Tracy E. Cohen is currently the owner of an educational advocacy agency. (T.Cohen, personal communication, January 26, 2016) However, prior to beginning her company she was a teacher for 20 years working in the field of special education with a specialty in working with children with communication disorders. Mrs. Cohen started the hearing impaired program at Maple Avenue Elementary school. It was the first program for hearing impaired or hearing disabled individuals in the Claremont school district. It began in response to a need expressed by a parent who had a hearing impaired child in the preschool program and wished to keep their child in the district for that child’s elementary career. (Please note: Mrs. Cohen refrained from explaining any of the children’s disabilities as she wished to maintain the confidentiality of her former students)
An advertisement seeking a part time teacher fluent in signed exact English originally brought Mrs. Cohen to the school district. Although not fluent in signed exact English (SEE) she was fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) as well as having her master’s degree in special education. The original thought behind hiring Mrs. Cohen was for her to work individually with this student to tutor this student in sign language. She was to work with this student approximately 4 hours per week.
As she began her work with the child in the program, Mrs. Cohen came across several challenges. First, she realized, in order to become fluent in the language the child would need others with whom to practice. Second, due to his hearing impairment this child was missing a great deal of what was happening in the classroom, not just due to a lack of language, but surrounding the entire incidental learning that occurs for hearing individuals versus hearing impaired or deaf individuals. Third, the child would soon begin kindergarten, a language rich environment, and there needed to be a better plan or program in place.
As a member of this student’s IEP (individualized education plan) team, Mrs. Cohen expressed these concerns to this student’s parents, specialists and the administration. She was asked for suggestions as to how the student could be kept in the mainstream classroom and best served. She proposed a program be devised to meet this student’s needs that would include the following:
Individual instruction in sign language for the student
A 2 hour training with a local agency on working with hearing impaired and deaf students
Resource room instruction in reading to address the special language acquisition needs for this student and to use a more appropriate program as a phonics based approach would not work
An interpreter in the classroom to address this student’s needs and to begin to change the school culture to one that was fully inclusive of sign language amongst the student body
Social skills groups 3-5 times a week in speech and guidance to encourage relationships between this student and the student’s peers, as this is usually a challenge for hearing impaired and deaf children
An intensive speech/language intervention support schedule to address not just speech, but the many missing elements that occur in language when working with hearing impaired individuals (sequencing, idiomatic language, etc.)
As it became known this school district was “meeting the needs” of hearing impaired students, two other students with hearing impairments were enrolled in the school. One child lived in district and another child was a tuition student from another district who found it more expedient to have their student placed in this growing program. There were and remain few programs for students with hearing impairments and hearing disabilities in this particular area and school districts seek how to serve this population economically.
In addition, there was no paid training to provide sign instruction for the staff. It was felt that individual paraprofessionals could help provide the answer. Each child was assigned a paraprofessional who had basic sign (not fluency) and would work in the mainstream classroom with the child to whom they had been assigned. It was hoped, in time, the paraprofessionals would “pick up” sign language as it was taught through reading and math instruction by Mrs. Cohen. Individual interpreters were not addressed as recommended.
All staff working with the students did undergo the recommended 2 hour training which assisted them in strategies to use in working with hearing impaired individuals, how to read an audiogram, using technology for auditory support (ex: FM unit). Social Skills groups were decided to occur twice a week during lunch and although these students received speech and language services it was not at the level recommended.
The hearing impaired program lasted 4 years at Maple Avenue School. In that time the students received an alternative curriculum for reading and math, delivered in sign language, classroom support from paraprofessionals versed in basic sign language, technological support in the form of FM units and closed captioning when applicable, interpreter services at school events provided by Mrs. Cohen and social skills training twice a week to foster peer interactions.
When asked if she felt the program had been a success, Mrs. Cohen felt there were pros and cons to the program. A serious drawback, according to her, was the lack of consistency in the program. Due to running not just this program, but a year later, working with autistic students and running the resource room program, Mrs. Cohen’s efforts were divided among many students, instead of concentrated on the students in the hearing impaired program. In addition, to save costs, many of her initial recommendations were modified or discarded, so the program was not implemented as she had envisioned.
When asked what was the biggest lesson she learned from the process Mrs. Cohen answered with the following: “A program like this needs to have a full team approach and a great deal of preparation. We were building the airplane while we were flying it. I was the only person on the team who was qualified to work with hearing impaired and deaf individuals. When I left the program, there were no qualified individuals to continue the work and the program fell apart. I needed to leave to accomplish other goals in my life, but I still felt like I had let those kids down. “
According to Mrs. Cohen, upon her departure one student was placed in a resource room program with no sign support, the tuitioned student returned to their home district and the remaining child was given a classroom “interpreter” in a mainstream class. The hearing impaired program ceased at Maple Avenue since it was built around her skill set.
It would seem there are a number of lessons to learn from my interview with Mrs. Cohen. First, if you have asked a professional for recommendations, ignoring those recommendations when starting a program means it will not be the program envisioned. An administrator has to be certain there is money for training and appropriate personnel per the program’s recommendations for success. It was also clear that a narrow focus is important. A new program needs a lot of support and spreading staff too thin will ensure it does not succeed because it will not receive the attention required.
Finally, as Mrs. Cohen said, investing in a new program based on the skills of one individual will ensure a program’s failure. Whether individuals retire, change professions or die, a program based on the skill set of a single person means the program ends upon that person’s departure from the program. This isn’t a sound educational practice for the students, the school community or the families invested in the program.
