The doctors and audiologists have told us that our son has a profound hearing loss. They have given us an idea of medical things Drew will be going through over the next several months: immediate fittings for bilateral hearing aids, multiple hearing screenings, surgery for cochlear implant(s), aural therapy, speech therapy, year round schooling, to name a few. All of these things are done with the goal of Drew mainstreaming into the school system by kindergarten.
But can all of these things really develop my son's oral communication? I need to have a realistic expectation of what all of this hard work can do. Visiting an oral deaf education school would give me just that.
I visited The Moog School for the Deaf in St. Louis. It gave me hope. Hope, something that I didn't think was possible just a few days earlier. It was so inspiring to see deaf children communicate with each other, their teachers, even me through speech. I saw them count. I saw them read. I saw them listening to my words. They responded to my questions. They were doing things that all of their hearing peers do - laughing, yelling down hallways, screaming in delight, arguing about "who goes first", talking while the teacher was talking. They were normal!
For any parent that has a child with a profound hearing loss, a visit to an oral deaf school will give you the hope you need to carry on. It did for me.
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