Yes! As long as they have some formal instruction, they don't need constant speech therapy. They can simply learn by soaking it up. Kids do not need formal schooling/instruction 24/7! Heck....my best friend was unschooled and she's one of the smartest people I know!
And Faire_jour........it's awesome that Miss Kat is doing well orally so far. I think what most of us are trying to say is that it's very common for kids to do decently in the early grades. That does not mean that a kid will develop sophisticated enough oral abilty to continue doing very well. In fact isn't it common for kids with oral abilty/skills to use a 'terp (not an oral 'terp) in school? (b/c it's harder for them to learn in group situtions then it is to learn one on one)
Hearing parents may want their dhh kids to be 100% fluent with no delays with spoken language..............but the question is whether that's possible for all dhh kids, rather then only a small group?
Most kids will be able to develop oral abilty and skills...........but the question is whether they'll be able to function with those skills on a par with hearing people.
Given that even a lot of the academic or oral superstars have social-emoitional pragmatic language issues, I would say it's a rare event that spoken language 100% equalizes dhh kids.
Kat will have the abilty to function OK and it's great that she's doing awesome now....Just be VERY careful in thinking that means sucess down the line, when things get harder.
And shel....that's awesome that there are 20 more new students! Heck that's a BIG number for a lot of schools! Hopefully they'll catch up and do well and their parents will think " Why did we wait so long to enroll them in a deaf school?"[/QUOTE]
In the 8 years I have worked at the deaf school, I have had parents tell me the exact same thing over and over again. At first, I thought it was cool..now, it is like I ask them "Why dont YOU go out in the community and tell them that! " One parent of a pre-k is alredy going out in one city to advocate for the deaf school and deaf children because her granddaughter is thriving in our program. I think she was the big reason for the 20 plus kids transferring to our program this year. We need MORE parents like her. Deaf people do advocate but as it has been stated before, hearing people tend not to listen to deaf people most of the time.