Residential school for young kids/adoption

S

Sweetiepea77

New Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Hello... I'm new here and am looking for information. I'm a new adoptive mom (hearing) to a HOH son. He is 4 years old with no oral language or ASL. We have begun to teach him ASL but he is catching on slowly. We are using Signing Time DVDs.

We live in Alabama and have a residential deaf school quite far from our home but they send buses and he could easily go there... But would need to live there. All of this is new to me and its hard for me to even think of sending him away for three weeks at a time, especially so young and not even established in our family yet. From what I've read here, deaf school may be his best option, and I want to do what is best for him. I was thinking to homeschool him awhile and just take ASL classes and be involved with the deaf community in our area... We have 6 children and extended family nearby... Moving close to the school isn't a realistic option.

When is the best age to look into this option, especially considering he is newly adopted at age 4?
 
Aren't there regional dhh programs/ dhh preschools where you live? I would look into those to give your kid a good solid base, until he is old enough to live at school. I know we're all supporters of Deaf School here, but residental placement for a small child is extremely extremely tricky. It should be avoided if possible. There are SOME cases where it MIGHT be a good idea (say the kid is in the foster care system already and there's no ASL fluent parents, the kid is from a very dangerous area or extremely rural area where there are not good schools, much less good dhh services and so on) But overall kids should wait until they are older (at least 8 plus or even better fourth grade and up) for res school.
It's super rare for little kids to be in the dorms nowadays.....its even rare for young elementary schoolers to be in the dorms.
Homeschool/local regional program your son first.......It's hard b/c at this point you're not fluent in ASL yet. I know of a hearing parent who is homeschooling her deaf teen boy, but she is fluent in ASL.... Are there any local Deafies who could serve as a Sign mentor/teacher?
 
Thank you for responding... That makes me feel a lot better about it There is a regional office but they haven't responded to my inquiry yet. We are still in my sons country of origin (Spanish speaking) and will not return to the states for another couple of months. I am not sure if they have an actual deaf preschool with the regional office. I know that the public school is going to evaluate him for services and he may qualify for preschool there. I have a lot to learn!
 
I would say the most important thing is you learning how to sign, and establishing a strong connection with him in a home where he is loved and cared for.

I don't think it's a good idea to send this child away to a residential school. Get in contact with the school district in which you'll be living. They likely have a placement for DHH students local to where you are.

Since you are still out of the country, it might be a good idea to contact your state's school for the deaf to see if they might be able to offer ASL tutoring via Skype/web cam.

This little boy needs to establish some language skills, but equally important is his ability to feel safe and loved.

Good luck!
 
Sweetiepea77 said:
Hello... I'm new here and am looking for information. I'm a new adoptive mom (hearing) to a HOH son. He is 4 years old with no oral language or ASL. We have begun to teach him ASL but he is catching on slowly. We are using Signing Time DVDs.

We live in Alabama and have a residential deaf school quite far from our home but they send buses and he could easily go there... But would need to live there. All of this is new to me and its hard for me to even think of sending him away for three weeks at a time, especially so young and not even established in our family yet. From what I've read here, deaf school may be his best option, and I want to do what is best for him. I was thinking to homeschool him awhile and just take ASL classes and be involved with the deaf community in our area... We have 6 children and extended family nearby... Moving close to the school isn't a realistic option.

When is the best age to look into this option, especially considering he is newly adopted at age 4?
Click to expand...

ASD offers preschool program and your son may not start kindergarten until he turns 5 years old by September.

If you are from Birmingham or Montgomery, the bus will come every Friday afternoon.

Every 3 weeks are closed weekend - all students go home.

The interpreters can be pretty scarce in local school, even I have same problem with my university - they have a hard time to find an interpreter.
 
Sweetiepea77 said:
Foxrac we are in Huntsville area. He turned 4 in March.
Click to expand...

Ok, for every Friday, there is bus come to Birmingham and Gadsden so you can drive to two cities of your choice to pick them up. Gadsden is more closer to Huntsville (you will save around 30 miles) but it has same time because speed limit from Gadsden to Huntsville is lower than Birmingham to Huntsville (I-65/I-565).

If you are from Huntsville city limit, they should have program for deaf/HoH students, you can send them to their school until they are old enough to send to deaf school.

Beside preschool, I'm not sure about how good is local school in Huntsville for elementary school. It is very important that your son get a good education and not get behind. I have seen some deaf people are very behind due to bad program in their local school, before they sent to ASD.
 
Csign- I agree. I could not wrap my head around the idea of sending a small child away to a residential school and I'm glad i don't need to! When I talked to the local public school before we came here to adopt him, they would only tell me that he would have to be evaluated before they could give me any information. Because it is now summer... It's very hard to get any information at all. They had only mentioned speech therapy and the possibility of 5-day preschool and said nothing about ASL or interpreters. None of my kids use the public school so this is my first experience with them.

We were told our son was using hearing aids but when they brought him to us, he didn't have any and they said he had broken them. We were not given any hearing tests so we have no idea how much hearing he has. He can definitely dance to the beat of music and sometimes it seems like he cannot hear me at all and other times he does seem to hear and can follow directions.

He is precious and I just want to give him the best opportunities available... And I know being a part of a loving family is a big part of that. There is just so much information... And a lot is conflicting so it just makes it that much harder.
 
Foxrac we are on the Owens Cross Roads side of the city but are zoned for Huntsville City schools. I do NOT want to mainstream him as our other children are not in public schools either, but we are considering the public preschool option bc he is SO far behind due to neglect issues and institutionalization. He knows the signs for eat and water and more. He mimics the other signs we teach him as well, but he doesn't use them to communicate... His communication has always been pointing and pulling toward what he wants.

I could definitely pick him up every Friday but at what age would being away from home for a week at a time be a good idea? It's such a foreign concept to me.
 
Since he is 4, he is still eligible for earky intervention. It depends on your location the type of program they will have, but a signing and/or Total Communication environment (there is more to the TC philosophy, but essentially voice and sign at the same time) should be available.

Obviously you'll need to get his hearing tested to supply to the district, but he will definitely be eligible for services if he is DHH.

When he gets older and if he is placed in a mainstream environment, he will be entitled to an interpreter.
 
We have recognized several sensory processing disorders with him. Do you think his hearing issues could only be APD and not DHH or would he have language with APD only? I've seen it mentioned in the forums and since we don't have access to much right now I'm just trying to piece what I can through our own experiences with him.
 
Sweetiepea77 said:
Foxrac we are on the Owens Cross Roads side of the city but are zoned for Huntsville City schools. I do NOT want to mainstream him as our other children are not in public schools either, but we are considering the public preschool option bc he is SO far behind due to neglect issues and institutionalization. He knows the signs for eat and water and more. He mimics the other signs we teach him as well, but he doesn't use them to communicate... His communication has always been pointing and pulling toward what he wants.

I could definitely pick him up every Friday but at what age would being away from home for a week at a time be a good idea? It's such a foreign concept to me.
Click to expand...

It looks like your son will get a lot of help and your son will probably learn more faster at ASD. The preschool program at local school could be mixed result - some are good, some are ok, some are bad. If you consider preschool program at local school, ask school admin to give a special attention to your son and make sure that his needs are met.

ASD has speech therapy as well, with hearing aids, your son could try to learn some of oral language, along with ASL. It will be little more challenged because your son is 4 years old now and it is little more late, but after 6 years old will be more difficult. The result are pretty varies and some HoH people have very little or no oral language.

Yes, there are some foreign concept at ASD, they have still school day on holiday, such as Veteran Day, MLK Day and Memorial Day but they have closed weekend every 3 weeks like you said. I remember about some children about same age as your son attend at ASD for preschool.
 
CSign said:
Since he is 4, he is still eligible for earky intervention. It depends on your location the type of program they will have, but a signing and/or Total Communication environment (there is more to the TC philosophy, but essentially voice and sign at the same time) should be available.

Obviously you'll need to get his hearing tested to supply to the district, but he will definitely be eligible for services if he is DHH.

When he gets older and if he is placed in a mainstream environment, he will be entitled to an interpreter.
Click to expand...

In Alabama, find the interpreters are very challenged and some students are sent to deaf school after local school had difficult to find an interpreter. In worst case, some local school took interpreters away from college that put deaf college students into scramble to find the alternative that may be unsuitable for them.
 
Sweetiepea77 said:
Foxrac we are on the Owens Cross Roads side of the city but are zoned for Huntsville City schools. I do NOT want to mainstream him as our other children are not in public schools either, but we are considering the public preschool option bc he is SO far behind due to neglect issues and institutionalization. He knows the signs for eat and water and more. He mimics the other signs we teach him as well, but he doesn't use them to communicate... His communication has always been pointing and pulling toward what he wants.

I could definitely pick him up every Friday but at what age would being away from home for a week at a time be a good idea? It's such a foreign concept to me.
Click to expand...

I do think that parents of homeschooler dhh or otherwise special needs kids REALLY need to supplement with the specialized resources, schools etc that are available. The specialized resources that they need are too hard to do it on your own....(except with mentally disabled kids and then you can simply pace the curriculum to their needs) Hopefully there will be a local dhh preschool/kindergarten and even early elementary school program that you can take advantage of.
Very small children should not attend res school unless there are extremely rare circumstances....
 
Back
Top