Family ConversationsWhere families and children

get a jump on language and literacy

Ann Curry, M.Ed.

Susan Norton, PhD

Family ConversationsEarly Intervention Services for Families with children who are

Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Our Missionto provide family-centered instruction that …

Promotes communicative interactions between all family members

Enhances the child’s language, speech, thinking skills and emotional health

Helps families become competent and confident in communicating with their child

Family Centered/Relationship Focused Services

Family Conversations is dedicated to providing services that meet the needs of the individual child and family.

“How a child is held, talked to, responded to, and loved will effect how he begins to view himself, others, and the world around him.” –Kelly, Zuckerman, Sandoval & Buchlman in Promoting First Relationships

Families learn to include their child in all their

Family Conversations.

We strongly support family members as they learn to incorporate new strategies into their everyday lives.

Parents can then get on with the job of parenting!

Our Communication instruction is designed to enhance the parent-child

relationship and to include all family members.

Who We ServeAny family in Western Washington with a child with

bilateral hearing loss < 3 years old.

Services for your family

• Home Visits• Playgroup• Parent Support &

Education• Sign Instruction• Introduction to Deaf

Culture• Lending Library• Advocacy & Transition

Services

Communication & the Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child

Each child with hearing loss has a

unique set of strengths and

needs.

Communications Tools

Amplification

Auditory Training

Signing Exact English

Speech

Gestures

Lip reading

Educational Options for deaf and hard-of-hearing children

in Washington

MANUAL w/ American Sign Language

Total Communication w/sign language

ORAL

Pidgin Signed English(PSE)

Manually Coded English(MCE)

Signing Exact English(SEE)

Auditory Verbal

Why Signing Exact English?

Deaf students struggle most with acquiring and mastering English.

For hearing children the structure of language is acquired by about age three.

Between 2 to 3 years of age, children increase the use of English grammar and syntax.

By age six, language structures are established, and are difficult to modify after the age of puberty.

Signing Exact English the bridge to Literacy

Literacy &

Speech

Signing Exact English

We consider Signing Exact English a means of manual expression for those who are speaking English while they sign, and an introduction to the richness and variety of language for parents of young deaf children.

How S.E.E. helps develop speech…

Creates visual means for past tense, plurals that are difficult to see/perceive : BOY instead of BOYS, WALK instead of WALKED

Missed words: TO, AT, THE, FOR

How S.E.E. helps auditory skills…

The speech sounds that are located in the higher frequency range are difficult to hear for a child that has a moderate or profound hearing loss (s, sh, f, th). These are clearly marked and included in Signing Exact English.

No Response

Detection

Pattern Perception

Word Identification

Comprehension SEE + Spoken Language

ASL, PSE or Combo

Development of Auditory Skills in Children with Cochlear Implants

Pearls of Wisdom in Communication

ASL is a rich and expressive language, worth studying for its own sake, and many of its principles should and can be put to good use while using Signing Exact English.

Apples & Oranges

How ASL looks:

1) Want with walk?

2) Hungry you?

3) Ball where?

4) Wow, lot fun play game.

5) Thrill me finish get movie recent new.

How SEE looks:

1) Do you want to go for a walk with me?

2) Are you hungry?

3) Where is the ball?

4) I had so much fun playing the game.

5) I am so thrilled that I got a brand new movie.

Most adults who know only one language often have to some difficulty mastering a second.

For parents, becoming fluent during the early language-learning years is a very real problem.

It is similarly easier for most hearing parents of deaf children to begin with a form of signing in English than to attempt to become fluent in a foreign language (ASL) during what is for many parents a psychologically trying period of adjustment to their child’s deafness.

Why is this important to parents in making decisions?

1. Comfort

2. Confidence

3. Early Communication established

4. Must be clearly perceivable by the child.

5. Consistent language model across environments

Literacy and Birth to Three•For children who do not make good progress in these early years,learning to read is difficult and is associated with both present and future failure.

•Children who do not learn to read well in the 1st and 2nd grades are likely to struggle with reading throughout their lives.

Challenges to lack of awareness and phonemic learning:

•Spellings remain odd shapes or arbitrary symbol strings and are extraordinarily difficult to remember

•Struggles in learning to read and spell words

•Lack develops a wide achievement gulf between themselves and peers who are phonemically aware

•Explicit instruction in phoneme awareness help avoid reading delay

Children who are behind in their literacy experiences (storybook reading, daily living

routines, listening comprehension, vocabulary, language facility) upon entering school become

"at risk" in subsequent years (Copeland & Edwards, 1990; Mason & Allen, 1986; Smith,

1989).

Almost all of the children who have serious trouble learning to read (about 20%) are in one or more of these three groups –

children from low-income, low-literacy homes;

children from homes in which English is not

the language spoken;

children who have learning/neurological/emotional disabilities.

Greenberg, 1998

Experiences with print help preschool children develop an understanding of the conventions, purpose, and functions of print.

These understandings play an integral part in the process of learning to read, the value of purposeful shared language and mastery of English.

The difficult balance

Language Literature

Language and Literacy begins at home

With Literacy kitsFamilies and children explore text,

language and stories with manipulative hands-on activities that reinforce language, listening, participation, communication and many skills within the story.

From an emergent literacy perspective, reading, writing and oral language develop concurrently and interrelated in young children in literate environments (Sulzby & Teal, 1991), such as following along in a big book as an adult reads aloud or telling a story through a drawing (Hiebert & Papierz, 1989). 

Developmental literacy learning occurs during the first years of a child's life  (Mason &

Allen, 1986) and is crucial to literacy acquisition (McGee & Lomax, 1990).

Research and Early LiteracyResearch supports a balanced approach to

early literacy instruction through purposeful, functional use and meaningful context within a print-rich environment.

Skills and strategies are taught within these meaningful contexts rather than in isolation.

The average high school graduate who is deaf has a

fourth grade reading level (J.Holt). This delay is strictly due to language and

literacy support.

English LiteracyDeafnessSigning Exact English

Our Staff

Communication Specialists backgrounds:

• Early Childhood Education • Special Education• Deaf Education• Audiology • Sign Language Instruction• Regular Education

Staff Experience

Staff members bring tools and experiences from teaching in a variety of settings:

• Oral/Aural

• Simultaneous communications

• Total Communication PSE or SEE

• Personal experience with family members who are deaf or hard of hearing or are

• Deaf themselves

Funding

Family Conversations is funded by:

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)

Developmental Disability Division (DDD)

Part C of IDEA

Tax deductible donations

Family ConversationsEarly Intervention for

Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Children Ages 0 to 3

Where families and children

get a jump on language and literacy

Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center

Seattle, WA(206) 987-5146