A New School Year

Excuse my 2 week absence, for much has been happening on the home front! First and foremost, we are in the full swing of things for the new school year. Skylar's school schedule was up in the air, even after the official start of the year, because we had to have our annual meeting with her educational team before deciding on services. The big decision was whether to try a specialized classroom, with other deaf and hard of hearing kids, for part of the week, or stick with Montessori, enhanced with consultation services, speech therapy, and new technology.

Over the course of two 2+ hour team meetings, we settled on the latter. The tradeoffs are significant: DHH classroom is free (state funded), the ratio is about 2:1 (kids:teachers), the room is ideally set up for acoustics and technology (hearing aids, CI's, FM systems, and sound field amplification), total language-focused curriculum, and a wonderful teacher. And, importantly, the other kids share something very significant with Skylar - they are deaf or hard of hearing.

The benefits of Montessori that made us choose to stay there: an established community that Skylar loves and which includes her twin sister; her language progress there over the past 13 months has been impressive; the location and outdoor garden playground are superior; we appreciate and have seen the benefits of the Montessori method in both Skylar and Paige; and, we could switch DHH teachers to the one who actually teaches the DHH class, she would just work with Skylar and her teachers outside the hours her class meets. This last benefit was ultimately the thing that swung me to staying with Montessori.

Since making the switch, it has become obvious that the last 6 months or so have been difficult because we had the wrong match in a DHH teacher. Our new teacher is kicking *ss and making changes in a friendly, diplomatic way that was impossible to get from our old assigned teacher.

Nothing against her - in fact she was exactly what we needed when we first received S's diagnosis. A fierce advocate, a righteous deaf culture CODA (child of deaf adults), she understood the emotional whammy we were dealing with and helped us know it would be okay. Some of the things she taught us in the first few months, in fact, were re-emphasized in the JTC summer program - we just weren't ready to learn them in the beginning.

The new team is excited to do everything possible to help Skylar succeed. Even the previously-unwilling-to-make-special-accommodations Montessori teacher is wearing a boom microphone that transmits her voice directly to Skylar's hearing aids via tiny snap-on receivers. This FM system is the bomb chicken of hard of hearing technology - it elevates spoken instructions above background noise (a bugger of a problem in her classroom) and overcomes distance from the teacher (Skylar's optimum hearing range is 0-6 feet).

The teacher simply wears the headset microphone (there's nothing to it - Vogue!), and attaches the transmitter, which is the size of a flip phone, to her pocket or belt, and mutes it when she isn't speaking to Skylar individually or in a group. The team has even used it in the huge multi-purpose room during music class, and in both settings report immediate improved response from Miss Skylar. She is attentive, razor-sharp, eager to learn, and quite compliant - when she can hear you!! I'm very optimistic about the school year.

In other news, both girls had dentist appointments last week, and did phenomenally well. Paige sat through a full cleaning and fluoride treatment, then doctor check, including air being blown on a suspicious spot - with patience and grace. Her whole body fit on the upper portion of the dental chair when reclined. Hee hee.

Sky sat through four fillings, poor girl - she has extra-deep grooves in her teeth, making nice little holes for the sugar bugs. She did it with no anesthetic - just a little nitrous gas. The dentist was super quick with the drill, and they have a strict no pressure policy - they will not cajole or force a child to lie down or do anything else. She got through it on her second visit following the consultation. Phew!

So, happy fall to everyone. We're off to a great start!