loss withvarying modes of communication andeducational paths chosen. Parent guidesrepresent different cultures andethnicities; are deaf, hard of hearing, orhearing; and are, in many cases,bilingual. In Illinois, this fills a muchneeded gap of individual parent-to-parent support.

What do parents have to say aboutGuide By Your Side? One parentcommented, “I’m learning sign language tocommunicate with my son and I wondered ifthere were other parents out there who wantedto learn, too. My parent guide encouraged me

to reach out to other parents and explainedways that I could network with them. Istarted a deaf coffee chat in my town forpeople to come together to learn sign languageand it’s been a great way to meet otherparents who have deaf or hard of hearingkids!”

Another parent said, “The Guide ByYour Side mentor program has helped metremendously! My relationship with mymentor started when I was literally in a‘survival mode’ dealing with the news of myson's hearing loss. Over a period of six months,my mentor has taken the time out to speak tome about everything that was on my mind.We talked about how to recognize personalemotions, deal with close friends who have notexperienced a similar life-changing event andhence cannot connect on the same level, build astronger relationship with the spouse andallow one another the time to accept the newchallenge in our life. As time progressed, our

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Above left: During Guide By Your Side’s

Family Fun Day event, families participated in

games, face painting, and other fun activities.

Above right: During a family social event for

children with hearing loss, children had the

opportunity to meet Monkey Joe.

ODYSSEY 2011

conversations also took on a new life.We talked about schooling options,various auditory therapy methodswidely used and the benefits and flawsof each, American Sign Language andother resources that are available to theparents. My mentor sends me regularupdates on upcoming national or stateevents on hearing loss and we have eventalked about the cultural dimensionaround hearing loss and helpful waysto deal with it. I feel I have a friend Ican talk to any time; someone who givesme a very unbiased view abouteverything.”

The Illinois ServiceResource Center (ISRC) isa component of the Illinois StateBoard of Education’s IllinoisStatewide Technical AssistanceCenter. ISRC provides behaviorsupport for schools and families ofstudents who are deaf and hard ofhearing. Meaningful parent involvementin a child’s education can be animportant factor in student behavior.

In an effort to address the issue ofincreasing meaningful parentinvolvement, ISRC has hired fiveregional parent facilitators. The parentfacilitators can assist with locatingspeakers for parent groups, help connectparents with resources such as serviceproviders and educational programs, helpparents learn about Deaf culture, andfacilitate connections between home andschool and parent to parent.

Parent facilitators also coordinate aParent Café, at which parents have theopportunity to come together while theirchildren are provided with an activity.The Parent Cafés take place on the samedate in all five regions of the state.

Another resource for parent-to-parentsupport is the ISRC Family Network.ISRC maintains a directory of parentsand families with children who are deafand hard of hearing. ISRC parentfacilitators are able to connect parentswith other parents facing similarcircumstances, such as parents ofchildren who are “deaf plus,” meaning

that in addition to being deaf thechildren also have a secondary challengesuch as autism, Down syndrome,learning disabilities, vision impairment,or behavior challenges. One FamilyNetwork member said, “Some of thesechildren are so unique, it is rare to findanother parent with a similar experience.”

The ISRC Resource Library includesover 75 items specifically tailored toparent/family needs. This is in additionto over 1,000 other items with a focus ondeafness and behavioral issues. Familiesmay request items via phone, e-mail, orfax, and the items are mailed to the

families with return postageincluded.

While providing behavior supportto schools, ISRC assists with thedevelopment of Positive BehaviorInterventions and Supports (PBIS) fordeaf and hard of hearing programs.Parent involvement is a significantaspect of PBIS, and ISRC encouragesprograms to have a parent memberon the PBIS Leadership Team, toincorporate home-school activitiesand behavior incentives, and to invitefamilies to PBIS annual kickoffevents.

Individual support for families ofstudents who are experiencingbehavior challenges at home isprovided by ISRC. A member of theteam visits the family and assists inthe development of a Home-SchoolTeam. This team identifies behavior

support strategies that can be consistentat both school and home.

The ISRC website (www.isrc.us)includes a page specifically for parents.The page includes contact informationfor the parent facilitators and helpfulinformation such as tip sheets forsummer survival, potty training, basicsign language, and sample behaviorcharts.

Each year ISRC sponsors a bus trip forfamilies that would like to visit theIllinois School for the Deaf (ISD).Families who are considering sendingtheir child to the school but have neverhad an opportunity to visit are able toparticipate in this one-day free bus tripand experience a day at the residentialschool.

Illinois School for the Deaf(ISD) Outreach is the statewideresource center which supports theeducation of students who are deaf orhard of hearing from birth to age 21.Utilizing the wealth of knowledge andexperience related to hearing loss andrelated issues available at ISD, ISDOutreach offers consultation andtechnical assistance free of charge toteachers, parents, support staff, and

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Meaningful parent

involvement in a

child’s education

can be an important

factor in student

behavior.

2011 ODYSSEY

other service providers who work withchildren who are deaf or hard of hearing.

ISD Outreach services are free. Parentsoften request in-service presentationsfor educators in general educationclassrooms as well as observations,phone or e-mail consultations, andwritten correspondence. Free trainingsare provided upon request to parentgroups on a variety of topics related tohearing loss.

Parents have fewer opportunities forsummer activities for their children withhearing loss, and that can cause stress.ISD Outreach offers summer campopportunities for students with hearingloss, an open house, “Taste of ISD” forparents of ISD students, and collaborateson parent conferences held throughout

the state. Another resource for parents ofchildren newly diagnosed with hearingloss is a one-week institute for parents ofpreschool children.

Free assessments to identifyeducational and vocational needs areprovided by the ISD Evaluation Center.Evaluations and assessments areavailable in the areas of schoolpsychology, audiology, andcommunication skills. Vocationalevaluations that identify career interests

and abilities are available to high schoolstudents. Evaluations are free; however,the family or referring school isresponsible for transportation, meals,and lodging, if needed.

ISD Outreach offers a new CochlearImplant Program to support theeducation of students with cochlearimplants by providing training andtechnical assistance specific to cochlearimplants. These services are provided bya person who is a late deafened adult andcochlear implant user. General cochlearimplant information is also available onthe ISD Outreach website.

In addition to the services offered toparents, ISD provides a variety ofservices for educators and otherprofessionals. For information about thefull range of services offered by ISDOutreach, visit the website athttp://morgan.k12.il.us/isd/outreach_services.html.

Hearing and VisionConnections (HVC) is a statewidetraining and technical assistanceprogram serving infants and toddlerswho are deaf, hard of hearing, or visuallyimpaired. HVC is funded by the IllinoisDepartment of Human Services, Bureauof Early Intervention.

HVC offers:• Free training opportunities

throughout the state for earlyintervention service providers andcollaborates to provide annualconferences for parents of childrenwith hearing and vision loss. Parentconferences are held in the northern,central, and southern parts of thestate.

• Resource and referral services to helpearly intervention service coordinatorsfind vision and hearing specialists toserve the children on their caseloads.In addition, HVC answers families’and providers’ questions specific tohearing and vision in infant/toddlerdevelopment or service delivery.

• Many free resources to parents andproviders. Resource guides areavailable for parents of young children

with hearing loss, vision loss, and dualsensory impairment. Free quarterlynewsletters offer current informationrelated to hearing and vision loss inyoung children.

• Networking opportunities fordevelopmental therapists hearing anddevelopmental therapists vision, earlyintervention providers speciallytrained to meet the needs of youngchildren with hearing or vision loss,and deaf mentors, trained adults withhearing loss who provide support andinformation for families of youngchildren with hearing loss. HVC alsoprovides support for the credentialingof service providers in order to ensureadequate providers are available tomeet the needs of children throughoutthe state.

The HVC website (www.morgan.k12.il.us/isd/hvc) offers newsletters, resourceguides, and a training calendar as well asvision and hearing screening tools andearly intervention service guidelinesrelated to hearing and visionimpairment. HVC works closely withthe Bureau of Early Intervention tocreate and maintain the screening toolsand service guidelines ensuring thatyoung children with hearing or visionloss are identified and receiveappropriate early intervention services assoon as possible.

There are many organizations inIllinois supporting parents on theirjourney of raising a child with hearingloss. However, instead of this being seenas a confusing overlap, all of theseorganizations are strong supporters ofeach other, working collaboratively forthe benefit of the child and familyneeding support.

When hearing parents find out thattheir child is deaf or hard of hearing, thesupport of professionals and otherparents is critical in navigating this newpath. By reaching out to these parents,and to parents who themselves are deafor hard of hearing, these agencies inIllinois provide not only a network, buta safety net for families.

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buildingconnections

to empower indiana familieswith young deaf and

hard of hearing children

At the time of this printing, the Indiana First Steps and Early Hearing Detectionand Intervention programs are undergoing system changes due to budget constraints.The Outreach Department at the Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) is proposingchanges that may result in a more seamless service delivery. To learn more aboutthese changes, visit www.deaf-kids.org.

In Indiana, families with newly identified deaf and hard of hearing children may havevarying experiences in discovering the support systems available to them. Indiana has a PartC early intervention (EI) program, known as First Steps, that serves all children at risk oridentified with a disability. This program, however, is not yet seamless in taking familiesfrom the newborn screening and identification stages through the EI and service deliverystages. ISD’s Outreach Department, mandated by Indiana Code 20-22-2 to serve as astatewide resource providing outreach services and consultation to public schools servingdeaf and hard of hearing children, has taken a multifaceted approach to helping create a morefluid experience for families in need of EI services.

Collaboration EffortsA critical factor in ISD Outreach’s ability to provide this support to families of newlyidentified deaf or hard of hearing children has been a strong relationship with other stateagencies. When the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) mandate passed in1999, it was crucial that First Steps, ISD Outreach, and the Indiana State Department ofHealth (ISDH) work together in the implementation of a statewide Early Hearing Detectionand Intervention (EHDI) program. ISDH oversees early hearing detection programs in thestate. First Steps had the funding for an appropriate intervention, but lacked thecomprehensive specialized services that ISD Outreach had. All three agencies, working intandem, have been able to make progress towards developing a more unified statewidesystem of EI service delivery.

SKI-HI training photos courtesy of Cindy Lawrence

Cindy Lawrence,MA, CCC-A, receivedboth her bachelor’s degreein deaf education and hermaster’s degree inaudiology from Ball StateUniversity. Since 2003,she has been the directorof Outreach Services fordeaf and hard of hearingchildren, a statewideresource at the IndianaSchool for the Deaf (ISD).Growing up with a deafsibling, Lawrence had adesire to improve theeducation system from ayoung age. Prior tocoming to work at ISD in1986, she worked in anotolaryngologist’s officeand then in the publicschool system as a part-time itinerant teacher andpart-time audiologist.Lawrence welcomescomments and questionsabout this article atclawrence@isd.k12.in.us.

By Cindy Lawrence

ISD OUTREACH:

2011 ODYSSEY 11

ISD Outreach EI staff began planting seeds of collaborationlong before formal systems of the EHDI program wereimplemented. Examples include:• ISD audiologists and speech-language pathologists had been,

and continue to be, involved with their state professionalorganizations. They also provide in-service trainingworkshops to other EI agencies and centers serving deaf andhard of hearing children, and attend state and nationalconferences.

• The ISD Outreach director, EI coordinators, and otherOutreach staff participated in various First Steps committeesand initiatives.

° The director was involved in the task force that broughtthe UNHS legislation to Indiana and then partneredwith the Department of Health in initial efforts toimplement the program.

° Outreach coordinators and staff participated in theformation of committees and workgroups that thencreated protocols and materials for professionals andparents with participation from varying perspectives atall stages.

As an example of a successful collaborative effort, theinclusion of all perspectives and an effort to achieve consensusresulted in the creation of a balanced and comprehensive Family

Resource Guide that helps guide parents through their journeyand identify resources available.

Building Capacity Statewide and in Rural IndianaISD Outreach has led several efforts to grow the state’s capacityto provide services for newly identified and young deaf and hardof hearing children in the state, and the families andprofessionals working with them.

In 2001, the ISDH received a federal grant that includedfunds for regional outreach audiologists, which ISD Outreachadministered through an agreement with the ISDH. Sevenaudiologists were hired to provide part-time regional supportsto their local hospitals in the implementation of the UNHSprogram. They also provided technical support to the ISDHduring development of the EHDI program. Today, theseregional audiologists report to the ISDH. They continue toprovide support, technical assistance, and resources for birthinghospital staff and other audiologists. The networking betweenISD Outreach and these audiologists continues to benefitfamilies statewide by ensuring a connection between ISDOutreach staff and audiologists in every part of the state.

The same 2001 grant also funded a Family Conference,coordinated by ISD Outreach. As the result of a keynote

Left: Indiana

professionals

participate in SKI-HI

training.

ODYSSEY 2011

presentation by LeeanneSeaver, executive directorof Hands & Voices, at the2003 Family Conference,two co-chairs agreed tostart up an Indianachapter of Hands &Voices. This chapter nowruns the Family Conference.

ISD Outreach used asecond grant awarded in 2004by the ISDH to launch theTraining for Early LanguageDevelopment (TELD) project. TheTELD project is based on the curriculumcreated by the SKI-HI Institute at the Utah StateUniversity to design state-of-the-art family-centeredprogramming for infants and young children with hearing loss.Parent advisors (PAs) visit families at home to provide activitiesthat support early language development as outlined in theSKI-HI curriculum. The grant funded the following:

• The costs for SKI-HI trainers to come to Indiana andprovide six full days of training twice in the first two yearsof the grant; up to 25 professionals were trained each time.

• The costs of ordering several copies of the two-volume setof curriculum materials, which are passed among PAs andreturned to ISD Outreach whenever PAs leave the program.

ISD Outreach knew the grant funds were finite. Theysuccessfully aimed to “grow” their own trainers within the statewho were qualified to provide training for the PAs. They usedISD’s budget to send a trainer to “Train the Trainer” sessions inUtah. By the time the grant funds ran out, before the thirdtraining session was scheduled, one of the EI coordinators atISD Outreach had become a SKI-HI trainer. This coordinator,the only deaf SKI-HI trainer, has since been joined by anotherISD Outreach staff member as an eligible SKI-HI trainer in thestate of Indiana. This capacity allows ISD Outreach to add tothe four cohorts of PAs already trained as additional potentialPAs are identified in every part of the state, well after the grantmoney has run out. Having eligible SKI-HI trainers on staff atISD Outreach also allows them to keep up with high turnoverin the EI field and the part-time nature of PA work, and thetrainers provide ongoing professional development to thecurrent PAs.

Not all participants who attended the PA training sessionswent on to become PAs or EI providers for First Steps forvarious reasons, including the complex process of applying forand becoming an official PA (PAs are supervised and paid for byFirst Steps). However, many are professionals working withfamilies in various capacities and, therefore, support theapproach and goal of empowering parents with comprehensiveinformation. ISD Outreach has been tailoring their approach inrecruiting potential PAs and determining who would be most

likely to follow through withdelivering the curriculum. Indoing so, it was found thatexisting teachers of the deaf andcurrent EI providers workingwith deaf and hard of hearingchildren are the best candidates.

The two SKI-HI trainersprovide another important

service. First Steps in Indiana isdivided into regional System Point of

Entry (SPOE) clusters, where servicecoordinators provide intakes and develop

and update Individual Family Service Plans(IFSP) for families. The two SKI-HI trainers

provide several forms of support to each of the sevenSPOE’s in the state:

• Direct training in the needs of deaf and hard of hearinginfants and children and their families

• A training packet that includes general information aboutEI for deaf and hard of hearing children and the criticalneed to provide accessible language.

• Information about the role of SKI-HI PAs for families (thisis crucial since the system doesn’t have service definitionsthat are disability specific), specifically that PAs empowerparents to provide language-rich environments throughinteraction with other children and adults who provideaccessible language.

The TELD project has had a significant impact on increasingthe availability and the quality of services throughout Indiana,both in terms of direct services to families and the education ofthe professionals who work with them. The effect has beenespecially profound in parts of rural Indiana, where it can bedifficult to find professionals who are experienced in workingwith young deaf or hard of hearing children.

Empowering Parents Through CollaborationBetween the Deaf Community and FamiliesThe TELD project gradually built capacity throughout Indianafor PAs and, more importantly, built awareness statewide of thespecific needs for families with deaf and hard of hearingchildren. The SKI-HI program provides unbiasedcomprehensive information about all areas of language andcommunication and, most importantly, about how childrendevelop and acquire skills within their natural environment. Asurvey conducted in 2008 confirmed that parents were verysatisfied with their PA and the SKI-HI program and felt moreconfident about parenting their child. However, parents stillbenefit from a team of supports as illustrated in the FamilySupport diagram developed by Hands & Voices and theNational Center for Hearing Assessment and Management. AsISD Outreach continues to increase its capacity to providecomprehensive services for families, they seek to find support in

12

2011 ODYSSEY

all areas, including parent-to-parentsupport, information, adults who are deaf orhard of hearing and existing communities,and support provided by professionals.

In 2009, ISD Outreach began a pilot DeafRole Model (DRM) Program in response tothe need they saw to provide a Deaf adultrole model to families in the comfort andnatural setting of their homes. What beganwith a few families and one DRM has grownto a current caseload of 25 families served bynine DRMs. The DRMs are ISD staff andcommunity members that want to sharetheir life experiences and assure parents thattheir deaf children can grow to becomesuccessful adults, too. The feedback has beenvery positive:

“When Lethia came to my home, I saw thatthere was hope for my child. We learned howto communicate with our son and we feltwelcomed into a whole new community that isopening the doors of communication for myson,” one parent reported.

Parents receiving support from DRMs seethe tremendous potential of their child,learn to communicate more effectively with him or her, and so

much more. Regardless of theeducational setting or

communication path chosen byfamilies, those who have apositive and enrichingexperience in EI and haveaccess to the Deaf communitydemonstrate an open andpositive attitude toward their

child and the Deaf and hearingcommunities. We believe the

impact DRMs have on the familieswill last a lifetime.

Additional ServicesISD Outreach also provides several other forms of earlysupports:

• A lending resource library• A home demonstration room• Playgroups, including Language Enrichment and Play

(LEAP) and Families Learning in Play (FLIP)• Family and professional workshops

ISD Outreach maintains an Outreach Resource Manual that liststhe array of services and the model of early supports they use atwww.deaf-kids.org. Programs evolve based on collaborationefforts and on the needs of families of deaf and hard of hearingchildren. Parents benefit from the variety of services available,

as shown in this comment:“I just wanted to let you know how much wehave enjoyed the LEAP Program for our son!Even though we are only there for a short time,it gives Braden a chance to play with other kidshis age and get exposed to ASL. The instructorsare so friendly and welcoming! I am so glad wehave been able to get involved. We really enjoyinteracting with the staff, kids, and parents!”(Parent of a 2-year-old, receives First Stepsservices, DRM, attends LEAP, and benefitsfrom the lending library)

As this article goes to press, ISD Outreach isworking with all three state agenciesresponsible for various components of thesystem on new initiatives due to budgetchallenges in Indiana state government andchanges in the state’s First Steps system.During difficult economic times or whenrequired to provide something that isn’tfunded, collaboration becomes crucial tocreating programs and initiatives. Lack offunding can lead to some synergistic resultsthat ultimately benefit families. The best thatcan be done for families as professionals and

“systems” is to work together inclusively. To serve families in astate without a seamless system, the following tips are critical:

• As an outreach or EI service provider, get to know thesystem, including funding streams and relevant policies andprotocols.

• Become involved in the system through committees, workgroups, and professional organizations.

• Build relationships with all families and with otherprofessionals who also serve families you work with.

• Be a bridge between the Deaf and hearing communities.Most hearing families have never had experience with theDeaf community and some find it overwhelming, yet theycan appreciate learning a new culture and language.

• Never assume where others stand. Seek to understand andto find common goals for the benefit of families.

For more information about ISD Outreach, visitwww.deafhoosiers.com/Outreach/. To learn more about the SKI-HIcurriculum, visit http://www.skihi.org/.

13

Resource

Watkins, S. (Ed.). (2004). SKI-HI curriculum: Familycentered programming for infants and young children withhearing loss. Logan, UT: Utah State University, SKI-HIInstitute.

“When Lethia

came to my home, I

saw that there was

hope for my child.

We learned how to

communicate with

our son and we felt

welcomed into a

whole new

community that is

opening the doors of

communication for

my son,” one parent

reported.

ODYSSEY 201114

Current trends and issues surrounding birth screening, earlyintervention services, and deaf children’s varying access tolanguage and literacy demonstrate a critical need to improveour understanding of how to involve families as partners intheir children’s education. In the past decade, increasingnumbers of deaf children have been identified through birthscreening within the first few months of life (Yoshinaga-Itano, 2004; Marge & Marge, 2005). Between 8,000 and12,000 infants are identified as deaf or hard of hearing eachyear (http://infanthearing.org/resources/fact.pdf ). By six monthsof age, they are in intervention programs and receiveintensive language services (Yoshinaga-Itano, 2004).

The family and school partnership provides critical support for childrenin all areas of language, cognition, social-emotional, and physicaldevelopment from early childhood to the high school years. It is essentialthat schools and programs draw on research on best practices in familyinvolvement to establish the type of effective communication between

Photos courtesy of the Maryland School for the Deaf’s Family Education and Early Childhood Department

Cheri Dowling isthe director of Advocacyfor the AmericanSociety for DeafChildren and parentcoordinator of theMaryland State FamilySupport and ResourceCenter.

Deborah Marquezis the supervisingteacher at the MarylandSchool for the Deaf’s(MSD) Columbiacampus FamilyEducation and EarlyChildhood Department.Her backgroundincludes a lead teacherrole in the DODDSprogram for deaf andhard of hearing childrenin Germany and in theAlbuquerque, NewMexico, public schoolprogram for deaf andhearing children as wellas supervising graduatepracticum studentsattending GallaudetUniversity.

the family education and early childhood

departmentBy Cheri Dowling, Deborah Marquez, Lori Moers,

Mary Ann Richmond, and Maryann Swann

IT’S ABOUT LISTENING TO

OUR FAMILIES AND THE NEEDS

OF THEIR CHILDREN:

AT THE MARYLAND SCHOOL

FOR THE DEAF

Right: Children in the

FEECD program get

hands-on experience as

they learn about how

things grow.

2011 ODYSSEY

school and home that contributes to the positiveimpact of family involvement on children’slearning experiences. At the Maryland School forthe Deaf (MSD), various research-basedapproaches, tools, and techniques are used topromote families as partners in their children’seducation.

Program OverviewThe Family Education and Early ChildhoodDepartment (FEECD) at MSD, established in1968, is a recognized service provider in the stateof Maryland for deaf and hard of hearing childrenand their families. FEECD serves deaf and hard ofhearing children (including those who haveadditional disabilities) from birth until thechild’s fifth birthday at no cost to families. Theonly requirements are that the child has adocumented hearing loss and that the child andhis or her family are residents of Maryland.

The single point of entry for early interventionservices in Maryland is via each local Infants andToddlers Program. The 24 local lead agencies andMSD have a memorandum of understanding toensure that families with deaf and hard of hearinginfants access all services that are available tothem. The FEECD has made a concerted effort toestablish networks of referral with these locallead agencies so that accurate information isprovided to families regarding early languagelearning and educational opportunities for theirchildren.

Direct services to families are provided byFEECD educators, who have the training andexpertise to handle the varied linguistic, social-emotional, and academic needs of the birth-age 5population of deaf and hard of hearing childrenin the state. They travel extensively throughoutthe state to provide services to these children andtheir families in natural environments such as the

15

Lori Moers is thesupervising teacher atMSD’s Frederick campusFamily Education andEarly ChildhoodDepartment. Moers hasalso served as a co-coordinator for CAEBER-National ASL/EnglishBilingual Early ChildhoodEducation.

Mary AnnRichmond is a parentgroup facilitator anditinerant teacher workingfor MSD’s Columbiacampus Family Educationand Early ChildhoodDepartment. One of herendeavors is to buildbridges to connect familieswith the Deaf community.

Maryann Swann isthe director of MSD’sFamily Education andEarly ChildhoodDepartment. She has beena member of the MSDfaculty for 33 years. Swannwelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle at maryann.swann@msd.edu.

ODYSSEY 201116

home, daycare centers (both private andpublic), libraries, and other settings asrequested by the family. The goal is tohave children and families learn in theircommunity settings and to focus on theopportunities that these various sociallearning events can provide.

FEECD also offers center-basedservices. Children participate in FEECDprograms at either the Columbia orFrederick campus. Play groups areoffered for infants 6 months to 2 yearsold two mornings a week while 2- and 3-year-old children may attend preschoolclasses five mornings a week. Theservices provided are based on either anIndividualized Family Service Plan(IFSP) or an Individualized EducationProgram (IEP). Three-year-old childrenattending preschool at MSD also havethe opportunity to participate in“specials” as provided on each campusand those may include physicaleducation, art, drama, computer, and/orlibrary classes.

The FEECD program uses theMaryland State Department of HumanResources Child Care Administration,the Healthy Beginnings curriculum, andthe Creative Curriculum. These curriculaare compatible with the Maryland Modelfor School Readiness and the Maryland

State Curriculum, and they are endorsedby the Maryland State Department ofEducation (MSDE) as appropriatecurricula for early childhood settings.Coupled with an integrated early literacythematic units/project approach, thecurricula provide a strong earlychildhood curriculum. The focus is onpreparing students to enter school readyto learn, and the following domains arecovered:

• Personal and Social Development• Language and Literacy • Pre-reading• Pre-writing• Cognition and General Knowledge• Physical Development• Self-Help

A key component of FEECD servicesis a focus on ensuring that educationalprogram decisions are based on soundevidence of each child’s strengths andneeds. The following assessment toolsand procedures are maintained for eachchild:

• Developmental scales using the EarlyLearning Accomplishment Profile

• Learning Accomplishment Profile;Ages and Stages Questionnaire (6-60months)

• Language scales using theMacArthur Bates Communicative

Inventory Scale• Work Sampling System (ages 3 and

above)• Auditory learning scales• Portfolio assessment (18 months-3

years)• An American Sign Language (ASL)

checklist

The assessment protocol is reviewedannually to ensure use of current bestpractice tools as well as compliance withrequirements set by the MSDE. Thisevidence-based practice of assessment-driven instruction using approved earlychildhood curricula leads families andteachers to develop outcomes that arefunctional, meaningful, specific, andfamily identified.

Another critical component is theemphasis placed on establishingcommunication between the child andhis or her family using a bilingualapproach:

• ASL is used to build language skillsas early as possible since the primetime for language acquisition isbetween birth and 3 years of age.Direct ASL instruction is provided tofamilies weekly at each campus.Opportunities for parents to learnASL during the home visits allowsfor individual support for each family

2011 ODYSSEY

in establishing critical earlycommunication bonds with theirinfant. Children are provided directinstruction in ASL during center-based play groups and classes, andduring the home visits.

• Spoken English language learninggroups are available for small groupinstruction and one-to-oneinstruction. This support for spokenEnglish development is availableduring home visits and on eachcampus. The spoken Englishlanguage services are part of theinstructional paradigm based onIFSP outcomes or IEP goals.

• Families are supported in the use ofamplification with their deaf child,which may include hearing aids orcochlear implants. FEECD regularlyworks with children who are in theprocess of acquiring or who mayalready have a cochlear implant. TheFEECD program audiologist andMSD campus audiologist coordinateservices between implant center staffand MSD staff.

Families need support so they can gaininformation and access resources thatwill support them in maximizing theirchildren’s potential. FEECD providesthis support in a variety of ways:

• Weekly parent support meetings areprovided at each campus of MSD.These meetings provideopportunities for parents to meet andshare common experiences in raisingtheir children. These meetings arefacilitated by an educator who canprovide information related to avariety of topics at the request of thefamilies.

• Siblings up until age 4 attend classesand playgroups with their deaf orhard of hearing sibling during thesemeeting times. This allows theparent to attend the parent meetingand supports the sibling relationship.

• To help families meet within theirown geographical area, FEECD hostsregional meetings around the state

• FEECD plans individually designedhome visits based on guided

discussions with each family. MSDservice providers use a coachingmodel when working with families.This model supports a family insharing their feelings, ideas, andgoals. This dialogue guides the homevisitor in providing the uniqueindividual supports for each familyto be actively involved in theirchild’s educational program.

Deaf and Hard of HearingProfessionals ProvideSupport and Hope The Joint Committee on InfantHearing’s Year 2007 Position Statementemphasizes that early interventionprograms should include opportunitiesfor involvement of individuals who aredeaf or hard of hearing in all aspects ofearly intervention programs. Deaf andhard of hearing adults can be significantassets, and almost all families choose atsome time during their early childhoodprograms to seek out both adults andchild peers with hearing loss. Whenfamilies are provided opportunities tointeract and work with deaf or hard ofhearing professionals, they are given thehope that their deaf or hard of hearingchild can become a contributing memberof society.

A national survey conducted byMeadow-Orlans, Mertens, and Sass-Lehrer (2003), published in their bookParents and Their Deaf Children—TheEarly Years, listed 13 potential sources ofhelp for parents and asked them toindicate the helpfulness of each source.Teachers received the highest score,spouses came in second, therapists camein third, and deaf adults came in fourth.The Beginnings Parent Manual, offered byBeginnings for Parents of Children Whoare Deaf or Hard of Hearing (2007), alsoprovides this guidance: “Adults who aredeaf or hard of hearing are tremendousresources for parents who are wonderingwhat will happen as their child growsup.” MSD has applied this to practice byhaving the MSD deaf and hard of hearingfamily education and early childhoodteachers provide families with a bridge tothe Deaf community.

The Deaf community is extremelydiverse, coming from all socioeconomiclevels, educational backgrounds, andethnic groups. Deaf individuals may usedifferent types of technology; they mayuse sign language, spoken language, orboth. They come from all walks of life.FEECD aims to support a Deafcommunity experience that gives

1717

Top left: FEECD

students and their

parents participate

in a cooking

activity.

Right: After a

cooking activity,

children have the

opportunity to

taste what they’ve

helped prepare.

ODYSSEY 2011

families and their children a sense ofbelonging and identity knowing they arenot alone in this world, having met otherswith similar challenges and experiences inseveral ways:

• FEECD staffers regularly shareinformation about Deaf communityorganizations and events via e-maillists and web-based announcements.

• Deaf professionals from FEECD havecultivated roles as mentors. Theteacher-mentors offer to meet familiesat events to help them connect withother deaf and hard of hearing adultsin attendance.

• Deaf professions from FEECD alsoprovide weekly support to familiesduring parent support meetings, ASLclasses, home visits, and regionalcommunity meetings.

• Various Deaf community members areinvited to parent group meetings andfamily ASL classes offered by MSD.

These deaf and hard of hearing teachersserve as role models that deaf and hard ofhearing children can succeed withappropriate support from their family andschool. Finally, the mentoring providedby the deaf professionals gives families theopportunity to gain an understanding ofthe importance of their children’s wholedevelopment, the human need to andimportance of developing friends, and theimportance of not losing this perspective.

Family Support and Resource CenterThe Family Support and Resource Centeris a parent-driven resource center. Thecenter is managed by a parent coordinator,who is a parent of a deaf child. The centeris funded in part by a grant through theMSDE and is housed at MSD. Establishedin October 1999, the center providessupport to families with deaf and hard ofhearing children birth through age 21.

The center’s mission is to give parent-to-parent support and help families tosupport their children in reaching theirfull potential. It has served thousands offamilies and professionals over the years.

The parent coordinator role is integralin providing support to families. Parent-to-parent support provided via personalcontacts, as well as by matching familieswith trained parent mentors uponrequest, provides families with individualproblem-solving skills and resources. Theparent coordinator works with FEECDeducators to host various events andprograms around the state. This helpsmodel working relationships betweenparents and professionals. The parentcoordinator also collaborates with otheragencies in Maryland in providingworkshops and information.

The center provides an extensivelending library, a monthly newsletter, aresource/referral system, and parent

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2011 ODYSSEY

trainings. Services are aimed towardsempowering parents with advocacyskills. Special interest support groupsmeet in the evenings to provide supportand information to families on a variety

of topics, e.g.,children who havecochlear implants,children who haveadditional specialneeds, enhancingpositive parentingtechniques forchildren ages 3-5, andother topics based onparent request.

ConclusionIn Covey’s The 8thHabit: FromEffectiveness to Greatness(2004), he tells us:

“Systems and structures are things. Theyare programs. They have no freedom tochoose. So the leadership comes frompeople. People design systems and allsystems get the results they are designed

and aligned to get.” The early intervention system in

Maryland is an organization of structureand relationships both formal andinformal. MSD is committed to buildingrelationships with the local lead agencieswithin the state early interventionsystem and to empowering families withinformation and support so they canmake decisions about their children’seducation, language, and socialdevelopment. When we listen to familiesand design systems to get the resultsthey need, then we will have succeededin providing a coordinated statewidesystem with a full range of opportunitiesfor all deaf and hard of hearing childrenand their families. It is about listening toa family’s hopes and dreams for a brightfuture for their child.

If you would like more informationabout MSD, please visit www.msd.edu.

19

References

Beginnings for Parents of Children Who are Deaf or Hard ofHearing. (2007). Beginnings Parent Manual. Raleigh, NC: Author.www.ncbegin.org

Covey, S. (2004). The 8th habit: From effectiveness to greatness. NewYork: Simon and Schuster.

Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. (2007, October). Year 2007position statement: Principles and guidelines for early hearingdetection and intervention programs by Joint Committee on InfantHearing. American Academy of Pediatrics, 120(40), 898-921.

Marge, D., & Marge, M. (2005, September). Beyond newborn hearingscreening: Meeting the educational and health care needs of infants andyoung children with hearing loss in America. Report of the NationalConsensus Conference on Effective Educational and Health CareInterventions for Infants and Young Children with Hearing Loss.Syracuse, NY: State University of New York, Upstate MedicalUniversity.

Meadow-Orlans, K. P., Mertens, D. M., & and Sass-Lehrer, M.(2003). Parents and their deaf children—The early years. Washington,DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (2004). Levels of evidence: Universal newbornhearing screening and early hearing detection and interventionsystems. Journal of Communication Disorders, 37, 451-465.

Resources

Benedict, B., & Sass-Lehrer, M. (2007). Deaf and hearingpartnerships: Ethical and communication considerations. AmericanAnnals of the Deaf, 152(3), 275-282.

Final Report of the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study(NEILS), http://policyweb.sri.com/cehs/ publication /NEILS_FinalReport_200702.pdf

Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning fromBirth Through Three Years of Age, www.marylandhealthybeginnings.org

Barbara Hanft, B. (2007, November). Implementing IFSPs in NaturalEnvironments. The Early Childhood Gateway and The EarlyIntervention Leadership Academy. The Maryland State Departmentof Education, Division of Special Education/Early InterventionServices, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Technology in Educationoffer the Early Intervention Leadership Academy. This uniqueprogram is designed to prepare aspiring and current leaders in localInfants and Toddlers Programs. www.mdecgateway.org

Marschark, M. (1997). Raising and educating a deaf child: Acomprehensive guide to the choices, controversies, and decisions faced by parentsand educators. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Sass-Lehrer, M. (2009). Early intervention for children birth to 3:Families, communities, & Communication (Ch. 7, page 4-5).National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management e-book: A resourceguide for early hearing detection and intervention. Logan, UT: Utah StateUniversity.

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New Mexico is geographically the fifth largest state in America, and itsrelatively small population of 1.95 million people is widely scattered. The cityof Albuquerque is the sole major urban center, and only six other cities havepopulations of over 30,000. The state’s poverty rate remains one of the highestin the nation. An estimated 20 percent of New Mexico children are born toimmigrant parents, many of whom are of undocumented status. And, althoughthe state’s population continues to grow, the number of licensed health careprofessionals per capita is decreasing. (Chacon, 2009)

Relative to Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI), New Mexico struggles withmultiple points of referral into early intervention in the same way most states do. Referrals arenot systematized through a single point of entry. The Step*Hi (statewide Parent-Infant)Program of the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD) receives referrals from sources such ashospitals, doctors, audiologists, Part C programs, the Department of Health, parents self-referring, and audiologists. Babies may or may not receive timely early intervention based uponthe system they are moving through.

Given these demographics, it is probably not surprising that the EHDI standards ofscreening by 1 month of age, diagnosis by 3 months, and entrance into early interventionspecific to hearing loss by 6 months have not completely been met. What is surprising,amazing actually, is that, even given all of the barriers New Mexico faces, the average age ofentry into early intervention is currently 11 months and continues to slowly decline.

So how has New Mexico, with multiple barriers, continued to reduce the age at whichchildren receive early intervention? New Mexico state agencies, as key stakeholders in thesuccess of the EHDI system, do more than just “play nicely in the sandbox” together. There is asystemic commitment to decrease the number of children “lost to follow-up” and to decreasethe age at which a child receives early intervention. This commitment has led to strategicinteragency planning and implementation of these plans. Following are some of the strategiesthat New Mexico has found to be successful.

Joanne Corwin,MA, DSIII, iscoordinator of Step*Hi,the New Mexico Schoolfor the Deaf’s Parent-Infant/Parent-Childprogram. Step*Hi servesfamilies whose childrenare deaf or hard ofhearing from birth toage 6. Corwin welcomesquestions and commentsabout this article atjoannecorwin@gmail.com.

early hearing detection and intervention

benchmarksBy Joanne Corwin

EFFECTIVE PARTNERING

OF STATE AGENCIES TO ACHIEVE

Photo of newborn hearing screening courtesy of Joanne Corwin

Right: An infant

takes part in newborn

hearing screening.

2011 ODYSSEY 21

Make CollaborativeRelationships Official Bringing together key players in theEHDI process, such as medical homeproviders, pediatric audiologists, parentadvocacy programs, and state agencies,and meeting with them often, is critical.This allows for creating strategic plansto assure EHDI benchmarks are met.However, if relationships are persondependent, they can be short-lived giventhe potential turnover in staff. In NewMexico, the decision was made to createa Procedures and Protocol document aswell as a Memorandum of Agreementthat would ensure collaborative servicesthrough the state school for the deaf, thePart C program, and the NewbornHearing Screening Program. (It is

important to note that in New Mexicoboth the newborn hearing screeningprogram and the Part C lead agency arehoused within the Department ofHealth.) This document ensures thatyoung children identified throughEHDI are able to receive earlyintervention from providers specificallytrained to work with young childrenwho are deaf or hard of hearing and theirfamilies.

The Procedures and Protocolagreement has been in place since 2001and is periodically reissued and signedby both the superintendent of NMSDand the cabinet secretary of the NewMexico Department of Health. (Forcopies of this document, please e-mailjoannecorwin@gmail.com.)

Heighten Awareness/Be Part of the CommunityThe number of children served byNMSD’s early intervention program hasgrown exponentially in the last 10 years.The primary reason for the growth of theprogram is directly attributable toNMSD’s commitment to outreach. TheOutreach Department at NMSD isdynamic and includes:• Early intervention birth through age 6 • Outreach to School-aged Children • Deaf Role Model Program• The AmeriCorps Project

The early intervention program haseight full-time and 14 part-time staffmembers positioned in every part of thestate. Five of the full-time positions are

ODYSSEY 2011

filled by regional supervisors, whosupervise the early interventionists intheir regions of the state, serve familiesdirectly, and provide communitysupports. Providing communitysupports means that each month theregional supervisors are involved inactivities such as: working oncommittees at the community level;providing trainings to doctors, agencies,Head Start programs, etc.; lendingexpertise related to screenings and

language evaluations; and working onstate initiatives for young children.Consequently, when someone in thecommunity learns of a child who is deafor hard of hearing or who is goingthrough the diagnostic process, he or sheknows who to call—the regionalsupervisors. They know them and theytrust them because the regionalsupervisors are seen as part of thecommunity.

Create Safety Nets Given the rural nature of New Mexicoand the transient population of the state,the medical home and NewbornHearing Screening Program can quicklylose track of families, even with carefultracking. New Mexico has made aconcerted effort, therefore, to ensure thatat least some of the hearing screeningequipment placed at the Part C agenciesaround the state is compatible with theauditory brainstem response (ABR)screening equipment used for newbornhearing screening. This means that inany region of the state, a child andfamily should have access to a secondABR screen if they refer on theirnewborn hearing screening and havesomehow fallen outside of the medicalhome or hospital rescreen.

Part C agencies have made the addedcommitment to hearing health byimplementing new standards thatencourage yearly screening of hearing forthe Part C population. This populationis at high risk for progressive hearingloss and, given that the number of casesof pediatric hearing loss doubles by theage of 9, this safety net has helpedidentify about eight children a year whowere missed by other primary systems.NMSD has contributed to this net byhelping write numerous grants forequipment, and the school has lentaudiological and early intervention staffto Part C programs for initial andongoing trainings.

Collect and Share DataThere is a problem when you don’t knowwhat you don’t know. Shared data acrossagencies allows the state’s EHDI systemto be assessed for effectiveness, especiallyas it relates to child outcomes. In NewMexico, the state school for the deaf, thePart C program, and the NewbornHearing Screening Program all collectdata for different purposes. This data isshared at least twice a year as these threeprograms meet to plan. The NewbornHearing Screening Program collects dataon the number of children screened anddiagnosed. NMSD keeps data on age of

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2011 ODYSSEY

entry into early intervention andlongitudinal information about thedevelopmental trajectory of the children.The Part C program analyzes their datato insure that children with hearing losswho are referred to generalized servicesare quickly referred to the school for thedeaf for specialized follow-up.

As a result of shared data, NewMexico has been able to chart progressin systems development and childoutcomes. In 2001, NMSD wasproviding services to an average of 36children, birth to age 3, each month. In2010, NMSD provided services to anaverage of 142 children each month inthis same age category. Likewise, in2001, only 12 percent of childrenwithout global delays and within thebirth to age 3 population weremaintaining a typical developmentaltrajectory. In 2010, assessment andevaluation data indicated that 71percent of children without globaldelays who were identified and intoearly intervention before the age of 6months maintained a typicaldevelopmental trajectory.

Create Solutions Based onYour State’s DemographicsNew Mexico has a tiny handful ofpediatric audiologists with theequipment and expertise to diagnosisyoung children with hearing loss.Almost all of these audiologists arelocated in the city of Albuquerque,which is eight hours from some towns inthe state. In a state challenged bypoverty, the resources needed for afamily to travel this distance with their

newborn for diagnosis are prohibitive.For children in the more rural parts ofNew Mexico, diagnosis of hearing lossfrequently takes between 12-13 months,which is clearly well behind EHDIstandards. Part of the problem has beennot just the lack of diagnosticresources but also the multiplesteps involved before a child isreferred for early intervention.A lot of time is lost with somany steps and with the lackof resources. Therefore, referralto early intervention is nowhappening on a more frequentbasis after a failed secondscreen. This not only cuts outadditional steps, but oftenshaves six to eight months offof the time between thenewborn hearing screen andentry into the early interventionsystem.

New Mexico agencies were initiallyreticent to make these early referralsbecause of the concerns that they mightoverload the state school for the deafwith children whose screens were falsepositives. There were additional fearsthat families would be unduly concernedabout a potential hearing loss andburdened with early intervention evenbefore a hearing loss was accuratelyconfirmed. Happily, families havereported just the opposite. Far fromhaving their concerns about a potentialhearing loss heightened, they feltsupported and calmed through thediagnostic process by a knowledgeableprovider. Families whose child ended upnot having a hearing loss after all

reported that they enjoyed earlyintervention services and gained a lot ofapplicable information related tosupporting early language developmentand creating good listeningenvironments. Timely referrals are still agreat challenge in New Mexico becauseof the many private systems spread outacross a rural state, but with the publicsystem creating procedures and protocolas well as increasing awarenessthroughout the state, we are makingprogress.

New Mexico is committed to theunderstanding that if a child does notenter into early intervention in a timelymanner, regardless of what otheroutcomes have been achieved, EHDI

benchmarks have not been met. It isclear that as the last step in the system,early intervention is the primaryindicator of the health of the entireEHDI system and its effectiveness. Ifchildren are not screened or diagnosed, ifmedical and audiological professionalsare unfamiliar with how to makeappropriate referrals, early interventioncannot happen in a timely fashion.

23

ReferenceChacon, S. (2009). Reducing lost tofollow-up after failure to pass newbornhearing screening NM. HealthResources and ServicesAdministration (Grant 09-241).

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With greater understanding in the field of deaf education ofthe critical nature of early and accessible language andcommunication, Deaf Role Model Programs have played asignificant role in early intervention services for familiesacross the nation. A recent national survey conducted in thespring of 2010 (Gallegos & Lawrence, 2010) indicates that atleast 18 states, through their state schools for the deaf, areutilizing deaf role models. In some states, programs areexpanding in response to families’ requests for more frequentvisits from a deaf role model and for services beyond the EarlyIntervention time frame. Establishing and expanding a DeafRole Model Program involves careful planning, collaborativepartnerships, and visionary leadership.

Vision and MissionMany deaf and hard of hearing children are born to parents who do not haveexperience or information that will help them open up their deaf child’s world visually andmake language available to their child at all times. Due to the importance of early andaccessible language and communication and the development of positive self-esteem, it iscritical that parents have resources that allow them to help their child develop language andhave full interaction with their family. NMSD has the vision that, given adequate resources,parents can build a community of signers and role models for their child as they themselves

Stacy Abrams iscoordinator of NMSD’sDeaf Role Model Program.She is responsible forensuring that families allover New Mexico arereceiving home visits fromdeaf adults. She received herbachelor’s degree in biologyfrom Gallaudet Universityand her master’s degree inspecial education/disabili-ties and risk emphasis fromthe University of Californiaat Santa Barbara. Abramswelcomes questions andcomments about this articleat stacy.abrams@nmsd.k12.nm.us.

Rosemary Gallegosis the assistant superinten-dent of NMSD responsiblefor IDEA compliance, earlyintervention, and outreachservices. She has over 26years of experience as anearly interventionist, earlychildhood teacher, andadministrator for a widevariety of programs in theeducation of children whoare deaf or hard of hearing.Gallegos has also co-authored and authoredcurricula and videomaterials.

24 ODYSSEY 2011

Photos courtesy of Stacy Abrams

By Stacy Abrams and Rosemary Gallegos

In this issue of Odyssey, Joanne Corwin describes New Mexico’s statewide partnershipamong several agencies for the provision of early intervention services to infants andchildren who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families (Effective Partnering ofState Agencies to Achieve Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Benchmarks,p. 20). One of these services is the Deaf Role Model Program, operated as a statewideEarly Intervention Program through the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD).

deaf rolemodelsmaking a critical difference in

new mexico

252011 ODYSSEY

negotiate learning a new language. Deaf adults are avaluable resource in supporting this vision.

The mission of the program needs to be clearly definedfor all stakeholders. In New Mexico, the Deaf Role ModelProgram is statewide and serves families with childrenwho are deaf or hard of hearing in the birth through 6 agerange. Deaf role models use the following strategies toimplement the mission of the program:• Share experiences about growing up as a deaf or hard of

hearing person• Encourage the family to attend special activities that

broaden their community of deaf and hard of hearingcontacts, enhance their communication/languagemodel, and provide opportunities for interaction usingsign language

• Share career goals, work experiences, and enthusiasmabout the future potential of the child

• Model natural communication and teach sign language• Focus on language and communication, making the

child’s world accessible, Deaf culture, literacy, andbuilding community

• Encourage the inclusion of all family members inlearning to communicate

Program ComponentsEffective LeadershipVarious leaders comprise the successful implementation ofa Deaf Role Model Program. Key to growth and qualityof the program is a coordinator who can build a team ofdeaf role models through extensive networking and his orher enthusiasm of the program. The impact of a deaf rolemodel can significantly influence a family’s perspective,shifting it to a “can do” and “anything is possible”attitude for their child. In New Mexico, our coordinatortravels to all areas of the state, interviewing potential deafrole models, meeting families, doing joint home visitswith other NMSD School-age Outreach and EarlyIntervention Programs, assigning deaf role models,assuring that services are consistent and meet standards,and providing direct services to families when no deafrole model is available.

Upper administration plays a vital role by expectingcommunication, teaming, and resource sharing amongthe budget and personnel resources in its variousprograms such as early intervention, instruction, andSchool-age Outreach. Superintendents, directors, andother administrators travel to meet families and regional

Left: A father and

daughter involved in

the Deaf Role Model

Program learn how to

sign I love you.

Far left: A mother

learns the sign family

from a deaf role model.

ODYSSEY 2011

providers at family events designed tobring families into proximity to eachother and to more deaf adults.

Requirements of DeafRole ModelsQualifications andrequirements are clearlycommunicated to deafrole models during thehiring process. Theyunderstand that theymust attend a seriesof trainingsregarding programprocedures andmission, the SharedReading Project, andan annual statewidemeeting of NMSD’sEarly InterventionProgram. They are expectedto be flexible in workingwith hearing people with andwithout an interpreter. Deaf rolemodels must be gainfully employed,established homemakers or collegestudents, and must receive clearance on abackground check as required by statelaw. They are also expected to submitrequired monthly documentationsubstantiating the content andfrequency of home visits. For services tochildren in the birth to age 3 category, acollege degree is required in order toattain New Mexico DevelopmentalSpecialist Certification.

Training and supervision also involveregular contact from the programcoordinator in the form of a review of allpaperwork, check-ins with families as tosatisfaction of services, frequentvideophone contact, joint home visits,and individual work sessions to addressany problem areas identified by eitherthe deaf role model or the programcoordinator.

Curriculum and ResourcesCurriculum and resources used by theNew Mexico Deaf Role Model Programinclude the SKI-HI Deaf MentorCurriculum (SKI-HI Institute, 2001),

the Shared Reading Project (LaurentClerc National Deaf Education Center,1995), and Signing Time (Coleman,2005). Also, invaluable are the humanand program resources embedded withinNMSD. The Deaf Role Model Programregularly interacts and teams with theSchool-age Outreach Program, theNMSD AmeriCorps Sign LanguageModel Program, and the Step*Hi EarlyIntervention Program. The Deaf RoleModel Program also relies on itsrelationship and network withprofessional deaf adults employed atNMSD for recruitment of its deaf rolemodels. NMSD alumni are valued fortheir knowledge of the Deaf communityin their areas of the state.

ReferralsInformation about the Deaf Role

Model Program is provided tofamilies through the well-

established NMSDstatewide Step*Hi Early

Intervention Programand NMSD satellitepreschools. Theseprograms havemultiple entrypoints from thestate public systemincluding thestate’s EHDI (EarlyHearing Detectionand Intervention)

project, localeducational agencies,

audiologists, earlyintervention agencies,

and doctors. As childrenenter Step*Hi or preschool,

they are informed about theDeaf Role Model Program. This

allows the Deaf Role ModelProgram to capitalize on a networkalready recognized by the state systemand to begin working with families asquickly as possible.

Meeting Diverse NeedsMeeting diverse cultural and languagedemographics must be considered sothat families agree to participate in theprogram and are served effectively. Over50 percent of families seen by theNMSD Early Intervention Program areHispanic. When needed, Spanishlanguage interpreters as well as signlanguage interpreters are provided forinitial home visits when a family is stilladjusting to communicating directlywith the deaf role model in AmericanSign Language. Spanish languageinterpreters are also provided for allevents sponsored by the program.Providers live in the communities wherethey work so they are accustomed to andknowledgeable about the traditions andvalues of the community and possiblesocial boundaries when visiting familiesin their homes. Deaf role models know

26

Above: A child and his mother sign together.

2011 ODYSSEY

that Hispanic and Native Americancultures are highly inclusive of extendedfamilies and ensure strategies are usedthat allow them to interact with andinvolve all members of the immediateand extended family.

Monitoring ProgramEffectivenessFeedback from families—and thegathering of their stories—on a regularbasis helps the program monitor itsimpact. One such story involves aprimarily Spanish-speaking familyliving in a small farming community insouthern New Mexico. Their son wasreferred to Step*Hi at 2 months old, andby 3 months old he had been introducedto the Deaf Role Model Program andbegun receiving periodic visits from thecoordinator. He started receiving regularvisits from a deaf role model by his firstbirthday. The family has participated inOutreach learning events on NMSD’smain campus and has been introduced toother families and a number of deafadults. The child is now 1.5 years old,and his assessments show his progress ator above his developmental age forlanguage and communication. This storyhelps the program identify areas ofstrength, such as early referral resultingin timely provision of services, expectedchild outcomes, family involvement, andthe ability to reach families in rural areasof the state. One weakness of theprogram when analyzing the story is thetime lapse between entering NMSD’sEarly Intervention Program and theregular services from the Deaf RoleModel Program, most likely caused bythe paucity of deaf role models in thatarea of our state.

Keeping a record of various types ofdata helps inform the program of thenext steps and viability and providesjustification for additional resources.The Deaf Role Model Program hired afull-time coordinator in 2008 with thegoal of expanding the number of deafrole models and the number of familiesserved. As can be seen from the simpledata collected below, this goal was

achieved with the number of familiesalmost doubled within two years.Clearly, the addition of a full-timecoordinator and a full-time provider hasincreased the program’s ability toexpand the number of part-time deafrole models recruited and to provideservices to more families.

Partnerships and Public Awareness In order for a Deaf Role Model Programto be successful in meeting its goals andreaching the targeted population, itoperates with the awareness that it is onepart of multiple systems at the family,community, state, and national levelsand, as mentioned before, key programswithin NMSD. The NMSD Deaf RoleModel Program is a recognized service ofNew Mexico early intervention Part C.It derives a network of contacts andreferrals as well as funding by operatingwithin this structure. As a member ofthis recognized mandated state service,the Deaf Role Model Program benefitsfrom additional quality control relatedto required documentation of servicesand qualifications of staff it can employ.In turn, the presence of the Deaf RoleModel Program informs the Part C(birth through age 3) state system that adeaf child is to be celebrated. It becomesa resource in facilitating understandingof the fact that with early and ongoingaccess to language, being deaf is a

difference not a disability, and thatbuilding a rich, natural language andcommunication environment for a childis critical to realizing his or her potentialin life, including becoming a fullmember of his or her family andcommunity.

27

References

Coleman, R. (2005). Signing time(Sign Language Products, DVD).Midvale, UT: Two Little HandsProductions.

Gallegos, R., & Lawrence, C.(2010). Early intervention and school-age outreach services provided by aschool for the deaf—National survey,CEASD Conference.

Laurent Clerc National DeafEducation Center. (1995). Sharedreading project. Washington, DC:Author, Gallaudet University.

SKI-HI Institute. (2001). Deafmentor curriculum: A resource manualfor home-based, bilingual-biculturalprogramming for young children whoare deaf or hard of hearing and theirfamilies. North Logan, UT: Hope,Inc.

2008-2009• Full-time coordinator

• 15 part-time deaf rolemodels

• 33 families in theprogram

• 29 families on thewaiting list

2009-2010• Full-time coordinator

• 20 part-time deaf rolemodels

• 45 families in theprogram

• 22 families on thewaiting list

2010-2011• Full-time coordinator

• 1 full-time deaf rolemodel

• 23 part-time deaf role models

• 62 families in theprogram

• 17 families on thewaiting list

ODYSSEY 201128

In this issue of Odyssey, Joanne Corwin describes New Mexico’s statewidepartnership among several agencies for the provision of early interventionservices to infants and children who are deaf or hard of hearing and theirfamilies (Effective Partnering of State Agencies to Achieve Early HearingDetection and Intervention Benchmarks, p. 20). A key agency in the networkof early intervention and school-age services is the Outreach Department at theNew Mexico School for the Deaf. This article describes a successful endeavorinitiated by that department.

Many parents of deaf or hard of hearing children are overwhelmed by theIndividualized Education Program (IEP) process and struggle to understand what itmeans for their children. As they try to work within the school system, comprehendfederal and state regulations, and negotiate a wealth of academic information andtesting data, parents find themselves confused about how to be a contributingmember of the IEP team. Their concerns can be further complicated by schooldistrict staff that may not have a lot of experience or expertise in working with deafor hard of hearing children.

An important goal within the Outreach Department at the New Mexico Schoolfor the Deaf (NMSD) is helping parents feel better able to participate in the IEPprocess for their child. One of the tools that the NMSD Outreach Department usesto achieve this is the Communication Considerations (CC) Dialogue Form or

Workshop photo courtesy of Priscilla Shannon Gutiérrez

Priscilla ShannonGutiérrez is thecoordinator of outreachservices to public schools atthe New Mexico School forthe Deaf. Prior to workingin the OutreachDepartment, she was thedirector of the RockyMountain Deaf School, anASL-English bilingualcharter program forchildren in the metroDenver area. Gutiérrez hasbeen in education for 25years, and has worked withstudents as a mentor/master teacher and as aliteracy coach. She has alsotaught numerous graduate-level courses. In 2009, shewas the recipient of theKenneth S. Goodman inDefense of Good TeachingAward for her advocacyefforts over the past decade.Additionally, she is theauthor of severaleducational articles as wellas a contributor to theSociolinguistics of the DeafCommunity seriespublished by GallaudetUniversity. Gutiérrezwelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle at priscilla.gutierrez@nmsd.k12.nm.us.

a teamapproach

to quality programmingFOR DEAF AND HARD

OF HEARING STUDENTS

By Priscilla Shannon Gutiérrez

Right: Parents take a

break during an NMSD

Outreach workshop.

2011 ODYSSEY

addendum to the IEP. The impetus for this form was the NewMexico Deaf Bill of Rights passed in 2004. The form wasdeveloped through collaboration between the NMSD OutreachDepartment and the Special Education Department fromAlbuquerque Public Schools using an already establishedaddendum from Colorado as a guide. Since then, the NewMexico Public Education Department’s IEP Technical AssistanceManual has included the CC addendum. Regardless ofplacement, or level of hearing loss, the form is a required part ofthe IEP process for any student in New Mexico who is deaf orhard of hearing.

A Quality Tool to Support Quality ProgrammingA critical part of the IEP discussion about quality programmingis the unique language and communication needs of the studentand how these affect his or her access to classroom activities, aswell as the student’s ability to achieve state standards andbenchmarks. The CC addendum is designed to ensure these

needs are addressed during the discussion. It addresses thefollowing major points:

• Determining how fluid the student’s communication iswithin a variety of settings.

• Determining if the student’s proficiency in a particularlanguage has been adequately assessed.

• Determining if the mode of communication being usedwith the student is fostering his or her ability to attainhigher level academic and language skills.

• Identifying the types of supports the student requires toachieve grade-level skills.

• Determining if the student has opportunities to interactwith fluent language users and/or models (both adults andpeers).

• Identifying what options are available on the continuum ofplacement options for the student.

• Identifying what parts of the current school program canbe adjusted to meet the needs of the student.

29

An important

goal within

the Outreach

Department at

the New Mexico

School for the

Deaf (NMSD) is

helping parents

feel better able to

participate in the

IEP process for

their child.

ODYSSEY 2011

To ensure these needs are considered during the discussion,the CC addendum requires that the IEP team:

• Identify the student’s primary language and mode ofcommunication.

• Identify the language and mode the family uses tocommunicate with their child (they are not always thesame).

• Take both of these factors into consideration whendetermining the supports needed to help the student gaingrade-level skills.

However, identifying the student’s primary language andmode of communication is not enough to assure qualityprogramming. The IEP team must also determine the level ofcommunication and access the student has within all aspects ofhis or her school day, including:

• The ability of staff who work with the student tocommunicate fluidly with him or her.

• Whether the student has opportunities for direct

communication and instruction using his or herprimary language and mode of communication.

• Whether the student has opportunities for directpeer interaction.

• How accessible school programming isthroughout the school day—not just within theclassroom.

Once these areas have been discussed anddocumented on the CC addendum, the IEP teammust then design action plans to address any of theidentified issues within each area. The action planmust include the necessary accommodations andsupports to assist the student with access to learningand communication throughout the school day.

Helping IEP Teams and Parents Use the CC AddendumSince the development of the CC addendum in 2004,the NMSD Outreach Department has focused onhelping IEP teams understand how to effectively usethe form to plan quality programming. Initiatives tosupport educational teams as well as parents in thisendeavor have included:

• A two-day intensive institute in the fall of 2005• A series of regional trainings around the state for

school personnel• Presentations at meetings for special education

directors hosted by the Public EducationDepartment

• Parent-specific workshops• More individualized on-site/district trainings by

the NMSD outreach specialist assigned to thatdistrict

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Comments from Educators Who HaveAttended the CC Addendum Trainings

“I learned a lot about how deaf children communicate.”✷ ✷ ✷

“This workshop helped me realize the importance of looking atmany aspects of the students with hearing loss to best serve them.”

✷ ✷ ✷

“Very informative! It made sense for those of us who do not dealwith this information frequently.”

✷ ✷ ✷

“I learned that we should be considering many more options andopportunities for our deaf and hard of hearing students.”

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These trainings have especially helped regular educationteachers that work with deaf or hard of hearing children inmainstreamed integrated classes, who often are not familiarwith their unique needs, understand issues of access for thesestudents. The trainings have also helped special educationdirectors and other school personnel who work with thestudents to understand and better plan for the types of supportsand accommodations they need in order to make progress.

Parents have been invited to attend regional workshops aboutthe CC addendum that focus on understanding the purpose ofeach component of the form, what a well thought-out formlooks like, and how the CC addendum can be used to guidequality programming for their child. Prior experience withparents has taught us the importance of removing obstacles thatprevent attendance and to value the time commitment fromparents. Interpreting support for parents who use Spanish andfor parents who use signlanguage is provided toensure access and encourageparticipation in theworkshops. Child care is alsoprovided so that parents donot have to keep an eye ontheir children at the sametime they are trying to learnnew information. A pizzalunch, as well as snacks andbeverages during break times,gives participants the energythey need to maintain theirfocus throughout thetraining.

Initially, IEP teams wereencouraged to draft the CCaddendum at the beginningof or during the IEP meetingas a way to guidedevelopment of the serviceplan for the student.However, this approachproved to be challenging asan IEP agenda is oftenpacked, causing the CCaddendum discussion to berushed and viewed as justanother form to complete.Recognizing the importanceof this discussion, the NMSDoutreach team developed amore effective approach thatallows the discussion the timeand energy it deserves.

This approach begins with

an NMSD outreach specialist doing a pre-IEP observation ofthe student and participating in a pre-IEP dialogue withparents and the educational team who works with the student.Parents can provide a wealth of information about their childthat the teacher or educational team may not be aware of.Having a discussion about needed supports also helps parentsunderstand how the unique needs of their child translate intoquality programming and enables them to more fullyparticipate in the IEP meeting. A pre-IEP dialogue also helpsthe team identify questions and/or areas that may need moreinvestigation prior to or during the IEP meeting.

A draft CC addendum is developed as a result of the pre-IEPdialogue, giving all members of the educational team anopportunity to be on the same page because together they havecarefully considered the unique individual needs of the child.(See the diagram below for highlights of the process.)

The draft CC addendumprovides the IEP teamwith a working documentthat guides them towarddetermining the supportsand accommodations thechild needs throughout theschool day. Includingmultiple perspectives inthe draft form provides amuch better picture of the“whole child.”

The process has provenespecially helpful forparents who haveparticipated in these pre-IEP dialogues. Commentsfrom parents haveincluded:

“The dialogue helpsaddress issues beyond theIEP form,” “Helps to‘educate’ the IEP teamabout my child,” and“Best done with a TEAMapproach, careful thought,a ROUGH draft, andpatience!”

Next StepsThe NMSD OutreachDepartment plans tocontinue helping parentsand educational teamsunderstand the CCaddendum through theexpansion of pre-IEP

31

Parents, teachers, and other members of the

education team engage in a pre-IEP dialogue

about the CC form

A draft CC form is developed and edited

based on input from the group

The draft CC form is brought to the IEP

meeting to guide the dialogue about quality

programming

Any additional needed supports are

identified during the IEP meeting and the

draft CC form is adjusted accordingly

The CC form becomes part of the final IEP

document

A draft CC form is developed and edited

based on input from the group

ODYSSEY 2011

dialogues and the drafting of the form prior to the IEPmeeting, as well as to continue to provide on-site training toteams who are unfamiliar with the form. One of the goals ofthis approach is that over time, the need for the parent and theeducational team to “use” the outreach specialist to assist withdrafting the form will bereduced. Another goal is thatparents and the educationalstaff will be more capable offunctioning as a team becausethey will be able to effectivelyconsider a student’s languageand communication needs.The responses from the mostrecent parent surveyregarding NMSD outreachservices indicates theapproach is indeed having animpact and moving thedepartment towards this goal.Parent responses indicatedthat by far, the biggest benefitof NMSD outreach services isthat they feel an increasedability to participate in theirchild’s IEP.

As part of our continuingcommitment to improveservices to public schoolprograms, NMSD seeks to bemore diligent and thorough

about measuring student outcomes as well as the impact thatNMSD outreach services has on improving program quality.Part of the strategic planning for the department includes thedevelopment of a mechanism to measure outcomes for studentswhose educational team is receiving outreach support.

One of the challenges we face in expanding the pre-IEPdialogue is the high turnover of special education directors indistricts around the state. This high turnover often translatesinto “starting from scratch” in terms of helping newlydesignated directors understand that the CC addendum isn’tjust another piece of paper to fill out at the IEP. Anotherchallenge we face is reaching parents in the more isolated partsof the state to participate in the pre-IEP dialogue. New Mexicois a very rural state with a number of students who reside inextremely isolated areas. Many of their families do not haveworking telephones or access to the Internet, and reaching themin person can require a four-hour drive. The department isexploring ways to try to reach these families and to expandtheir participation in the pre-IEP dialogue.

Finally, the NMSD Outreach Department is hoping to sharewith other outreach departments what they have learned aboutusing the CC addendum as a tool to guide qualityprogramming We hope the knowledge and experiences weshare will help to expand the use of the CC addendum and,ultimately, improve educational outcomes and access forstudents who are deaf or hard of hearing through a teamapproach to quality programming.

32

NMSD Outreach

The Outreach Department at NMSD provides various forms of supportfor IEP teams in regard to considering student ability to communicate in academic environments and whether students are ready to useinterpreters in a mainstream classroom. Cindy Huff, from NMSD’sOutreach Department, wrote an article for the 2010 issue of Odysseyentitled “Determining a Student’s Readiness to Successfully UseInterpreting Services.” This article is available online athttp://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Clerc_Center/Information_and_Resources/Publications_and_Products/Odyssey.html.

NMSD also maintains a website where you may view theCommunication Considerations addendum and several technicalassistance documents that support its use. Please visitwww.nmsd.k12.nm.us/publications/index.php.

ODYSSEY 201134

The Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) has two missions. One is to provideeducational services to deaf and hard of hearing students and theirfamilies on the Austin campus—this is the traditional, face-to-face,center-based service model. The other is to serve as a resource center forthe state, providing information, referral, programs, and services to deafand hard of hearing children, their families, and the professionals whoserve them. That type of service, in a state the size of Texas, may beprovided at great distances.

TSD’s outreach department, the Educational Resource Center on Deafness (ERCOD),is responsible for spearheading these efforts. Despite the distances involved, ERCODhas historically mirrored the school’s model of face-to-face service delivery. Consumerseither came to us or we brought staff to consumers wherever they were located. Thoughwe did have a few remote services provided through phone and/or e-mail support and acouple of distance learning classes, our standard operating procedure has been to bringpeople together for our mainstay programs such as the Family Weekend Retreat,Communication Skills Workshops, Discovery Retreats, and Summer Programs.

In 2004, a simple request for assistance became a catalyst for rethinking our approachto service delivery. A mother called and said, “I want in my hometown what you have atTexas School for the Deaf.” Her family had just attended a Family Weekend Retreat,and she saw opportunities at our school that she wanted for her 18-month-old deaf son.What she wanted most and immediately was sign language instruction for her family. Itwas not readily available in her community so she was calling us for assistance. Thoughher family lived 260 miles from our campus, her request came at an opportune time forus to span the distance and fill this gap in resources through the use of newly acquiredtechnology. TSD had just installed videophones across much of the campus, and wedecided to experiment to see if we could meet this family’s needs through remoteservice delivery. We set up a pilot project using videophones for one-on-one classes

DianaPoeppelmeyer,PhD, is the directorof the EducationalResource Center onDeafness at the TexasSchool for the Deaf. Shehas experience teachingat the parent-infant,preschool, middle school,high school, anduniversity levels and hascoordinated numerousconferences, workshops,and retreats related to theeducation of deaf andhard of hearing children.Her current primaryinterest is helpingfamilies become equalpartners in theeducational process.Poeppelmeyer welcomesquestions and commentsabout this article atdiana.poeppelmeyer@tsd.state.tx.us.

Photos courtesy of the Texas School for the Deaf

By Diana Poeppelmeyer

blendedoutreach:

face-to-face andremote programs

Right: An activity

leader explains game

rules to children and

parents during Fun

Night at the annual

Family Weekend

Retreat.

2011 ODYSSEY 35

between an instructor at TSD and the mother, father, andhearing sibling. Not only were we able to bring TSD services totheir hometown—we brought them right into their living room!The pilot was such a success that the next year we expanded theprogram, called it Family Signs, and served 30 parents statewide.Unfortunately, after one year we lost our funding and theprogram was shelved while we looked for grants and alternatives.Last year the project was resurrected as Family Signs Powered bySkype and ooVoo, and 42 families in 38 cities and towns acrossTexas received in-home sign language instruction. The programremains a work in progress but has become, for us, an example ofpositive outcomes resulting from experiments with new modelsof remote service delivery.

The success of the Family Signs project and the concurrentexplosion of new technologies and web 2.0 tools gave us newoptions for conquering the sheer size of Texas and the challengeof meeting increasing demands in an era of budget reductions.With only nine staff dedicated to outreach and an estimated6,000 deaf and hard of hearing students in our state, we needed anew approach that allowed us to do more with less. Capitalizingon the abundance of widely available technological tools seemedto be our best prospect to help accomplish our outreach mission.

Consequently, in the last year ERCOD seta new goal of moving towards a blendedmodel of service delivery in which half ofour programs are offered remotely andhalf are offered face to face. Though wealready had a number of programs that

people could access from a remote location,we have just begun to envision the

possibility of providing more remote servicesthat are interactive in nature. With Family

Signs as one prototype showing promise, we arepaving the way for new directions in service

delivery. As we prepare to create more interactive remote

services and resources, some of the questions we must askourselves are:

• Does our staff have the knowledge and skills to maximizethe technology that is currently available?

• Do our consumers have the knowledge and skills to takeadvantage of what we offer?

• What technology tools are the most readily available,inexpensive, and easy to use?

• How many consumers do not have access to Internet-basedresources?

• Do we have the infrastructure and equipment necessary onboth our end and the remote end?

• Can we be nimble enough to keep up with changingtechnology and consumer preferences?

• Do on-line interactions have the same power to affectoutcomes as face-to-face interactions?

• Can programs serving deaf and hard of hearing studentswork together to coordinate on-line opportunities andresources nationwide?

• What evaluation tools will help us determine whichprograms are most effective?

Though we don’t yet have answers to all of our questions, weknow we can’t wait to proceed in the direction of offering moreremote, interactive services. Technology is rapidly changing theway people communicate, interface, and interact, and programsproviding educational services must keep up with these changesor get left behind.

ODYSSEY 2011

What follows is a descriptionof our current programscategorized by which modelof service delivery bestdescribes their format.

InteractiveRemote ServicesDistance Learning:• Two faculty at TSD teach American Sign Language (ASL)

for foreign language credit to hearing and deaf students in13 school districts throughout Texas.

• Two ASL storytellers at TSD connect with 70 mainstreameddeaf and hard of hearing students in 12 school districtsthroughout Texas.

Family Signs (www.familysigns.org) is a free sign languageinstruction program providing Texas parents of deaf or hard ofhearing children with one-on-one classes through videotechnology.

Phone and e-mail support is provided for theapproximately 2,000 calls and e-mails per year requestinginformation or referral. There are toll-free lines for both Englishand Spanish speakers.

Non-interactive Remote ServicesResource Websites:• TEXAS DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING RESOURCES WEBSITE

(www.texasdhhresources.org)—A portal and resource websitefor Texas and national services with information for parentsand professionals focused on the education of children whoare deaf and hard of hearing. Resources for Spanish speakersincluded.

• DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING TEXAS TRANSITION WEBSITE

(www.dhhtexastransition.org)—A collaborative work of theTexas Statewide Transition Team for Deaf and Hard ofHearing Students focusing on resources for transition.

On-line Materials and Resources:• TEXAS MATH SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY

(www.tsdvideo.org)—Videos of mathvocabulary in ASL and Signing ExactEnglish with English and Spanish captions.This dictionary was developed as a resourcefor teachers, parents, educators, interpreters,and students using the vocabulary fromTexas state-adopted textbooks, curriculum,and assessments.

• TSD ON-LINE OUTREACH LIBRARY

(www.tsd.state.tx.us/ TOOL)—Free lending library for

Texas patrons containing videos and other materials focusingon issues related to education of deaf and hard of hearingchildren.

• STATE OF TEXAS ASL REPOSITORY (www.tsd.state.tx.us/outreach/star.html)—A peer-managed document repositoryfor Texas high school ASL teachers. Teachers of ASL can postactivities and lesson plans as well as share videos.

• TAKE UP THE TASK (www.texasdhhresources.org/perspectives/video-library)—On-line video and printed resources forparents offering guidance and suggestions for enhancingeveryday family routines between parent and child.

Publications and Information: • THE LONE STAR QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF TSD disseminates

information statewide about the school and outreachservices.

• TEXAS EDUCATION CODE requires that parents and deaf andhard of hearing students statewide receive information aboutTSD programs and resources at every annual IndividualizedEducation Program meeting. For this purpose, ERCODproduces and distributes approximately 6,000 brochuresevery year.

• THE TSD WEBSITE (www.tsd.state.tx.us) provides informationabout the school, programs, and resources available tostatewide stakeholders.

Face-to-Face ServicesWhile ERCOD plans to expand our remote services, we alsohave every intention of keeping our face-to-face services goingstrong. Though much more expensive and labor intensive, theseprograms offer the greatest rewards as professionals, parents,and students collaboratively work together to accomplish thegoals of education for deaf and hard of hearing children.

Services for Families:• STATEWIDE LIAISON TO PARENTS OF DEAF AND HARD OF

HEARING CHILDREN: The position belongs to a parent whoresponds to parent inquiries, develops family-focusedresources, and represents the parent perspective onstakeholder groups.

• TEXAS HANDS & VOICES

(www.txhandsandvoices.org): This organization wasestablished in 2007 with ERCOD support. The

Texas chapter of the national organization isdedicated to supporting families and theirchildren who are deaf or hard of hearing aswell as the professionals who serve them. Thisyear, ERCOD is working with Texas Hands &

Voices to establish a Guide By Your Sideprogram that will focus on providing formal

parent-to-parent support and access to deaf andhard of hearing role models.

36

2011 ODYSSEY

• STATEWIDE LIAISON TO

SPANISH SPEAKING FAMILIES:

The liaison answers the toll-freeline for Spanish-speakingparents, shares information andresources directly, and directsfamilies to print and webresources that are available inSpanish. The liaison also attendsour family-focused events andarranges for access throughdirect service in Spanish orthrough translation services.

• FAMILY WEEKEND RETREAT: ERCOD annually hostsfamilies from across the state for a weekend of learning,networking, and relationship building at the TSD campus.Last summer, we hosted our largest group ever with 54families (233 individuals) attending. In addition to parentworkshops, Sibshops and children’s activities are a standardpart of our weekend offerings.

• TRANSITION FAIRS FOR PARENTS: Held at various locationsacross the state, these workshops give parents theinformation they need to navigate the transition fromservices under IDEA to postsecondary services, options,higher education, training, and/or work.

Services for Professionals and Pre-professionals:• BOTH ERCOD AND TSD STAFF OFFER WORKSHOPS on a

variety of topics including literacy, child development,technology for education, assessment, Deaf culture,transition, and others. The Communication Skills Workshopis our largest workshop endeavor. We offer three week-longcamps for sign language immersion and instruction for ASLteachers, deaf education teachers, interpreters, interpreteraides, and parents of deaf and hard of hearing children inTexas. Last summer 521 individuals attended.

• TOURS AND OBSERVATIONS: ERCOD routinely plans toursand observations for police cadets, medical residents, anduniversity students in fields such as deaf education, specialeducation, general education, rehabilitation, social work,nursing, and counseling. We consider these opportunitiescritical for educating people about working with deaf andhard of hearing individuals and explaining the uniquelearning environment of center-based schools.

• CO-SPONSOR OF THE BIENNIAL STATEWIDE CONFERENCE

ON EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING: Thisbiennial event is an educational and networking opportunityfor professionals and parents across the state and typicallydraws between 700-900 participants.

• INTERNS, STUDENT TEACHERS, AND VOLUNTEERS: ERCODactively seeks interns, student teachers, and volunteersthrough relationships with colleges or universities offeringdegrees related to the education of deaf and hard of hearingchildren. Students from Interpreter Training Programs

(ITP) and pre-service deafeducation students regularly getcommunity service hours andexperience by volunteering forour Family Weekend Retreat andFamily Signs programs. ITPstudents also intern with ourInterpreting Services Departmentand deaf education students doobservations and studentteaching on our campus.

Services for Students:• SUMMER PROGRAMS is our largest student-oriented

activity. Every summer we run two-, three-, and four-weekprograms for students from TSD and other programsstatewide. Our goal is to enhance academic skills through avariety of enriching activities. Additionally, DriversEducation is offered for students 15 years and older.

• DISCOVERY RETREAT is a weekend event offered twice peryear for high school students from mainstream or regulareducation programs. The goal of the retreat is to helpstudents, from both oral and signing backgrounds, discoverwho they are and develop their leadership skills byinteracting with peers in teambuilding activities. Typically25-30 students attend each retreat.

Statewide Leadership:• ERCOD staff members serve on a variety of state-level

committees, advisory boards, work groups, and councils torepresent our programs and promote interagency collabora-tion in developing and providing services to deaf and hardof hearing children. Examples of committees include the 0-3Deaf and Hard of Hearing Leadership Council, TransitionNetworks, the Department of Assistive and RehabilitativeServices Advisory Council, and Parent Networks.

Development and Public Relations:• One final outreach area that has a unique role is that of

development and public relations. One ERCOD staffmember acts as the liaison to the TSD Foundation and workswith the Foundation to find alternative funding sources, planfundraisers, and establish business and community partners.The same person is responsible for spearheading efforts topromote TSD/ERCOD’s image throughout the state as aprovider of quality programs and services for deaf and hard ofhearing students. We have too often heard that apart fromthe Deaf community and deaf education professionals, TSDis the state’s best-kept secret. Consequently we work hard tocreate awareness of our programs with the public at largethrough public relations, media, and marketing efforts.Increased visibility enhances our chances to attract bothindividuals who can benefit from our services and supporterswho can help us achieve our missions.

37

Left: Summer school students enjoy

educational and recreational activities

with staff.

ODYSSEY 201138

Katie was bright and should have entered school with communication skillscommensurate to her peers so that she was ready to learn within a classroomenvironment. Instead, she was linguistically delayed and behavioral challenges wereevident. Fortunately for other deaf and hard of hearing children and their familiesin the state of Wisconsin, early intervention services there have undergonesignificant changes over the past 20 years.

Marcy Dicker is thedirector of Outreach forthe Wisconsin EducationalServices Program for theDeaf and Hard of Hearing.Her background is inproviding services toyoung children, birth toage 3, who are deaf, hardof hearing, and deafblindand their families. Dickerwelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle at marcy.dicker@wesp-dhh.wi.gov.

1990Katie was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss at 26 months of age. Hercommunication skills were delayed and a hearing loss had been suspected earlier. Herpediatrician, in response to her mother’s concerns over the past several months, noted,“Katie laughs out loud, so how could she be deaf?”

Several months later, Katie received hearing aids. Her mother was also referred to thecounty’s Birth to 3 Program. In Wisconsin, Birth to 3 Programs were based out of the

Department of Health Services, and each county had its ownprogram. Katie was the first deaf child on the service coordinator’scaseload. Due to the significant language delay, theIndividualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team determined theneed for early intervention. Neither the early interventionist nor thespeech therapist on the team had ever worked with a deaf child.The speech therapist, however, knew 10 signs and was assigned toprovide services to Katie. Several months later, at 3 years of age,Katie transitioned to the public school system with a vocabulary of10 signs and behavioral issues stemming from lack ofcommunication.

the time is now:wisconsin’s journey

towards improvingearly intervention services

By Marcy Dicker

Photos courtesy of Marcy Dicker

Above: A two-

month-old infant

receives her loaner

hearing aids through

the WISHES program.

2011 ODYSSEY 39

Wisconsin faced numerous issues in this evolution. Many ofthe county Birth to 3 Programs were not able to provide trainedand/or experienced personnel to address the unique needs of achild with hearing loss. The low incidence of this population,the size and rural nature of the state, the lack of qualifiedpersonnel, and the structure of Wisconsin Birth to 3 serviceswere contributing factors to the challenges in adequately servingthis population. This article describes how these challenges wereaddressed to improve early intervention services in the state.

The First Stage In 2000, the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH)Position Statement established a national evidence-basedframework to ensure that all infants born with congenitalhearing loss have the opportunity to benefit from earlyintervention services by 6 months of age. The JCIH goals wereto: 1) Screen all babies prior to hospital discharge, 2) diagnosebabies as deaf or hard of hearing by three months of age, and 3)enroll them in effective early intervention programs no laterthan 6 months of age.

The state of Wisconsin aligned with and supported the goalsof the JCIH and the national Early Hearing Detection andIntervention (EHDI) efforts. In 1999, the Wisconsin StateLegislature passed an unfunded directive that supported theimportance of early identification of hearing loss. The WisconsinState Division of Public Health applied for and received grantfunding to assist in the implementation of a comprehensivesystem of EHDI. A new program—Wisconsin SoundBeginnings (WSB)—was established to develop and implementEHDI standards, protocols, resources, and services in the state.Shortly thereafter, in 2001, the state’s outreach program—Wisconsin Educational Services Program for the Deaf and Hardof Hearing (WESP-DHH Outreach)—was established.

WSB hosted a Parent Summit, an invitational conference forWisconsin families with children between the ages of 0-8 whowere deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind. The newly establishedWESP-DHH Outreach was invited to participate in thissummit. The goal of the summit was to provide a forum forfamilies to make recommendations that would become thefoundation for a statewide parent network plan. These

Left: Early

intervention in

Wisconsin begins

as soon as the

child is identified.

ODYSSEY 2011

recommendations to increase parent connection arose from thesummit:

1. To establish an annual event to connect families2. To provide direct parent-to-parent support3. To establish a statewide website and/or listserv for families4. To provide unbiased information available in one place

Based on these recommendations, WESP-DHH Outreachestablished a variety of support services for young children andtheir families. Over the years, other gaps and needs wereidentified, and additional programs evolved to complement andsupport Birth to 3 Programs. These programs include:

• DEAF MENTOR PROGRAM: Twenty-five to 30 deaf mentorsaround the state of Wisconsin provide families with in-homesign language instruction using an immersion (bilingual-bicultural) approach.

• FAMILY CONFERENCE: Now in its ninth year, this annualstatewide conference has grown in attendance to more than500 participants and includes workshops, family activities,childcare, and support groups. A variety of role models whoare deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind present and/or workat the conference. The first Family Conference, in 2003,resulted in the formation of a Wisconsin chapter of Hands &Voices (www.handsandvoiceswi.org) and a statewide listserv forparents.

• GUIDE BY YOUR SIDE PROGRAM: WSB and WisconsinFamilies for Hands & Voices collaborated to establish thefirst Guide By Your Side Program, which matches families ofchildren who have newly diagnosed hearing loss with ParentGuides (trained and more experienced parents of childrenwho are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind). Hands &Voices National has since adopted this program model and

helped establish Guide By Your Side programs in otherstates.

• BABIES & HEARING LOSS: AN INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK FOR

FAMILIES WITH A YOUNG CHILD WHO IS DEAF OR HARD OF

HEARING: This comprehensive and unbiased overview ofoptions and resources available to families, specific toWisconsin, is updated and distributed on an ongoing basis.

• WISCONSIN INFANT/CHILDREN’S STATEWIDE HEARING AID

EXCHANGE SERVICE (WISHES): The WISHES program loanshearing instruments (hearing aids and/or FM systems) for asix-month period to newly identified children who are deafor hard of hearing. This temporary assistance can bridge thegap between identification of a hearing loss and obtainingthe financial means to purchase personal amplification or forchildren awaiting cochlear implant surgery.

• IN-HOME EARLY LISTENING PROGRAM (HELP): HELPprovides specific short-term training and guidance forparents in the area of auditory development, by speciallytrained mentors, in order to support the development ofeffective listening and spoken language skills.

• WISCONSIN DEAFBLIND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT

(WDBTAP): WESP-DHH Outreach runs this program with afederal grant award from the Office for Special EducationPrograms. WDBTAP provides a variety of supports tofamilies of young children who are deafblind and theprofessionals that work with them, including trainings andworkshops, coaching, the Birth to 3 Program, and familysupport.

• BIRTH TO 3 PROGRAM CONSULTATION: WESP-DHHOutreach consultants provide support to Birth to 3Programs statewide in the assessment process, developmentof IFSP goals, provision of appropriate resources, and stafftraining on the specific needs of the child and his or herfamily. Areas of focus include: communication strengths,needs, and choices; speech, language, and auditorydevelopment; the impact of hearing loss on all areas ofdevelopment; parent education needs; and transition fromthe Birth to 3 Program to the public school system.

2005If Katie had been born in Wisconsin 15 years later, she wouldhave been diagnosed within a month of her birth and received anarray of services:• She would have been fit with loaner hearing aids by the age

of 3 months.• She might have received a cochlear implant at an early age. • Her audiologist would have provided her family with the

comprehensive parent notebook, Babies & Hearing Loss.• Her family would have been referred to Birth to 3 and Guide

40

2011 ODYSSEY

By Your Side. Within two weeks ofdiagnosis, the family would have metwith a parent guide. The parent guidewould have reviewed the informationcovered in the notebook and providedemotional support and guidance to thefamily as they began to navigate thesystem, looking for appropriateprogramming and supports.

• Katie would have been enrolled in hercounty Birth to 3 Program by the ageof 6 months (though she demonstratedno developmental delays).

• Katie and her family would have hadsupport for her auditory developmentthrough HELP, support for visualcommunication and sign languagedevelopment through the Deaf MentorProgram, and ongoing parent support via the FamilyConference and Wisconsin Families for Hands & Voices.

Yet despite the many supports through WESP-DHHOutreach, Katie’s direct services through the county’s Birth to 3Program may still have been inadequate to help her achieveage-appropriate development by age 3. Although Wisconsinwas identifying children who were deaf and hard of hearing inWisconsin through Universal Newborn Hearing Screening,families were still not consistently receiving direct serviceswithin Birth to 3 Programs from professionals who hadexperience with and understood the unique needs of youngchildren with hearing loss and their families.

Identifying and Addressing Systemic IssuesGiven the low incidence of the population and the size of thestate, it appeared that a regionalized system of servicedelivery would more effectively address the issue of serviceprovision from providers with appropriate training andexperience. In 2008, personnel from WESP-DHH Outreachand WSB created a document entitled The Time is Now. Ithighlighted key issues and current system strengths andneeds required to effectively serve young children who aredeaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind and their families. Afterpresenting progress to date, existing systemic needs, andresearch to support the provision of early intervention serviceswith trained and qualified providers, the documentemphasized the need to consider systemic redesign in order tomeet the unique needs of these children and families. As aresult, WESP-DHH Outreach gained approval from theWisconsin Birth to 3 Program and the Department of PublicInstruction to move forward in a planning process (notimplementation) for an alternative regionalized educationalservice delivery model.

A two-day intensive planning meeting, the Birth to 6Redesign Summit, was convened to develop and solidify theconcepts for redesign. Over 50 participants represented a broadstakeholder group, including parents of children who are deaf,hard of hearing, and deafblind, early interventionists, earlychildhood educators, childcare representatives, social workers,audiologists, physicians and allied health care providers,policymakers, schools of medicine and education, researchinstitutions, state planning agencies, community serviceproviders, and advocacy organizations. This summit was highlysuccessful; in addition to identifying a variety of success factors

41

Above: Family education and involvement are key components to

Wisconsin’s programming.

ODYSSEY 2011

and system variables, it helped connect key stakeholders acrossthe state, from a variety of systems, by their common desire toredesign the system in order to serve better the state’s youngestchildren with hearing loss, their families, and the programsthat serve this population. As a result of the energy anddirection of the summit, the Wisconsin Birth to 3 Programawarded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)funds to WESP-DHH Outreach to implement the conceptsthat evolved from the summit and create a two-year pilotredesign of the system.

This ARRA-funded project became the Western RegionalBirth to 6 Redesign Pilot. The goal of this pilot project is toshow the benefits and efficacy of restructuring the currentdelivery system. This pilot system differs from the currentsystem in that a regional team composed of providers, recruitedfrom school districts, educational cooperatives, county Birth to3 Programs, and other programs, will be able to cross countyand school district lines in order to provide services within theentire region. Identified providers for the regional team have aninterest in serving this population and have some backgroundknowledge and/or experience. This regional system will support

the overarching goal of ensuring that every child identifiedwith hearing loss in the region with Birth to 3 services receivesservices from qualified and trained providers.

WESP-DHH Outreach is collaborating with CESA 10, aneducational agency in the western area of Wisconsin, toimplement this pilot project with a focus on serving thechildren and families in the western region of Wisconsin. The

responsibilities of the state outreach program, in conjunctionwith CESA 10, include: • Identifying regional team members.• Hiring and overseeing a regional services coordinator to

ensure consistency and linkages within the region as well asassisting in facilitating the necessary creative collaborationsbetween agencies and programs to allow a qualified providerin one county or program to provide services to anothercounty or program.

• Designing and providing training for the regional team.• Designing of the process for families to obtain services.• Promoting the project at a state systems level.

The pilot project is now in Year II, the implementationphase. Regional team members have been identified and havereceived training and materials from the SKI-HI program outof Utah. This year is dedicated to restructuring serviceprovision, ensuring creative collaborations and sharing ofresources, as well as data collection to determine the impact ofthese restructured services. Given positive outcomes for thisproject, it is hoped that this design can be replicated in all

regions of the state.

2010Imagine Katie was born 20 years later. She wasdiagnosed with hearing loss by 1 month of age,fitted with hearing aids by 3 months of age, andconnected to parent-to-parent support and Birthto 3 Programming by 6 months of age. HerBirth to 3 providers have been identified(although they are from another county andschool district) as individuals who are able toprovide support for Katie’s development of signlanguage and auditory skills as well as attend toher overall communication and social-emotionalneeds. Katie’s family also receives support fromthe WISHES program, HELP, Guide By YourSide, and the Deaf Mentor Program. WESP-DHH Outreach’s Birth to 6 consultant hasworked with Katie’s IFSP team to ensureappropriate expectations and outcomes. Katie ismaking great strides in her development. Herparents are well educated about their options,

and they are involved in supporting Katie’sdevelopment in all realms. They are also in contact with manyarea parents through Wisconsin Families for Hands & Voicesand the annual Statewide Family Conference as well as withadult Deaf role models. We have every reason to believe thatwhen Katie reaches her third birthday, her communication skillswill be commensurate with those of her peers. Katie will enterschool ready to learn. Her parents will be prepared to make

42

2011 ODYSSEY

educated choices and decisions along the wayusing Katie’s strengths and needs to chart hercourse.

The past decade has truly been a journeyfor the state of Wisconsin. Newcollaborations have been established, andthere is a growing awareness of the need toredesign service delivery in order to trulymeet the needs of our youngest students whoare hard of hearing, deaf, and deafblind. Thiswill not be a short journey, nor will there beeasy solutions, but the time to make achange in Wisconsin is now. The NationalDeaf Education Reform Movement hasadopted Victor Hugo’s slogan, “There isnothing more powerful in this world than anidea whose time has come.” In Wisconsin,our time has come.

To access the contents of the parentnotebook, visit www.wesp-dhh.wi.gov/wesp/out_parent notebook.cfm.

To access the contents of The Time is Now, visitwww.wesp-dhh.wi.gov/B_3/The_Time_is_Now.pdf.

To access more information about the Birth to 6 RedesignSummit, visit www.wesp-dhh.wi.gov/wesp/out_b6summit.cfmor e-mail marcy.dicker@wesp-dhh.wi.gov.

For more information about WESP-DHH Outreach, visitwww.wesp-dhh.wi.gov/wesp/.

43

Reference

Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. (2000). Year 2000position statement: Principles and guidelines for early hearingdetection and intervention programs. Pediatrics, 106, 789-817.

Left: The Western Regional

Birth to 6 Redesign team.

Below: Children and families

served by the Western Region

Birth to 6 Redesign Pilot project

reside in the western region of

Wisconsin.

ODYSSEY 201144

Specialists who have been prepared to work with infants and toddlerswho are deaf or hard of hearing and their families are hard to find. As aresult of the effectiveness of Newborn Hearing Screening Programs,there has been a rapid growth in the number of young children needingearly intervention services (White, 2006). The number of infantsidentified as deaf or hard of hearing has doubled in the last decade,accounting for two to three infants for every 1,000 births or between8,000-12,000 infants annually (http://infanthearing.org/ resources/fact.pdf).Many programs struggle to find adequately prepared professionals(Marge & Marge, 2005; White, 2006).

A shortage of well-prepared professionals imposes limits on access to comprehensiveand effective early intervention services to deaf and hard of hearing children (JCIH,2007). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) expects states to ensurethat professionals working with infants and toddlers have relevant skills (Winton,McCollum, & Catlett, 2008), however, there are very few university programs thatprovide specialized preparation for working with children who are deaf or hard ofhearing (Jones & Ewing, 2002; Rice & Lenihan, 2005; Sass-Lehrer et al., 2010). Manyprofessionals begin their work with limited experiences with this population anddepend upon workshops and conferences to acquire the information they need (Sass-Lehrer et al., 2010). Unfortunately, this approach to learning is not ideal and oftenresults in significant gaps and misunderstandings.

Gallaudet University developed an innovative approach to address the need for morewell-prepared professionals to work with young children and their families. In thesummer of 2007, the Burstein Leadership Institute, under the College of ProfessionalStudies and Outreach at Gallaudet University, launched the Early EducationProfessional Leadership Certificate Program with a cohort of 12 students. This initialon-line certification program included a series of four courses that were offered for PSTcredit (professional development credit). Students received a certificate from the

Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, PhD, is aprofessor of education atGallaudet University inWashington, D.C. Shereceived her master’sdegree in deaf educationfrom New YorkUniversity and herdoctorate fromthe University ofMaryland inearly childhoodeducation andcurriculum andinstruction. Sass-Lehrer hasworked as a teacher andearly intervention specialistin a variety of educationalsettings. She is a co-authorof Parents and Their DeafChildren: The Early Years,and co-editor of The YoungDeaf or Hard of HearingChild: A Family-CenteredApproach to Early Education.

Beth S. Benedict,PhD, a professor in theDepartment ofCommunication Studies atGallaudet University, hasfocused on familyinvolvement in schoolswith deaf and hardof hearingchildren, earlychildhoodeducation,advocacy, earlycommunication,and partnershipsbetween deaf and hearingprofessionals and earlyintervention programs andservices. Her work has beenshared in numerouspublications, and she haspresented both nationallyand internationally.

Photos by John T. Consoli

preparingprofessionalsto work with infants,

toddlers, and their families:A HYBRID APPROACH TO LEARNING

By Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, Beth S. Benedict, and Nicole Hutchinson

2011 ODYSSEY

College of Professional Studies and Outreachafter successful completion of the four-coursesequence of studies.

Beginning in the summer of 2011, anexpanded version of the program will be offeredas a graduate certificate program. This newlyrevised program will be known as the Deaf andHard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Families:Collaboration and Leadership InterdisciplinaryGraduate Certificate Program. Participants inthe initial program evaluated their experiencespositively and said that they were able to applywhat they had learned to their daily work.However, some students indicated that theywould like more, and in the years after thedevelopment of the certificate program theprogram directors decided to review and revisethe initial program. The newly revised programincludes an emphasis on how to work as amember of an interdisciplinary team.

The certificate program addresses thefollowing areas of need: • The shortage of knowledgeable professionals

with expertise in working with infants,toddlers, and their families

• The lack of professionals who are themselvesdeaf or hard of hearing

• The need for professionals who haveknowledge and skills in a range ofdisciplinary areas

• The barriers to training that early educationservice personnel may experience, such asdistances from learning centers

Increasing the Number of Deaf ProfessionalsParents and caregivers whose babies are deaf orhard of hearing interact with many specialistsover the course of the first months and years oftheir child’s life. These specialists include healthcare professionals, audiologists, servicecoordinators from the state early interventionsystems, and early intervention specialists.Many families also work with speech-languagepathologists, social workers, mental healthcounselors, and psychologists. The vast majorityof these professionals lack experiences with deafand hard of hearing people, and are thereforeunable to help parents understand what itmeans to be deaf. Professionals who are deaf andhard of hearing are essential to the interdisci-plinary team of service providers (Benedict &Sass-Lehrer, 2007; Benedict et al., 2011).

45

Nicole Hutchinsonreceived her bachelor’sdegree from the Universityof California, San Diego inlinguistics (American SignLanguage). She is agraduate student atGallaudet University andwill graduate in May 2011with a master’s degree indeaf education with aspecialization in family-centered early education.Hutchinson has beenactively involved in thedevelopment of the newon-line certificateprogram.

The authors welcomequestions and commentsabout this article atMarilyn.Sass-Lehrer@gallaudet.edu,Beth.Benedict@gallaudet.edu, and Nicole.Hutchinson@gallaudet.edu,respectively.

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The guidance that the family receivesfrom professionals can have a dramaticimpact on families’ responses and thedecisions they make (Beazley & Moore,1995; Eleweke & Rodda, 2000; Young& Tattersall, 2007). For example, ifprofessionals communicate to parentsand caregivers that being deaf or hard ofhearing is a tragedy, they are likely tofeel sad or grieve. On the other hand,parents who are provided withopportunities to get to know deaf peopletend to be more optimistic about theirchild’s future and have a betterunderstanding of both the joys andchallenges that lie ahead (Hintermair,2000, 2006; Watkins, Pittman, &Walden, 1998).

Despite the evidence that outcomesare better when infants, toddlers, andtheir families have meaningfulinteractions with deaf or hard of hearingadults, there are very few trainedspecialists who are deaf or hard ofhearing. One parent describes the powerof working closely with deaf people thisway:

My son was the first deaf person I ever met.As a family we embraced Deaf culture,American Sign Language, deaf rolemodels, and deaf families early in his life.

He grew to become a confident, highlyeducated, tolerant, and patient adult. I amgrateful and proud as I reflect on howenriched our lives have become. (Benedictet al., 2011)

Since the inception of the certificateprogram, the participants have includedprofessionals from differentbackgrounds, parents of deaf children,and people who are deaf or who haveroots in the Deaf community. Theprogram has also attracted professionalswho are newcomers to the field withlimited experiences with deaf people.Participants include professionals whoare deaf educators, linguists, specialeducators, counselors and others fromhealth care fields, as well as those whoare involved in administration andpolicy work. Having participants fromsuch diverse backgrounds and varieddegrees of hearing loss has resulted inpositive outcomes. The deaf and hard ofhearing professionals trained throughthis program become role models for thefamilies they subsequently meet. Theparticipants who are hearing develop anappreciation for the importance ofincluding deaf or hard of hearingprofessionals on the interdisciplinaryteam, and develop a network of Deaf

community resources through theirparticipation in the program.

Interdisciplinary PreparationRecent developments in research andtechnology have resulted in newdemands on professionals withknowledge and skills from a range ofdisciplinary areas. The role ofprofessionals working with infants,toddlers, and their families has becomeincreasingly complex. Early interventionspecialists are consultants, collaborators,family educators, and developmental andlanguage specialists. Families withyoung children who have developmentalchallenges underscore the importance ofhaving a team of experts whounderstand how to work together toprovide for their child’s and family’sneeds (Meadow-Orlans, Mertens, & Sass-Lehrer, 2003). It is unrealistic to expecta professional prepared in one discipline(e.g., education, speech-languagepathology) to be an expert in all areas.Instead, professionals must be preparedto work in collaboration with otherprofessionals who have expertise in otherdisciplinary areas. Interdisciplinarytraining prepares graduates with theknowledge and skills to work in

ODYSSEY 201146

collaboration with others on aninterdisciplinary team. Professionalswho take part in interdisciplinaryexperiences as part of their training arelikely to provide interdisciplinarycollaborative services to children andtheir families (Mellon & Winton, 2003).

Interdisciplinary personnelpreparation involves collaboration andthe inclusion of two or more disciplinessuch as counseling, deaf education, earlychildhood special education, speech-language pathology, social work, andpsychology. Developing aninterdisciplinary program of studies ischallenging in a university that has atraditional departmental or divisionstructure (Kilgo & Bruder, 1997).Professional preparation programs areoften limited by requirements from theirrespective accreditation bodies withlittle flexibility to allow for additionalcoursework and experiences. Courses aretypically offered through onedepartment and are rarely co-taught.University policies and accountabilityinadvertently often lead to competitionamong programs rather thancollaboration.

Although the initial programincluded elements of an interdisciplinaryapproach, the program directorsrecognized the need to extend andexpand interdisciplinary experiences. Todo this, an advisory council of experts onand off campus was established to guidethe conceptualization of programdevelopment work. The advisorycouncil included parents of deafchildren, a pediatrician withexpertise in working with deafchildren, a developmentalspecialist who has developedon-line programming in earlyintervention for children withdevelopmental disabilities anddelays, and others. The programdirectors also established anInterdisciplinary Work Group ofprofessionals from the Universitycommunity, including experts andpractitioners from the Laurent ClercNational Deaf Education Center as well

as faculty from the following programareas: American Sign Language (ASL)and Deaf Studies; CommunicationStudies; Counseling; Education;Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences;Linguistics; Psychology; and SocialWork. The Interdisciplinary WorkGroup met biweekly (and later weekly)to develop the new Deaf and Hard ofHearing Infants, Toddlers and FamiliesCertificate Program that included theperspectives from the above disciplinesas they apply to working with infants,toddlers, and their families.

This work group experience was vitalto the strengthening of theinterdisciplinary nature of the program.Faculty involved in the development ofthis new interdisciplinary programfound the work both enriching andchallenging. Discussions stretched theirunderstanding of new concepts andperspectives. They discovered thatprofessional jargon specific to oneprofessional discipline was not alwaysunderstood in the same way by thosefrom other specialty areas, and agreedupon common language that helped topromote communication acrossdisciplines (Weston, 2005). Theydiscussed theoretical perspectives toarrive at a shared understanding of theprinciplesthat

would frame the revised programdevelopment efforts. They also sharedtheir respective knowledge with othersin the group.

One example of this type of debate is aseries of discussions the work group hadon the concepts of diversity andmulticulturalism. Each individualbrought his or her own understanding ofthese concepts to the table. One of themembers of the work group hadextensive expertise in this area andprovided the guidance needed to developa program of studies that embraced theprinciples of diversity.

In another example, one of themembers of the interdisciplinary workgroup preferred to use family-firstlanguage in the program documentswhile others proposed child-firstlanguage. This difference popped up onseveral occasions during discussionsabout the philosophy and learningoutcomes of the program as well asrelated to the name of the program (e.g.,Should “Families with Deaf and Hard ofHearing Infants and Toddlers” be usedor “Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants,Toddlers, and Their Families”?). Groupdiscussions revealed that the emphasison families was needed in someprofessional disciplines (e.g., speech-language pathology) that havetraditionally focused on the child andminimized the role of parents/caregivers,while others believed it was necessary to

communicate that the family’s role isto support the needs of their child

and, therefore, the focus needs tobe on the child. This discussiongave work group members abetter understanding of theirown, as well as other,disciplines and perspectives.

Discipline-specific expertisewas also an important topic ofdiscussion. For example,

members of the InterdisciplinaryWork Group discussed limitations

on their respective areas ofexpertise. Some were concerned about

the extent to which it was appropriatefor one professional to assume

2011ODYSSEY

47

ODYSSEY 2011

responsibilities traditionally restricted toa professional licensed in another areasuch as social work, counseling, orspeech-language pathology withoutexceeding professional boundaries. Toaddress this potential problem, a unit ofinstruction on both the roles andexpertise of various professionals andprofessional standards, scope of practice,and ethical behaviors was added.

As a result of the multipleperspectives and the areas of expertisereflected during the program revisionprocess, the new program is trulyinterdisciplinary in its scope andapproach as well as in its emphasis oncollaboration with other professionals.

On-line LearningTraditionally, a significant barrier to thepreparation of professionals for thisspecialized area has been access tolearning. The vast majority of potentiallearners are currently employed, andtherefore unable to relocate or take offsignificant time to attend a program ofstudies that is on a university campus.Until recently, many learners facedsignificant technological barriers inpursuit of on-line learning.

Developments in on-line teaching andlearning strategies, as well asimprovements in technology, have madeon-line learning a more interactive anddynamic learning process than everbefore. Access to high-speed Internetand visual technologies have alsoprovided more opportunities for bothinstructors and learners to use face-to-face communication so that instructioncan be delivered through both ASL and

English print. Learners—hearing, deaf,or hard of hearing—are not dependentupon classroom interpreters to ensurethat everyone has access to the contentand course activities, and they canparticipate fully in class discussions.

As a result of these technologicaladvances, the program has beendesigned to be conducted through on-line learning, including two short on-campus seminars. This has greatlyincreased the number and diversity ofpotential participants, while alsoaffording them the opportunity tointeract face to face during the brief on-campus seminars.

Expansion of Course ContentDuring the review process, manystrengths of the content covered in theinitial program were identified. Areasthat needed to be addressed in moredepth included:• Stronger training for professionals to

fully support the development ofyoung children’s early language andcommunication skills

• Additional attention to the areas oflistening and spoken languagedevelopment and the assistivelistening technologies that arewidely used

• Opportunities for learners in theprogram to apply the knowledgeacquired in their coursework to theirwork with infants, toddlers, andfamilies (if they did not already havethis experience)

In response to these gaps, the revisedprogram has expanded coursework inlanguage and communication and theopportunity for a capstone experiencethat might include a field experience ormentoring project to help learnersimplement strategies they are acquiringthrough their coursework.

Deaf and Hard of HearingInfants, Toddlers andFamilies: Collaboration andLeadership InterdisciplinaryGraduate Certificate ProgramThe reworked and renamed programbeginning in May 2011 is aninterdisciplinary program designed forprofessionals from different disciplinaryfields. These professionals will learn howto apply their unique professional area ofexpertise to early intervention as well ashow to implement an interdisciplinaryteam approach. The teaching andlearning strategies include both ASL andEnglish for optimal access for learnerswho are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing.The critical role and contributions of

48

Burstein Leadership InstituteThe Burstein Leadership Institute (formerly the Gallaudet Leadership Institute)provided support to establish an on-line certificate program. The Burstein LeadershipInstitute “…is a comprehensive unit of the College of Professional Studies andOutreach dedicated to improving the quality of the personal and professional lives ofdeaf and hard of hearing individuals, by developing the leadership abilities of theseindividuals, their families, and other individuals in their immediate and extendedpersonal and professional communities, and (2) developing and enhancing theprofessional and leadership abilities of individuals who administer programs andservices in deaf-centric and for-profit agencies and corporations.” (Burstein LeadershipInstitute, 2010)

2011 ODYSSEY 49

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ODYSSEY 201150

deaf and hard of hearing people on theinterdisciplinary team are a central focusof this program.

The newly revised program, providedthrough on-line learning, including twoshort on-campus seminars, includes sixcourses that address the knowledge andskills that all professionals working withthis population should possess. (See page49 for program sequence of study.) Theprogram focuses on the acquisition ofknowledge and skills in four broadcontent areas:

1. Professional and ethical practices 2. Communication and language3. Families, cultures, and communities4. Developmental assessment and

programming

Units of instruction are developed andtaught by professionals with expertise inworking with infants, toddlers, andtheir families from a wide array ofdisciplinary backgrounds. Bilingual ASLand English principles and philosophicalperspectives influence the curriculumcontent and delivery of coursework andexperiences. An emphasis on ASL andEnglish is infused in the on-lineinstruction, and courses provideinformation and resources professionalsneed to support families and youngchildren as they acquire both ASL andEnglish in the early years. Each course isoffered for graduate or professionalstudies credits.

ConclusionGallaudet University recognizes theneed to support interdisciplinaryprogramming and currently offersprograms that provide elements ofinterdisciplinary teaching and learning.The University is undergoing aninvestigation of how interdisciplinaryprogramming can be enhanced to meetcurrent and future needs. The Deaf andHard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers andFamilies: Collaboration and LeadershipInterdisciplinary Graduate CertificateProgram is designed to fill critical gapsin training. Professionals working withthis population rarely have specializedpreparation that covers the early

developmental needs of youngchildren while providingfamilies with the informationand support they need toensure that their youngchildren have a healthy startand the foundations forlater learning. A recentsurvey of professionals (Sass-Lehrer et al., 2010) askedabout the professionaltraining needs in their state.One responded:

My best guess is that 50 percent ofthe 0-3 population is served [in mystate] by individuals…who have neverseen or talked to a deaf or hard of hearingperson beyond the age of 6….

In another context, one mother sharedher experiences with early interventionservices and the lack of deafprofessionals:

When we found out our daughter wasdeaf, we began early intervention services.There was no mention of the Deafcommunity, ASL, or deaf schools and theresources they provided. The only deafperson we knew was our child. It wasthrough our own search that we stumbledupon these valuable resources. After wemade these connections, our family’s livesbecame much easier and our daughter’slanguage began to flourish. Deafprofessionals employed in every level ofEHDI services and the resources that deafschools provide are a critical missing linkin today’s early intervention programs.Parents deserve to have all the resources,

information, and tools necessary to raisetheir deaf children. (Benedict, 2011).

The Gallaudet certificate programhopes to change this situation byproviding an accessible preparationprogram through on-line learning. Theprogram aims to attract professionalswho are already providing services andwant to improve, expand, or updatetheir knowledge and skills as well asthose who are pursuing professionaldegrees and are interested in workingwith infants, toddlers, and theirfamilies. The program expects toincrease the number of deaf and hard ofhearing professionals so that families andyoung children have more opportunitiesto learn what it means to be deaf andwhat families can do to ensure that theirbabies are off to a good start.

Resources

Crais, E. R., Boone, H.A., Harrison, M., Freund, P., Downing, K., & West, T.(2004). Interdisciplinary personnel preparation: Graduates’ use of targetedpractice. Infants and Young Children, 17(1), 82-92.

Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. (2007). Year 2007 position statement:Principles and guidelines for early hearing detection and interventionprograms. Pediatrics, 120(4), 898-921.

Stredler Brown, A., Moeller, M. P., & Sass-Lehrer, M. (2009). Competencies forearly interventionists: Finding consensus. Presentation at Early Hearing Detectionand Intervention Conference, Dallas, TX.

2011 ODYSSEY 51

References

Beazley, S., & Moore, M. (1995). Deaf children, their families,and professionals: Dismantling barriers. London: David FultonPublishers.

Benedict, B., Crace, J., Hossler, T., Oliva, G., Raimondo,B., Richmond, M. A., et al. (2011). Deaf communitysupport for families: The best of partnerships (Ch. 11).National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management e-book:A resource guide for early hearing detection and intervention(EHDI). Logan, UT: National Center for HearingAssessment and Management, Utah State University.

Benedict, B. S., & Sass-Lehrer, M. (2007). The ASL andEnglish bilingual approach: A professional perspective. InS. Schwartz (Ed.), Choices in deafness (3rd ed., pp. 185-221).Bethesda, MD: Woodbine Press.

Burstein Leadership Institute. (2010). Assessment report onstudent learning outcomes: Burstein Leadership Institute.Washington, DC: College of Professional Studies andOutreach, Gallaudet University.

Eleweke, C. J., & Rodda, M. (2000). Factors contributingto parents’ selection of a communication mode to use withtheir deaf children. American Annals of the Deaf, 145, 375-383.

Hintermair, M. (2000). Hearing impairment, socialnetworks, and coping: The need for families with hearingimpaired children to relate to other parents and hearing-impaired adults. American Annals of the Deaf, 145, 41-51.

Hintermair, M. (2006). Parental resources, parental stress,and socioemotional development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education,11(4), 493-513.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (2004).Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.http://idea.ed.gov

Jones, T., & Ewing, K. (2002). An analysis of teacherpreparation in deaf education programs approved by theCouncil on Education of the Deaf. American Annals of theDeaf, 148(3), 267-271.

Kilgo, J. L., & Bruder, M. B. (1997). Creating new visionsin institutions of higher education: Interdisciplinaryapproaches to personnel preparation in early intervention.In P. Winton, J. McCollum, & C. Catlett (Eds.), Reformingpersonnel preparation in early intervention: Issues, models andpractical strategies (pp. 81-101). Baltimore: Paul Brookes.

Marge, D. K., & Marge, M. (2005). Beyond newborn hearingscreening: Meeting the educational and health care needs of infantsand young children with hearing loss in America (Report of theNational Consensus Conference on Effective Educationaland Health Care Interventions for Infants and YoungChildren with Hearing Loss, September 10-12, 2004).Syracuse, NY: Department of Physical Medicine andRehabilitation, SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Meadow-Orlans, K., Mertens, D., & Sass-Lehrer, M.(2003). Parents and their deaf children: The early years.Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Mellon, A., & Winton, P. (2003). A study ofinterdisciplinary collaboration among higher educationearly intervention faculty members. Journal of EarlyIntervention, 25(3), 173-188.

Rice, G., & Lenihan, S. (2005). Early intervention inauditory/oral deaf education: Parent and professionalperspectives. Volta Review, 105(1), 73-96.

Sass-Lehrer, M., Stredler Brown, A., Hutchinson, N.,Tarasenko, K., Moeller, M. P., & Clark, K. (2010).Knowledge and skills of early interventionists: Where are thegaps? Presentation at Early Hearing Detection andIntervention Conference, Chicago, IL.

Watkins, S., Pittman, P., & Walden, B. (1998). The deafmentor project for young children who are deaf and theirfamilies. American Annals of the Deaf, 143(1), 29-34.

Weston, D. R. (2005). Training in infant mental health:Educating the reflective practitioner. Infants and YoungChildren, 18(4) 337-348.

White, K. (2006). Early intervention for children withpermanent hearing loss: Finishing the EHDI revolution.The Volta Review, 106(3), 237-258.

Winton, P., McCullom, J., & Catlett, C. (2008). Practicalapproaches to early childhood professional development: Evidence,strategies, and resources. Washington, DC: Zero to Three.

Young, A., & Tattersall, H. (2007). Universal newbornhearing screening and early identification of deafness:Parents’ responses to knowing early and their expectationsfor child communication development. Journal of DeafStudies and Deaf Education, 12(2), 209-220.

ODYSSEY 201152

picturingtime:

“Apple, apple, apple…red, red, red….” The sound of those words rang in myears 16 years ago as I listened to our early intervention worker speak and signthem to Shana, my vivacious toddler, day after day, week after week, duringhome visits. Shana and I enjoyed these visits, but at times I felt so pessimistic.How would we ever have deep conversations about friendship, theater, and allthe other topics that I daydreamed about sharing with her?

I began learning sign language immediately after adopting Shana when shewas 7 months old, and she began wearing hearing aids by age 1. Like mostother hearing parents of deaf children, I was faced with the challenge oflearning a second language simultaneously with teaching it to my child, but Iused speech and sign language with her as best I could. We participated inhome- and school-based early intervention programs, and she subsequentlyattended a preschool for deaf children. Nonetheless, I could sense the growinggap between her active curiosity about the world and her delayed languagedevelopment. I was determined to find a solution.

Today, Shana is a mainstreamed junior in high school who takes for granted that we willhave long conversations into the night about her relationships, the books she reads, the theaterwe share, and, of course, her aspirations. Although I attribute my daughter’s progress to anumber of factors, the first and most critical step was finding a way to ensure that she did notmiss out on incidental learning.

A considerable amount of learning, especially in the early years, is incidental learning(Marschark, 2000). What is incidental learning? It is learning that occurs simply throughexposure to our environment—what we hear, see, and experience. It takes place in the naturalcourse of events, without intentionally directed instruction about how or what to learn(Calderon & Greenberg, 2003). For example, think about how you learned that grass is greenat certain times of the year. You probably cannot remember learning that information because

Julia Weinberg,PhD, JD, is a clinicalpsychologist practicingin Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, and sheholds facultyappointments at theTemple UniversitySchool of Medicine andthe Philadelphia Collegeof OsteopathicMedicine. She alsoprovides workshops andconsultation servicesabout InSIGHT�Visual LearningStrategies. Weinbergwelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle atWeinbergBH@aol.com.

By Julia Weinberg

Calendar photo courtesy of Julia Weinberg

visual techniques for teaching the concepts of yesterday,

today, and tomorrow

2011 ODYSSEY 53

you learned it incidentally, i.e., by exposure to green grass oversome period of time. It is now well-established that backgroundknowledge is a substantial factor in developing literacy, and thebreadth of your child’s background knowledge depends largelyon incidental learning (Snow, Scarborough, & Burns, 1999).

Incidental learning includes factual information as well asabstract concepts such as categories, cause and effect, symbols,and time.

Hearing children have the opportunity to absorb the meaningof many abstract concepts after hearing or overhearing countless

ODYSSEY 2011

repetitions of thoseconcepts in themeaningful contextof conversation(Levy & Nelson,1994). However,deaf children ofhearing parents donot have the sameaccess to incidentallearning due tomore limited accessto language, bothspoken and signed(Calderon &Greenberg, 2003).Parents (and otheradults doingcaretaking) aregenerally not fluent enough in sign language early in theirchild’s development to go about their business and yet ensurethat their children are exposed to these terms anywhere near thesame extent as hearing kids. Sign language can’t be easilyparallel processed (despite peripheral vision), i.e., if the child istruly looking elsewhere or distracted, he or she won’t absorb theterms. Early on, hearing parents aren’t as skilled as deaf parentsat communicating so that the juxtaposition of language andsituation is maintained (Spencer, 1998). Similarly, even if thechild begins to read speech and/or hears with aids, he or she isnot going to catch every use of these words the way a hearingchild would (Braden, 1994). Also, keep in mind that whilehearing children can benefit from overhearing spoken languageregardless of who is speaking, deaf children are often in thepresence of people who are not even attempting to communicatewith them effectively.

I asked myself why Shana’s learning had to be held back byher delayed pace of language development. I feared that herintense curiosity would be slowly extinguished. Moreover, as apsychologist evaluating deaf children, I frequently detectedbehavioral health problems attributable in part to theirimpoverished language development, particularly with respectto abstract concepts about time and causation. If a child wantssomething to occur and cannot understand any concept morespecific than “later,” his or her frustration will eventually lead topassive, impulsive, or aggressive behavior.

Incidental Learning Doesn’t Have to Be IncidentalI resolved to devise visual methods for my daughter and otherchildren to engage in “incidental” learning about abstractconcepts and background knowledge despite the impediment of

delayed language. IdevelopedInSIGHT VisualLearning Strategies,which are visuallybased techniquesthat can beimplemented byparents or teacherswithout elaboratetraining or specialmaterials. Thesetechniques afforddeaf children thesame benefithearing childrenderive fromincidental learning.For many years, I

have shared these techniques with parents in my psychologypractice and also presented workshops to early interventionprofessionals and teachers.

I applied these techniques to the abstract concepts of yesterday,today, and tomorrow, which are concepts of conventional time,i.e., systems of time that our culture has created and which onlyhave subjective definitions, making them difficult to teachdirectly (Friedman, 1978). Children generally learn theseconcepts through contextual experience accompanied or followedby spoken language. For example, research has demonstrated arelationship between mother-child conversations about futureevents and the development of young children's understandingof future time (Hudson, 2006).

In a nutshell, my approach creates simple, routineopportunities for exposure to readily available visual materialsthat represent a distinctive experience that the child hadyesterday or today or will have tomorrow, accompanied by youruse of the applicable spoken or signed word. These techniquesfor teaching time are based on two kinds of visual materials:photographs and calendars. Both types of materials lendthemselves to presenting pictorial sequences. The child learnsthe abstract concepts for time through repeated exposure tothese visual sequences, in a clear context, accompanied bylanguage referring to the abstract concepts of yesterday, today, andtomorrow.

PhotographsThis is the simpler of the two techniques, and the easiest toimplement. This technique also lends itself to collaboration withyour child’s early intervention or school program. It is based onan experience that differed (by design) yesterday from today, andwill differ tomorrow. You select the experience to photograph, orask your child’s teacher to photograph it. The experience couldbe one as simple as which color shirt your child wears. For

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example, if your child wore a blue shirtyesterday, is wearing a red shirt today, andyou ensure that he or she wears a yellowshirt tomorrow, the context will lead tolearning the concepts of yesterday, today,and tomorrow. Each time this technique isused, you would show your child one, two,or three photos, signing and/or speakingthe appropriate reference to time. Thecontext, in which the particular photocould only be of one of those days, willlead to learning. Incidental exposure tosuch concepts in context is how hearingchildren pick up these abstract concepts.

Materials needed:

• Digital camera and printer OR• Camera phone

How to use the photos:1. Select the type(s) of experience you want to use in the photos,

one your child would easily recognize. (See the list below forexamples.) Keep in mind that you need to ensure that theexperience will not be repeated over each of the three days, orthat it will vary enough to be very distinctive withoutadditional explanation or description. For example, if yourchild visited Santa Claus yesterday but your home is filledwith decorations that show Santa Claus, the visit would notbe a good experience to use.

2. Take photos yourself and/or ask your child’s teachers to sendphotos home.

3. Find a brief quiet time to sit with your child, showing thephoto(s) and signing/speaking the applicable time

designations: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Feel free to use onlyone or two, or even all three. For some children, bedtime isan appealing opportunity to look at these photos.

4. Repeat step 3 whenever you have another opportunity.

Examples of experiences to photograph:

• Clothes worn• Special events (pleasant or not)—party at school, in bed sick • Regular activities for fun—play activities at home• People—relatives, baby sitters, play dates• Foods eaten

CalendarVisual techniques can also be applied to more complex conceptssuch as sequence and organization. Your child can learn from thiscalendar even before mastering language skills—it is notnecessary to know spoken, written, or signed language, nor is itnecessary to know the days of the week or months of the year.Like the photos described above, this calendar is designedaround your child’s actual experiences.

Examples of what can be represented on the calendar:

• School days• Special events (pleasant or not)—party, in bed sick• Regular activities for fun—play activities at home,

playground, museums• Visits to the doctor or other appointments• People visiting or visited—relatives, baby sitters, play dates• Foods eaten and/or restaurants visited• Holidays• Clothes worn

Materials needed:

• Large blank office wall calendar, with large spaces for eachday and with pages that can be torn off easily—big enoughto see from across the room

• Colored markers to use for simple line drawings• Stickers representing various routine activities, special

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activities, medical appointments, holidays, interests (e.g.,favorite toys or foods)

• Brochures and magazine pictures of activities, restaurants,and other community landmarks that your child hasvisited or will visit—use logos, objects, signs

• Small photos cut out that show the faces of relatives andfriends

How to use the calendar:Try to prepare materials ahead of time in batches so that youcan use them promptly. Hang the calendar on a wall at yourchild’s eye level in a location where your child will see itfrequently, but also make sure that you can remove it easily towork on or to share with your child at a table or on the floor.Whenever you have an opportunity, refer to the pictures usingthe terms yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Try to make the calendara fairly regular part of your daily routine. If possible, encourageyour child to attach some pictures with your assistance. Evenafter the month has passed, save the calendar to enjoy later.

Once you get going, the calendar can be fun for your familyto maintain. Avoid approaching this activity with rigidexpectations of yourself:

• Do not concern yourself with neatness or artistic quality.• Do not worry about consistency in representing every

important event or in the way you represent something.• Do not worry if you skip some days.• Even if you don’t represent something ahead of time, you

can still do so after the fact.• Remember, this is not a calendar you are using for

scheduling.

When to Use these TechniquesThere is consensus among developmental psychologists that theunderstanding of time concepts (although not the telling oftime) typically develops between ages 3 to 6. Since the conceptsof yesterday, today, and tomorrow are learned incidentally, thetypical learning process takes place over a longer period thansome other concepts. In other words, it occurs through

extensive, frequent exposure to adults’ use of these terms incontext. Although most toddlers won’t develop mastery, theycan begin to learn the concepts. Unlike some other conceptssuch as truth, concepts of time do have some physical correlatesthat a toddler can absorb from context even though a verbalexplanation would typically be too convoluted. Since theobjective of my techniques is to compensate in part forinsufficient incidental exposure, it is advisable to begin as early asthe child is capable of briefly attending to the visuals. However,remember, it is never too late to start.

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References

Braden, J. P. (1994). Deafness, deprivation, and IQ. NewYork: Plenum Press.

Calderon, R., & Greenberg, M. T. (2003). Social andemotional development of deaf children: Family, school,and program effects. In M. Marschark & P. E. Spencer(Eds.), Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, andeducation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Friedman, W. (1978). Development of time concepts inchildren. In H. W. Reese & L. P. Lipsitt (Eds.), Advances inchild development and behaviour (Vol.12). New York:Academic Press.

Hudson, J. A. (2006). The development of future timeconcepts through mother-child conversation. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(1), 70-95.

Levy, E., & Nelson, K. (1994). Words in discourse: Adialectical approach to the acquisition of meaning and use.Journal of Child Language, 21, 367-389.

Marschark, M. (2000). Education and development of deafchildren. In P. E. Spencer, C. J. Erting, & M. Marschark(Eds.), The deaf child in the family and at school: Essays inhonor of Kathryn P. Meadow-Orlans. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Snow, C. E., Scarborough, H. S., & Burns, M. S. (1999).What speech-language pathologists need to know aboutearly reading. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(1), 48-58.

Spencer, P. (1998). Making every sign count. Perspectives,17(2).

ResourceHyerle, D. (1996). Visual tools for constructing knowledge.Alexandria, VA: Association for Curriculum andDevelopment.

Source for MaterialsDover Catalogue is a good source for stickers.

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I hope you have found this Odyssey issue informative and helpful. As anative Deaf person, long-time educator, and parent of three deaf children,I must say this issue and what is increasingly happening in theindispensable and critical field of early intervention and involvement is acause for serious optimism and hope. As important and far-reaching as aquality K-12 education in which there are high expectations for the deafchild who is also allowed to be an active, involved participant in thelearning process in and out of the classroom is, schools simply cannot dothe job alone and we cannot wait until the deaf child enters school.

The authors’ information about their challenges and successes is a clearsignal that the entire field of education of the deaf is increasingly taking amuch-needed and long overdue unified, comprehensive approach to thenormal development and education of the deaf child as a whole personand a full-fledged human being. There simply is no other way than forschools, agencies, and deaf role models to truly partner with the infant’sfirst and ongoing teachers and environment—the home and his or herparents and family—if we are ever to reverse the historic under-achievement of the deaf child’s human potential.

It is widely understood that to be social and communal are not onlyattributes that are distinctly human but they are also vital for the normaland quality development of every child. Research shows that, more thananything else, we learn and develop when we have genuine access tocommunication and language as we interact and are connected with adiversity of people in our environment. There are quality, frequency,spontaneity, duration, diversity, and reciprocity factors of theseinteractions that must be expected and provided by parents, teachers, andother critical players in the progression of the deaf child’s life as an infantfrom home through his or her years at school. As the authors of this issuehave shared, we are taking huge steps in getting today’s and tomorrow’sdeaf child off to a running start.

On behalf of today’s and tomorrow’s deaf infants and children, I want toexpress my profound appreciation and gratitude to the Laurent ClercNational Deaf Education Center and Gallaudet University for makingthis issue and its articles possible, and to the authors and their schoolsand programs for implementing and sharing meaningful and forward-moving strategies.

Onward to us creating and maximizing possibilities for our mostprecious human resource—our children—in the years ahead!

With much appreciation and hope,—Ronald J. Stern

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Ronald J. Sternis the superintendentof the New MexicoSchool for the Deaf.He is also thepresident of theConference ofEducationalAdministrators ofSchools and Programsfor the Deaf (CEASD).

LETTER FROM THE CEASD PRESIDENT

During the summer of 2010,Kendall DemonstrationElementary School (KDES)students began learning toplay tennis through acollaboration with the CapitalRegion Education And TennisExperience (CREATE) tennisorganization. One result oftheir participation in the sportwas an invitation to aQuickStart Tennis clinic on theSouth Lawn of the WhiteHouse, an event designed tosupport First Lady MichelleObama’s Let’s Move! initiativeto increase awareness and takepreventive actions againstchildhood obesity.

The KDES students receivedanother happy surprise duringthe event. President Obamagreeted the participants andgave words of encouragementto continue staying active, andKDES students and staff got toshake his hand.

CLERC CENTER NEWS

ODYSSEY 201160

KDES Students Play Tennis on White House Lawn

Artist-in-Residence Touches Livesof Clerc Center StudentsKendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) and Model Secondary School forthe Deaf (MSSD) students were fortunate to have Chuck Baird, a well-known Deafartist and one of the founders of the De’VIA (Deaf View/Image Art) movement, cometo the Clerc Center for several weeks in the fall of 2010 to serve as artist-in-residence.

KDES and MSSD students learned from Baird that Deaf art is created when theartist intends to express his or her Deaf experience through visual art. During Baird’stime at KDES, students created visual artwork with American Sign Language (ASL)elements as well as ASL haikus. They also saw artistic genius at work when theyobserved Baird work on art installations he created at KDES and MSSD. At MSSD,students enthusiastically contributed ideas for the art installations that Baird wasplanning and participated in the creation of an outdoor installation entitled ASLPride. A grand unveiling of Baird’s new installations took place in early 2011.

Through this residency, KDES and MSSD students gained a new understanding ofhow art and culture are connected and hands-on experience in using art to expresstheir perspectives on their culture.

The Clerc Center thanks Baird for giving all the students this valuable creativeopportunity.

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CLERC CENTER NEWS

New Clerc Center Publications andProductsThe Clerc Center has several newproducts and publications available.

• Frequently Asked Questions:ASL/English Bilingual Programmingand Early Childhood Education is apublication that answers manycommon questions about bilingualprogramming during the earlychildhood years.

• Your Child Has a Cochlear Implant:Why Include Sign Language? is apublication that provides an in-depthlook at the importance of includingsign language in the repertoire ofcommunication opportunities forchildren with cochlear implants.

• The Shared Reading Project Libraryhas a new book bag series. Ten bookbags featuring Curious Georgestories are now available.

• The 15 Principles for Reading toDeaf Children, which offersexplanations of strategies that deafadults use when reading to deafchildren, is now available as a seriesof ASL videos.

• A new on-line course, Literacy—ItAll Connects, which covers nineareas of literacy that create acomprehensive approach to literacylearning, is coming soon.

• National Outreach Resources, anon-line site for outreach providers toshare resources to use with bothfamilies and professionals who workwith deaf and hard of hearingstudents, will be available on theClerc Center website in the summerof 2011.

Visit http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu tocheck out these publications, products,and more!

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MSSD Academic Bowl Team Takes Third Place inNational CompetitionSeventy-eight schools and programs serving deaf and hard of hearinghigh school students across the nation sent their academic stars tocompete in the 15th Gallaudet University National Academic Bowlfrom March 4-8. The MSSD team went undefeated until thesemifinals, finishing in third place with a 19-1 record.

The Clerc Center congratulates the MSSD students who did a terrificjob of representing their school—Ryan Baldiviez, Lauren Berger,Ray McCall, and Brendan Terhune-Cotter—and thanks coachesSara Stallard and Dana Sipek for their contribution.

Visit http://ab.gallaudet.edu to learn more about the Academic Bowl.

2011 ODYSSEY 61

Above: Gallaudet provost Stephen Weiner (far left) and president T. Alan

Hurwitz (far right) congratulate the MSSD Academic Bowl team.

CLERC CENTER NEWS

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The Clerc Center invited Maryland School for the Deaf(MSD) students to join students from KendallDemonstration Elementary School (KDES) for a foodsafety camp provided by the USDA’s Food Safety andInspection Services on the KDES campus. Through funand interactive demonstrations, the students learned thefour cardinal rules of food safety:

• Clean—Wash hands and surfaces often.• Separate—Don’t cross-contaminate. Keep raw meat

and poultry apart from cooked food.• Cook—Use a food thermometer to be sure meat and

poultry are safely cooked.• Chill—Refrigerate or freeze promptly.

Seeing isbelieving, and themessage hit homewhen studentsexplored a specialkitchen whereunder glowingpurple “blacklight” they couldsee germs that arenormally invisibleto the eye. Germswere everywhereon the walls andcounter surfaces.With some magicdusting powder,students couldeven see germs ontheir own hands.

To learn moreabout the USDAFood SafetyDiscovery ZoneMobile and whenit may come to alocation near you,visitwww.fsis.usda.gov.

Successful Year in Sports forKDES and MSSD Students

Athletic Director Recognized for Leadership

Under the leadership of athletic director Mark Burke andwith an outstanding staff, KDES and MSSD have had asuccessful year in sports. In October, the MSSD football teamwas featured on a CBS News broadcast in a segmenthighlighting communication strategies used when playingagainst schools for the deaf vs. playing against schools withhearing players. In January, the MSSD wrestling team tookthird place at the National Deaf Prep Duals Tournament aweek before the MSSD cheerleaders brought home the ClercClassic XI trophy. More recently, the KDES girls and boysbasketball teams each captured the Tri-State championshiptrophies. This spring the rugby team that Burke founded andcoaches will begin its third year of play.

Burke recently earned two honors for his contributions asathletic director and head football coach. In November,Burke was recognized for his contributions to the youthsports community with the prestigious Pollin Award,awarded at center court during halftime at the WashingtonWizards vs. Philadelphia 76ers game. The Pollin Award,named for long-time Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin,was created to honor those individuals who show outstandingdedication to their community. In December, Burke wasnominated by the Redskins for the Coach Shula Award,newly created by the National Football League (NFL) tohonor football coaches who display the integrity andleadership exemplified by Don Shula, the coach with themost wins in NFL history.

The Clerc Center thanks Burke and his staff for the athleticsuccesses of our students.

Clerc Center HostsFood Safety Event

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Above: Clerc Center athletic director Mark Burke is honored with the

Pollin Award during halftime at the Washington Wizards vs. Philadelphia

76ers game.

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New Resources Comingin 2012-2013

The Clerc Center, in collaboration with stakeholders from acrossthe nation and using public input collected from families andprofessionals working with deaf and hard of hearing students,developed a strategic plan in 2009 designed to help meet the criti-cal needs raised by these families and professionals. This strategicplan will guide the Clerc Center’s work through 2012 and result inthe dissemination of several new resources in four target areas:

ASL Content StandardsThe Clerc Center has awarded a contract for the development ofASL content standards and benchmarks for grades K-12 to aconsortium of researchers and educators from several universitiesand schools. The target date for nationwide dissemination of thestandards is early 2013.

Students with DisabilitiesAn action plan team at the Clerc Center conducted a broad searchfor resources for students with disabilities and carefully reviewedeach resource. Resources selected for dissemination will undergo afurther review and development process. Dissemination of thoseresources is expected by 2012.

Early InterventionAn action plan team at the Clerc Center identified evidence-basedfactors that positively impact linguistic competence in youngdeaf and hard of hearing children through a review of theresearch. These factors are essential components in resources andprograms for deaf and hard of hearing students. The team willnext identify programs that are using these components inpractice to support the development of linguistic competence tolearn about the strategies they use. By 2012 the team willdisseminate evidence-based strategies for early interventionservice delivery.

Family and Professional ResourcesAn action plan team at the Clerc Center established criteria forthe review of resources for families and professionals that supportthe development of linguistic competence. The goal is to identifyand disseminate resources for service providers and families thatsupport the development of linguistic competence for deaf andhard of hearing students from birth through 21 years of age.Dissemination of those resources is expected by 2012.

The Clerc Center continues to share periodic updates and informstakeholders when each of these resources becomes available. To signup to receive electronic updates from the Clerc Center, e-mailclerc.center@gallaudet.edu and ask to be added to the distribution list.

June 19-22National Conference onStudent Assessment:“Next GenerationLearners: Who Are Theyand What Are TheirNeeds?,” Orlando, Fla. Tobe held at the PeabodyOrlando. For moreinformation:www.ccsso.org/ncsa.html.

June 20-242011 Convention ofAmerican Instructors ofthe Deaf (CAID) NationalConference: “TeachingDigital Students:Fostering Thinking,Collaboration, andCreativity,” Dallas/FortWorth, Tex. To be held at theDallas/Fort Worth MarriottHotel & Golf Club atChampions Circle. For moreinformation: www.caidconference.org/2011.

June 22-2622nd Biennial AmericanSociety for Deaf ChildrenConference: “ParentChoices: Key To YourChild’s Future,” Frederick,Md. To be held at theMaryland School for the Deaf-Frederick. For moreinformation:www.deafchildren.org.

June 22-266th Triennial NationalAsian Deaf CongressConference:“Reconnecting theBeautiful Traditions ofOur Asian Multi-CulturalHeritage and the Value ofModern CulturalExperiences,” New York,N.Y. This conference is hosted

by the Metropolitan AsianDeaf Association. For moreinformation: http://www.nadc-usa.org.

June 23-28American LibraryAssociation AnnualConference & Exhibition,New Orleans, La. To be held atthe Ernest N. MorialConvention Center. For moreinformation: www.ala.org.

June 24-27National OutreachConference: “WorkingSmarter by WorkingTogether,” Washington,D.C. This conference is hostedby Gallaudet University. Formore information: Lisa.Jacobs@gallaudet.edu or Diana.Poeppelmeyer@tsd.state. tx.us.

June 28-July 36th Biennial NationalProfessionalDevelopment Conferenceof ASLTA: “ASL Now!Teaching to the NextLevel,” Seattle, Wash. To beheld at the Renaissance SeattleHotel. For more information:www.aslta.org.

June 29-July 3Jewish Deaf CongressConference 2011,Orlando, Fla. To be held at theOrlando World MarriottResort. For more information:www.jewishdeafcongress.org.

July 11-12Mid-west Conference onDeaf Education, Sioux Falls,S.D. To be held at theAugustana College MadsenCenter. For more information:www.augie.edu.

July 26-312011 National BlackDeaf AdvocatesConference:“Overcoming Today’sChanging World:Changes We Need toReinforce a BetterTomorrow,” Charlotte, N.C.To be held at the HiltonCharlotte City Center. Formore information:www.nbda.org.

September 22-2416th Annual Conferenceon Advancing SchoolMental Health: “SchoolMental Health:Achieving StudentSuccess through Family,School, and CommunityPartnerships,” Charleston,S.C. To be held at theCharleston Area ConventionCenter. This conference issponsored by the Center forSchool Mental Health and theIDEA Partnership (funded bythe Office of SpecialEducation Programs,sponsored by the NationalAssociation of State Directorsof Special Education). Formore information:www.thesociety.org.

October 15-1941st Southeast RegionalInstitute on DeafnessConference: “FabulousAfter 40!,” Montgomery,Ala. To be held at theRenaissance Montgomery

Hotel and Spa. For moreinformation: www.serid.org.

October 20-2132nd Annual FallConference onMainstreaming Studentswith Hearing Loss: “TheLiteracy Puzzle,”Sponsored by Clarke Schoolsfor Hearing and Speech. Formore information:www.clarkeschools.org.

October 28-30103rd National RuralEducation AssociationConvention, Hilton HeadIsland, S.C. To be held at theWestin Hilton Head IslandResort and Spa. For moreinformation: www.nrea.net.

November 17-192011 ASHA Convention:“Beacons of Inspiration:Innovation to Action,”San Diego, Calif. To be held atthe San Diego ConventionCenter. For more information:www.asha.org.

November 17-19Division for EarlyChildhood 2011: The27th AnnualInternationalConference on YoungChildren with SpecialNeeds and TheirFamilies, National Harbor,Md. For more information:http://www.dec-sped.org.

CALENDAR

Upcoming Conferences

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Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education CenterGallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002-3695

Address Service RequestedNon-Profit

OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 9452Washington, DC

Eco awareness: Odyssey magazine isprinted on recycled paper using soy ink.