Listening and Spoken Language Program

Cleary School offers an early childhood Listening and Spoken Language Program for parents who have chosen an auditory learning path. This involves assertive audiological management, parental involvement as the primary language facilitators, individual diagnostic demonstration therapy, advocacy training, and integration with typically hearing peers from preschool.

At the parent-infant level, parents work side by side with specialized speech-language pathologists and teachers in hearing loss to create an enhanced auditory learning environment in their daily interactions with the child. Parents are given a variety of opportunities to interact with other parents for emotional support and practical advice.

The preschool classes offer a small class size (8:1:1), enhanced acoustic conditions with a sound field FM system, specialized teachers/ speech-language pathologists, and daily individual speech language therapy sessions. There is an on-site audiologist with a complete audiological suite for monitoring hearing loss and trouble shooting equipment. The Listening and Spoken Language classrooms include typical hearing/speaking role models. Auditory, spoken language, and speech goals are infused into the entire curriculum and school routine. By age four the integrated class size is increased to 12 students with team teaching from an early general education teacher and a special education/teacher of the hearing impaired.

The goal of the Listening and Spoken Language Program is for the children to be mainstreamed by kindergarten or earlier. For those children who require more time and extra learning support before returning to their home school district, Cleary School offers a satellite program housed within a local elementary school. The satellite program offers intensive specialized support with daily opportunities to interact with the general education students. These opportunities range from full to part-time mainstreaming opportunities alongside a full time teacher of the deaf.