Seeing Reality Through Our Children

by Tami

Sometimes it actually takes going into the child's educational environment to see what is going on. We sent our daughter to a mainstreamed school for kindergarten. It only took a short time before we knew she was going to be "special" and "left out". It was terrible to see this happen to our beautiful child.

A critical mass of language rich peers, role models, and teachers are a right... not an option or an additional item to add to an IEP. School should never be a guessing game of what is being said. Partial access is not only a strain but also a drain of valuable learning time.

As hearing parents, we realized we had wasted enough valuable learning and language time and enrolled her into a School for the Deaf. We saw an immediate change in her social and emotional demeanor and even better her language began to blossom and her learning took off.