Aug 11 - Uptown Girl

On August 11, we went to the Clarke School on 83/East End Ave for 3 things:

• Tour of the facility
• Meeting with our EI coordinator
• Begin our EI State Evaluation Process

The Clarke School provides services for speech therapy in addition to having pre-K for children 3, 4 and 5 years old.  Plus, the 5 year old kindergarten class is integrated - half of the students have no hearing loss.  We met numerous students as well as the teachers. Everyone was extremely nice and it was great to see all of these children, with either CI or HA, they were talking (back) to the teachers! It was very encouraging to see the 'finished' product of where we would like to be in a few years.  All of these kids were very happy

and smiling and learning in a great environment.

 

We had our initial meeting with our EI coordinator - Tamara.  As we've mentioned before, we feel lucky to be in NYC with so many options available to us.  The EI program is actually a state-run program that will provide Madison with services X times a week.  Because of Madison's profound hearing loss, we hope to qualify for at least 2 days, and possibly 3 days a week.  Tamara has been involved with the EI program for several years and we believe she'll be a great asset for us as we embark on this journey.  Tamara was able to offer us a lot of advice and insights - into what we should expect with the EI program, as well as her experiences in dealing with children and parents in our situation.

The initial state evaluation process took about an hour and was conducted by two therapists.  The therapists asked us a ton of questions, and the test would not end until we didn't pass 4 questions in a row.  It was upsetting having to go through parts of the test, as it's used for children with numerous types of disabilities.  So, they would ask us if she responds to sound(s) and we all knew what the answer would be...  Then, the next question would be - does your child try and imitate your voice after you speak with her...  Followed by - does your child turn their head when you talk to them.  It was very frustrating to have to deal with this.

We are eager to have our follow up meeting with the state and Clarke in September.