Program Overview
The Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing program provides appropriate educational opportunities for children with a hearing impairment from infancy to 22 years of age who reside in Merced County.
Services
Services include:
- Special classes for children between the ages of eighteen months and fourteen years.
- Itinerant program for children with a hearing impairment in regular classes, kindergarten through high school, throughout Merced County.
- Speech/Listening skills program for all children in special day classes with a hearing impairment.
- Free transportation to and from school for children enrolled in special classes.
Program Curriculum
The program curriculum emphasizes: - Mainstreaming with hearing children as appropriate for the needs of the student with a hearing impairment.
- A total communication approach which allows a child with a hearing impairment to make use of all avenues of communication. Speech, listening skills, speech reading, sign language, finger spelling, reading, and writing are used in all areas of instruction.
- Communication skills - language development, speech, listening skills, speech reading, reading, writing, finger spelling, and sign language - are all utilized to help develop appropriate communcative skills.
Eligibility
Determination of a child's eligibility for the program is made by an Individualized Education Program (IEP) team in cooperation with the child\s parents or legal guardian after appropriate medical, ideological, ontological, educational, and/or psychological evaluations have been completed and the results reviewed.
Referral
Children mnay be referred to the program by: Family Physicians, Audiologists, Teachers, Speech Therapists, School Nurses, Parents, or Other Interested Persons
Program Placement
A child is placed within the program dependent upon his/her communicative, educational, social, and/or emotional needs.