Day 14: All It Takes Is A Little Innovation!

On  Day 14 we talked about one of my heroes that is both deaf and blind, Helen Keller.  I love the "water" scene in the older movie about Helen Keller with Patty Duke as Helen.  It is a little eye-opening for five year-olds, but we quickly moved to the excitement of watching Helen learn a way to communicate and open up her world.  The kids tried signing in each other's hands.  It wasn't quite as easy as they thought it would be!

Later in the morning one of my sweet friends came to share her wonderful business with us, "Katie's Snack Cart."  I met Katie when she was two and now she is a beautiful woman in her early 20's.  Katie was born with a developmental delay and an intellectual  impairment.  Katie loves life and uses her talents to serve quality and healthy snacks to a variety of businesses.  Her mother, Wendy, is an innovative and supportive president of Katie's Cart.  They both work together as a beautiful mother/daugther team!

Days 13: Tips For Easter Dinner!

On Day 13 we talked about how to be a good friend to those with a hearing impairment. I asked the children how many of them had grandparents that have a difficult time hearing and almost half of them raised their hand. I passed out cards that my husband and I have made to help grandchildren and grandparents communicate better. It was fun listening to their stories about family gatherings and the little differences they can make to ensure everyone feels included. I hope they practice some of the strategies over Easter dinner this year!

Communicating With Your

Hard-of-Hearing Grandparents

• If you notice your grandparents off to themselves and not involved in the family conversation, go talk to them.
• Always be in the same room with your grandparents when you are speaking to them.
• Get the attention of your grandparents first before communicating.  Call their name or gently tap their shoulder.  
• Look at your grandparents face-to-face while speaking to them.
• Do not cover your mouth, chew gum, or turn away while you are speaking.
• Speak clearly and slowly.
• If your grandparents cannot understand you, choose different words with the same meaning.
• Eliminate as many distractions as you can.
• Use language they are familiar with using.  Do not use slang.
• Always be patient, loving, and willing to repeat what you said so your grandparents can be part of your conversation.

And now for the grandparents...

Communicating With Your

Grandchildren

• Make sure you are in close proximity to your grandchildren.
• If you cannot sit on the floor with your grandchildren, move to a table and chairs so you can sit close to each other.
• Eliminate as much background noise as possible.
• Remind your grandchildren to look at you while they are speaking.
• Do not pretend you understand what they just said.  If needed, have your grandchildren rephrase what they said.
• Praise your grandchildren when they have communicated well with you and tell them how much you enjoyed your time with them.
• Answer their questions about hearing loss.  Explain how the ear works and what has hindered your ears from working properly.
• Learn some sign language together and you can send your own secret messages at the dinner table!
• Just for fun, watch one of your favorite shows with closed captioning.
• Affirm your grandchildren for taking the time to include you.

Day 12: Sign Language Lessons

Today we continued our discussion on hearing impairment.  Two wonderful guest speakers came today to share with my students.  The first guest was my husband Bill.  Bill is an audiologist and explained the anatomy and function of the outer and inner ear and passed around a model of the ear as he spoke.  He started off by using the following you tube video:

"How Your Ears Work"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMXoHKwWmU8

Bill then talked about different types of hearing loss and used this video:

Hearing Loss Simulation - Hear the World Song

This video gives you a good feel for different types and levels of hearing loss.
Bill concluded by asking the children if they had any questions about hearing impairment.
Several of the children wanted to know how hearing aids work and proceeded to share stories
of what their younger siblings had stuck in their ears.  It is funny where their little minds can go :)
After Bill spoke a good friend, who is a sign language interpreter, came to share with the
children.  She signed everything she talked about and taught the children a number of signs.
She shared a video of the school for the deaf that she works for in Haiti.  Mrs. Dard has a
huge heart for the hearing impaired and deaf communities.  She was such a wonderful ex-
ample for the children.  She finished the morning with signing, "Let It Go."  The girls, in
particular, loved it!

Day 11: Lessons on Hearing Impairment

While I was home with my hubby helping him recover from surgery, my sweet students were working hard.  I know they had some good times playing over Spring Break, but they also were working and sacrificing for other kids.  My butterfly box was full of Ziploc bags this morning.  Each little baggie contained dollars and coins, as well as wonderful stories.  

The kids are always so proud to come in and show me the money they have raised.  They also enjoy telling the other children about what they did to earn the money.  One little boy really touched me when he stood up and shared how he had raised almost $200.  That is the first time in the seven months I have known him that he stood up in front of the class with his head held high, his voice loud enough for us to hear him, and an enormous smile on his face.  It was powerful to see what his sacrifice meant to him!

We spent the first part of our day writing names on butterflies for every dollar that had been raised, swarming our little fundraisers with butterflies and then hanging them on the wall.  Fifteen five and six year-olds have raised over $1,000 in just three weeks!!  This is enough for six wheelchairs!

We continued our unit on disabilities by learning about hearing impairment.  As we started our lesson I put a pair of ear protection domes on one of my students.  They would each take a turn experiencing mild to moderate hearing loss.  They were all anxious to try them but were also grateful to take them off!

We talked about a variety of accommodation strategies for the hearing impaired including:

• hearing aids
• cochlear implants
• speech therapy
• lip reading
• flashing lights
• vibration
• closed captioning

We passed four hearing aids around with each hearing aid getting smaller.  We talked about how you can barely see them now and can even buy disposable hearing aids, similar to using contacts for the eyes.  In addition, the children were able to see a representation of the cochlea or inner ear.

We concluded our lessons by watching, "Signing Time."  The kids have already been exposed to about 50 signs in just two class days.

Day 10: Fund-raising Is Fun!

Day 10 was a day of review.  I had a little quiz for the kids on how to be polite to those with a physical disability and a visual impairment.  I was amazed by how much the kids remembered!  We followed the quiz by reading, You've Got A Friend, by Joni Eareckson Tada.

I spent the morning interviewing and videoing the kids as I asked them questions about disabilities.  I look forward to sharing the videos with the parents of my students!  They are so insightful and incredibly cute!

The students have gradually brought in money and love to stand up and share with the class how they raised it.  They also shared what they will be doing over Spring Break to raise money.  They have come up with some very clever ideas!  I am looking forward to Monday and all of the excitement and enthusiasm they will have as they bring in their little bags of money!

Day 9: Congratulations, kids!

Yesterday we had a larger view of what it would be like to be completely blind and today we brought it down to a fine motor skill view of what it would be like.  My aide and co-teacher filled a box with about 45 items and the kids had to keep their eyes closed as they pulled an item out of an enclosed box.  They were given three tries to guess what the item was.  The hardest item was a glue stick apparently.  The activity broke the ice for the rest of the morning on visual impairment.

I handed each of the children a piece of construction paper with two windows in it.  In the top window was a piece of wax paper and in the bottom window was a piece of wax paper with a hole in the middle of it.  The children looked through the windows to see what it is like to have vision that is severely blurred vs. tunnel vision.  Afterwards the children looked through cards that showed what your vision is like when you have glaucoma, diabetes retinopathy, or cataracts.  They all came out of the exercise with a greater appreciation for their ability to see.

The next segment of our morning was learning about some very talented people that happen to be blind.  We listened to the amazing talents of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder!

I am so proud of the kids as they continually bring in money for the wheelchairs.  They have already raised enough money for two wheelchairs and I know their little heads are spinning with ideas!!  They never cease to amaze me!

Day 8: From the Mouths of Babes!

Today we learned about how to be polite to someone with a visual impairment.  I loved the look of shock and then laughter as I pretended to talk to someone that is blind in a very loud voice.  I told them how funny it is but adults do it all the time!  The kids already knew that you don't need to speak loudly to someone that is blind because they can hear, they just can't see.  We did a number of exaggerated role play exercises and the kids left the day with a new understanding.  

We read the story from John 9:1-12 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Three of the children in the class have moms that are expecting babies.  They knew the babies cannot sin in the womb.  God would use this to show His power!

We had great discussions during our class time but one of my favorite things happened first thing in the morning.  One of the moms shared a precious story with me.  Her daughter had been playing with her four little mermaids and suddenly ran off to retrieve a mermaid she had bought from a dollar store.  This mermaid was missing an arm.  She brought the mermaid with the missing arm to the other mermaids to play.  She said, "She just has a disability, there is nothing wrong with her."

This story was so powerful to me.  This little girl is only five and she is already beginning to understand what may take a lifetime for the rest of us...everyone is valuable!!  She now sees the mermaid first, not the disability.