Facility for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children
Providing supported, integrated learning for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired students who are developing their spoken language skills.
A welcome to new families - introduction document
In their own words
By Amy & Melissa 6ST
"The teachers of the deaf help us by going into our classrooms every day for about an hour to help us with anything we don't understand."
"The Teachers of the Deaf talk over homework and class topics with us so we will understand them better and know what to do."
"In the facility some of the things we do are play concentration games, learn vocabulary to do with the term topics, maths and some times catch up on some class work we have not had enough time to do or did not understand. One of the things some students do everyday is speech, sounds and listening (ling 7 sound test) which ensures that the we are listening okay and that every thing is working."
Program Overview
Since 1994, Mount View has been successfully integrating hearing-impaired and deaf students into mainstream classes.
The Facility program is based on the principles of integration into mainstream classes for 4/5 of each school day with up to one hour per day of withdrawal into small tutorial rooms for intensive language, listening and speech programs.
When not working in the Facility, teachers of the deaf are in mainstream classes, team teaching in classes where deaf and hearing-impaired students are enrolled.
Facility students have all the advantages of being in a mainstream environment, surrounded by the spoken language of their hearing peers as well as accessing highly individual support delivered by specialist teachers of the deaf.
Surrounding hearing-impaired children with the natural spoken language of their classmates gives them excellent opportunities to develop their own spoken language.
The Facility currently provides for approximately 30 deaf and hearing-impaired students ranging from Prep to Year 6.
Support Services
The Facility is currently staffed by teachers of the deaf, highly qualified classroom teachers and teacher aides.
Support is given in the classrooms and additional individual or small group support sessions are conducted in the acoustically treated rooms.
The program is based on developing spoken language skills, speech and listening.
The program is carefully reviewed and assessed. Progress is carefully monitored through longitudinal studies which drive our intervention programs. Parents are key members of the team which reviews progress and sets new goals.
Other support services include speech pathology as well as regular visits from the Cochlear Implant Clinic and Australian Hearing.
Eligibility
Children who have a bilateral sensori neural hearing loss which is moderate or greater are eligible to enrol. Most of our students at Mount View have either severe or profound hearing loss and all but one have had their hearing loss since birth. Many of our students use a cochlear implant.
For more information, to discuss the benefits of a Mount View education for your Deaf or Hearing-Impaired child, and to learn more about our programs, contact:
The Co-ordinator,
Sara Kenfield
Mount View Facility
Shepherd Road
Glen Waverley 3150.
Telephone: 9545 0064 Fax: 9560 8750
Email: kenfield.sara.e@edumail.vic.gov.au