Miss-Delectable
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What's it like to be deaf? :: Currents :: PIONEER PRESS :: Cary-Grove Countryside
The learning station was about being deaf, and one little girl wanted to know how deaf people learn to talk.
The teacher, 26-year-old Mary Ryan, a certified teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, told the child that to learn to speak, deaf people feel the throats of their teachers while they are speaking. They also watch their teachers lips as they talk and learn to imitate sounds.
The child was attending Ability Awareness Day on June 27 in Elk Grove, a collaboration of the Northwest Special Recreation Association (NWSRA) and Elk Grove Park District day camps. The goal was to provide campers with training on the challenges people with various disabilities face.
The kids learned how deaf parents can know when their baby is crying (a noise detector attached to the baby's crib sets off a vibrating device that the deaf person wears) and how a deaf person can respond when the doorbell rings (the doorbell could be attached to blinking lights). The children also learned some sign language.
"I feel bad for deaf people because they don't get to hear and they have to go through special classes, and it's probably a struggle for them," 10-year-old Anna Mangini of Elk Grove Village said after the 10-minute session ended.
Every summer since 1997, NWSRA has helped run ability awareness days for three of the 17 area park districts it serves, including Elk Grove, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Rolling Meadows, Palatine and Wheeling. This year, the days were held in Elk Grove, Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates.
About 120 Elk Grove campers rotated through numerous interactive stations dealing with disabilities.
To gain insight into what it's like to be blind, the children tied scarves over their eyes and took a blindfolded, but guided, walk around the gym.
To simulate how challenging relatively easy activities are when you have a learning disability like dyslexia, they attempted to complete a dot-to-dot puzzle while looking at it backward through a mirror.
At another station, they steered themselves in wheelchairs through an obstacle course.
"I'm learning how hard it can be for people with disabilities to just move around and get their clothes on and sometimes see," said 9-year-old Hannah Atkin of Elk Grove.
The learning station was about being deaf, and one little girl wanted to know how deaf people learn to talk.
The teacher, 26-year-old Mary Ryan, a certified teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, told the child that to learn to speak, deaf people feel the throats of their teachers while they are speaking. They also watch their teachers lips as they talk and learn to imitate sounds.
The child was attending Ability Awareness Day on June 27 in Elk Grove, a collaboration of the Northwest Special Recreation Association (NWSRA) and Elk Grove Park District day camps. The goal was to provide campers with training on the challenges people with various disabilities face.
The kids learned how deaf parents can know when their baby is crying (a noise detector attached to the baby's crib sets off a vibrating device that the deaf person wears) and how a deaf person can respond when the doorbell rings (the doorbell could be attached to blinking lights). The children also learned some sign language.
"I feel bad for deaf people because they don't get to hear and they have to go through special classes, and it's probably a struggle for them," 10-year-old Anna Mangini of Elk Grove Village said after the 10-minute session ended.
Every summer since 1997, NWSRA has helped run ability awareness days for three of the 17 area park districts it serves, including Elk Grove, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Rolling Meadows, Palatine and Wheeling. This year, the days were held in Elk Grove, Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates.
About 120 Elk Grove campers rotated through numerous interactive stations dealing with disabilities.
To gain insight into what it's like to be blind, the children tied scarves over their eyes and took a blindfolded, but guided, walk around the gym.
To simulate how challenging relatively easy activities are when you have a learning disability like dyslexia, they attempted to complete a dot-to-dot puzzle while looking at it backward through a mirror.
At another station, they steered themselves in wheelchairs through an obstacle course.
"I'm learning how hard it can be for people with disabilities to just move around and get their clothes on and sometimes see," said 9-year-old Hannah Atkin of Elk Grove.
