During the fall, students and their families are managing academic transitions of all kinds — transferring to new schools, moving up to kindergarten or acclimating to the very different routines of middle school.
These transitions can be both exciting and anxiety-provoking. That’s doubly true for families of students with hearing loss, who have to navigate all the usual challenges of a transition while also ensuring that their new situation will have the necessary accommodations in place and that their child has the skills and support to adjust socially.
The good news is that Clarke offers a variety of supports for these transitions, whether the student is currently attending a Clarke program or not. Ashley Mahlstedt Weaver, director of Clarke Pennsylvania, walks us through the array of services families can access through Clarke.
Clarke’s Transition Resources
“We offer multiple layers of transition support,” says Ashley. “For current Clarke families, we’re always talking about transitions and how to prepare for them.”
Assessing New Schools
She notes that when a child is ready to transition out of Clarke’s Preschool Program or transition between other school programs, one vital resource Clarke offers is helping to identify appropriate local programs or observing at their school of choice. “We can look at the space for acoustics, the support they have available, the staff’s experience with teaching students with hearing loss and more — all through the lens of a teacher of the deaf [TOD] for children who are deaf and using LSL [Listening and Spoken Language].”
As part of that process, Clarke TODs can offer insight into how well the school’s curriculum will support a child with hearing loss, if the way the school monitors progress is sufficient and various other factors that can impact a child’s ability to function effectively at the school.
For example, Ashley said she has seen kindergarten programs where students rotate through different rooms with different teachers. While that’s appropriate for a middle-school student, it can be challenging for a younger child with hearing loss to remember to bring their remote microphone (which wirelessly connects to their personal hearing devices) with them and adjust to different environments.
Support for IEP and 504 Meetings
Clarke also offers support with IEP and 504 meetings by providing educational records, assessments and other information that the student’s family and the staff at the new school can find helpful in setting goals and deciding on needed accommodations.
Support for Mainstream Educators
Once a child has transitioned to a new school, Clarke offers in-services for the receiving school. “We encourage schools to take advantage of this and to send as many teachers as possible — even if they aren’t working with the student that year,” says Ashley. “The session can be tailored to the needs of the students and the staff.” For example, the information presented will be slightly different depending on whether they have one or many students with hearing loss, the types of hearing loss represented and the kinds of hearing technology devices they use.
Customized Support from Itinerant Teachers of the Deaf
Clarke’s mainstream itinerant teachers are also available to perform communication assessments and itinerant support. “That can be direct instruction, observation of the classroom or consultation with the child and/or the support staff,” says Ashley. “Schools are generally pretty accepting of these services since hearing loss is such a low-incidence disability. They may not have much, or any, experience with it. Plus, our approach is that we’re here to partner with the school staff and the family to make sure everyone is on the same page,” she adds.
Not every child with hearing loss has the same experience or the same needs, and different issues can crop up as they develop, but Clarke’s services have that covered. “Once you’re receiving mainstream services, the team is always available for questions or things that come up beyond the regularly scheduled check-ins,” Ashley notes.
How Transition Needs Change Over Time
When facing an academic transition each child with hearing loss will have their own unique set of concerns and challenges, depending on their age, level of hearing loss and many other factors.
“Students’ needs change dramatically as they progress through their academic career,” says Ashley. “Part of the reason to be followed by professionals in hearing loss is to anticipate those needs and learn how to mitigate issues.”
For example, with younger students, a common issue is adapting to lunch in a large cafeteria. “It seems small, but going to a large room with many grades can overwhelm any kindergartner, but even more so for one with hearing loss,” she says. Scheduling small group “lunch bunches” with peers can give children with hearing loss a quiet space to socialize and build meaningful connections that can be difficult to achieve in a chaotic lunchroom.
For middle school or high school students, the focus shifts to self-advocacy skills and establishing confidence using their technology. “The focus is different, but it’s still important to have that continuation of services,” Ashley adds.
Transitions don’t have clear endpoints; the time needed to adjust to a new school environment goes far beyond the first day.
Families Are Essential to Smooth Academic Transitions
Families can help their children with these transitions in several ways. Most important is ensuring that they have access in the classroom to the remote hearing technology recommended by their audiologist. “That’s fairly standard in Pennsylvania, but it may not be the case in every state,” Ashley notes. “But it really does help the student maintain the best level of auditory access.”
There’s also the social-emotional side of transitions. “Transitions can come with a lot of feelings and younger students may not be able to identify or explain what they’re feeling,” Ashley says.
“When we know a child is coming up on a transition, we incorporate it into their learning. We might make a transition book and/or talk about it with their SLP [speech-language pathologist]. When possible, we encourage parents to take advantage of new student days or orientations, so they can go to the school and see the classroom and maybe meet the teacher.” She added that for younger students, it can be especially helpful to take pictures of their new classroom and the schoolyard, so they can refer back to those images and remember what it will look like when they start school.
With older students, the transition can be more challenging because more complex emotions are involved. “It can be harder to relate to teens, but it can help if parents share their own experiences, and even any anxieties they have about the transition,” Ashley continues. “Just talking about it and preparing at home can help a lot.”
Post-Transition: What to Watch For
Transitions don’t have clear endpoints; the time needed to adjust to a new school environment goes far beyond the first day. And it can be longer for some students than others. Caregivers should keep an eye on how their student is doing to ensure that the transition continues to go well.
“Communication is so key to ensure a successful transition,” says Ashley. “It’s important to be open with the receiving school, to lay some groundwork about how you’ll communicate with the new team. That’s how you’ll know the transition has been successful and how to troubleshoot when things are not going as planned.”
She adds that signs of a less-than-perfect transition can be subtle, but important. If the student shows a change in personality, or a child’s enthusiasm about school starts to wane, it’s time to dig deeper even if on the surface there are no obvious issues. “The importance of having a support team is in having a second set of eyes like the SLP or TOD can provide some observations that the rest of the team might not be aware of,” Ashley notes.
To learn more about Clarke’s Mainstream Services—available virtually as well—visit clarkeschools.org/mainstream.
