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 | | Issue 4 | February 23, 2011 |
| Budding Actors Present "The Cuckoo" |  | | | | |
 Our 2nd and 3rd level Wardlaw and Hamm students presented the “The Cuckoo,” a retelling of the Mexican folktale. The drama unfolded on Tuesday, February 22 at 2:00 pm in the Love Auditorium. Music teacher Susan Patterson worked diligently with the children on their lines and songs and even taught them some Spanish through the magic of music. Our young thespians performed y va de cuento-as (as the story goes), the tale of a beautiful cuckoo who pushes past her fears to save her friends in the face of disaster. A big “thank you” goes to the parents who worked tirelessly with their children to create the costumes for the beautiful birds, animals and Fire and Rain gods.
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| Wardlaw School Students Work to Fight Hunger | | | | | | Recently, Kelly Schreiner’s, Cindy O’Neill’s, and Robin Hilker’s 5th & 6th level students visited the Atlanta Community Food Bank where they sorted an astounding 14,000 pounds of food to make 4,000 meals. Students had various duties at the Food Bank, including unloading cans, checking expiration dates, inspecting containers for leaks or damage, and packing food into boxes for distribution. Reactions to the experience varied. One student noted that, “My friends and I put away nine loads that were taller than us. My group put away over 7,000 pounds of food which broke the standing Speech School record.” Another student commented, “Though it was very tiring, it paid off when we found out how much we helped the needy.” Still another said, “My experience working at the Atlanta Food Bank was fantastic. After all the community work I’ve done, working at the Food Bank was my favorite. I felt really proud of myself and all my friends because we fed so many people.” Congratulations to everyone for your incredible service to the community!
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| Montag Family Lecture Series Returns | | | | | |  How can families and educators provide children with the life skills they need to cope in our multi-tasking, multimedia, modern world? Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute, will answer these questions at our Montag Family Community Series on Thursday, March 17, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Author of Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ms. Galinsky's research and collaboration with child development specialists and neuroscientists show how life skills are involved in the part of the brain that weaves together the social, emotional, and intellectual capacities that help us pursue our goals.
Collectively, the vision statement of Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS) and the commitment of the Rollins Center for Language & Learning and the Annie E. Casey Foundation "to ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to succeed and on a path to read to learn by third grade" are aligned with Ms. Galinsky's work in childhood development. She believes that we can address the achievement gap in this country and help all children gain these life skills to help them succeed.
A frequent visitor to CBS Evening News, World News Tonight, and Oprah and a presenter at national conferences, Ms. Galinsky is considered an authority on work family issues. The seven essential life skills Ms. Galinsky will discuss are: 1) focus and self control, 2) communicating, 3) critical thinking, 4) perspective taking, 5) making connections, 6) taking challenges, and 7) self-directed engaged learning.
Please join us at the lecture which is free of charge and made possible through the generous support of the Montag family. Attendees will receive a complimentary, autographed copy of her book on a first-come, first-served basis with their RSVP. Please make a reservation at www.atlantaspeechschool.org/montag or contact Kim Allocca for more information.
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Focus on the Katherine Hamm Center's Parent-Infant Program
The diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of childhood hearing loss have changed dramatically in the past decade. Today, most children who are screened at birth, diagnosed, and treated appropriately acquire speech and language at the same rate as their typically hearing peers. High quality early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing is crucial to the detection of hearing loss.“The most important factor is that medical and educational personnel have the ability to offer early intervention services to children with deafness or hearing loss,” states Shelley Carr, Katherine Hamm Center coordinator. “This early stimulation to language gives children the opportunity for future success in school and life by developing their language and literacy.”
In the Katherine Hamm Center’s Parent-Infant Program, intervention for babies occurs from birth to 24 months. These infants are enrolled in the Hamm Center’s state-of-the-art early intervention program after being identified with hearing loss in newborn hearing screening and diagnosis programs or referred by doctors and agencies such as Babies Can’t Wait and Georgia Pines.“A little known fact is that one to six children in 1000 are born with a congenital hearing loss, and this may be hard for parents to recognize because a child may hear environmental sounds but not the parent’s spoken language,” said Linda Lasker, Early Intervention Specialist, M.Ed., LSLS Cert. AVEd. “If detected at birth when the brain has more plasticity and the child is appropriately fitted with a hearing aid or cochlear implant, language development can be more natural when stimulated by their parents in the home environment within their daily routines.” The number of families Linda assists each year varies, but typically she helps 13-16 families navigate the Babies Can't Wait system and acts as a liaison between ENTs/audiologists and the parents on the use of hearing aids or cochlear implants. Once a child is enrolled in the Parent-Infant Program, Linda teaches parents how to stimulate the child’s residual hearing and develop their child's receptive and expressive language. “Coming to the Parent-Infant Program has changed our lives,” said parent Sara Kogan. “We needed to know that everything was going to be alright with our son and that he would be able to function as well as our other child. We’ve found that he is actually ahead of where his older hearing sister was at the same time and that we are better parents because we now know the importance of infusing language in everything we do with our children.”For more information about the Parent-Infant Program or early intervention, please contact Linda Lasker.
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| | | | | | | Speech School Participates in Early Intervention and Professional Development Conferences
The Early Hearing & Detection Intervention (EHDI) Conference held in Atlanta on February 21-22 was attended by professionals who provide screening, diagnostic, and early intervention support to young children with hearing loss and their families. This year Corine Theobald, Linda Lasker, Ellen Estes, Melissa McDonald, and Janet Ledet presented at the conference. Additionally, parents of current or former students participated in a panel discussion and a larger community-style, learning environment, sharing their experiences in living with hearing loss.
On Feb. 23, the Atlanta Speech School and the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf hosted tours to demonstrate the use of different communication modalities—spoken language or American Sign Language—and how each School bases its programs on research that shows effective practices. Visitors discussed language acquisition, literacy development, and parent involvement as well as meet with faculty, observe intervention, and interact with children.
Additionally on Feb. 23, the Speech School hosted the Oberkotter Foundation’s Professional Development Summit which focused on professional training opportunities in listening and spoken language for deaf education. Rollins Center Co-Director Kim Day spoke to professionals from around the country about what makes a high quality professional development program (whether in language and literacy or deaf education) and gave examples of the Rollins Center’s approach to developing, offering, and measuring professional development.
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| Winner of the Annual Fund Contest Announced | | | | | | Gale Shafer, Wardlaw School's Diagnostician and Administator, is the ecstatic raffle winner of a pair of AirTran Airways tickets for making her gift to the Annual Fund by December 31. Thanks to everyone who participated prior to the end of the year, however it's not too late to help us reach our goal of 100%. Currently, we are at 39% of parent participation. It's important that we reach our goal because it directly affects our students. Did you know 18% of our operating revenue is designated for financial aid, more than double the amount of surrounding schools? Our parents' participation sends a strong message to our friends in the community about the loyalty and dedication of our families. Please help us send this message by supporting the Parent Annual Fund Campaign today. Every gift counts, no matter the size!
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3160 Northside Parkway NW, Atlanta, GA 30327 • Phone: (404) 233-5332 • Fax: (404) 266-2175 | |
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