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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Sometimes I wonder

OK so I don't know if I have told you guys about my little sister Elizabeth or not so here goes. Elizabeth has two cochlear implants so she can hear. She was born completely deaf and it was me and my mom's decision for her to get the implants. Let me say that first off Elizabeth and Ronald are adopted, they have the same mom but two different dads. Anyways I explained that in one of my May posts. OK so I know my thoughts are all over the place here but please bear with me. We have had a long journey to get to the point that are at today. Elizabeth didn't talk for a long time and not only did she not talk but she didn't sign either. Well anyways every summer since she has been in school she goes to a summer program designed for hard of hearing children so they can get speech therapy and not loose vocabulary and other things during the time off. Well this year she is in a class where there are autistic, down syndrome and totally deaf children. I am not saying anything bad about those kids but when my mom calls and tells me that her teacher is yelling at her friend Ntinos (whom we have know since preschool ~ they went to the only preschool here in North Carolina designed for children with cochlear implants) and signing to Elizabeth all day and not talking I have to take a stand. I do not understand the school system thinking that all these children need to be together, how are they supposed to learn anything with chaos like that. I forgot to mention that we don't sign to Elizabeth anymore because she is talking so well and her speech therapist advised us not to. When you have a cochlear implant you have to learn to listen to the word and not a picture or sign, because how would she know what to say if she had always looked at a picture and not listened to the sound of the word. Anyways my mom is going to observe the class to see if she needs to be pulled out. I mean the children that have the implants are mainstreamed anyway , their not with the special needs children so why are they with them now. Oh I know because the school system sucks and doesn't want to pay another teacher to come in and teach the hard of hearing kids by themselves. I have nothing against special needs children because my sister does have a special need , I am just saying why not separate the kids so they can ALL learn something this summer. Because I know my Lizzie if she is confused or nervous about something she will breakdown and not talk and I do not want that for her.

2 comments:

Grace said...

I could leave you a mile long comment on this topic but the bottom line is if your sister has an IEP or a 504 plan,she has rights. I have gone through allot with my oldest son and his developmental delay-as far as school goes. Is it just like this for the summer? Are there any state funded camps,Can your mom go through her private insurance company?

***I made my photo at photobucket***

Crystal said...

Hi friend! For the swap can you email me your email address at

ricracandpompoms@gmail.com

Thanks! :)

P.S. As a social worker...don't even get me started on how much the school system sucks...glad to hear that you and your mom are on top of things. :)