PALS

Today the kids and I headed up north to attend a PALS (play & learn seminar) where the kids get to play... supervised by teachers (of the deaf) and the parents go to a workshop on some aspect of parenting a hard of hearing child. Today's topic was "transitioning to school". Even though Audrey is already IN school, I found this workshop to be extremely eye-opening. I had no idea of how little I knew! (I swear I've said that before). I really need to start being Audrey's advocate in the schools. Yes, Audrey has a hearing resource teacher. But I have NO idea what they are teaching her or how they are helping her to "access" the curriculum. She cannot access the curriculum in an auditory way so concessions need to be made. It is great that she has one-on-one time with a special needs teacher, but now I need to think about what she is missing in the classroom. The leader of this seminar informally suggested that we exclude french from her curriculum. If she cannot keep up with the english language, it might not be smart to introduce a third language, since ASL will be her 2nd language. ASL=American Sign Language

I was concerned that Audrey wouldn't be able to achieve her OSSD without french credits, but I was assure that she would be able to earn other credits that would allow to earn her diploma and attend post-secondary school if she chooses to.

Hmmmm...so much to think about. So much I had NOT thought about.

First thing I did when I got home from this workshop: called the school.

We have a lot of work to do.

Audrey & I have casually been learning some simple signs (Mommy, Daddy, Eat, Please, Thank-You) and today we worked a little harder on it. It is HARD! My hands don't seem to want to move the way that they are supposed to! And not fast enough either! lol. I wonder if I will read this post in a few years and laugh because I will become an expert signer :)  I would actually love to be an interpreter. Those people are SO special. It is such a gift to offer a deaf person. I just have no idea how they do it!

Ok. Back to this PALS thing that we went to...one of the teachers asked me if my children could sign. I felt kind of dumb (bad joke) because I had to say "uh, no...we don't know anything about signing". ALL of the other kids were able to sign. Even the 11 month old baby could sign!  Clearly we are newbies at all of this!

Side note (not related to today): It bothered me when I was told that Audrey was a "late diagnosis" child. It made me feel like I should've brought her to the doc sooner :(