Starting School @ Mama Lere - a typical day @ school

Wow - what a new world for all of us at Mama Lear. It is a school for children who are hearing impaired and may have other disabilities as well. Mama Lear is not a typical developmental school. Meaning that you will not most likely be with typically developing children. The classes are smaller and the teachers specialize in working more closely towards the needs of the children in the class Parents can chose to put a typically developing child at Mama Lear and the other children can benefit from the pace at which a typically developing child would work at. I won't say much more as I don't know all the ins and outs of the school and would hate to be incorrect - this is just what I understand from my experience of being there.

Mollie has two teachers Mrs. Emily and Ms. Carrie. Both are so great at what they do and so caring. I cannot begin to imagine how exhausted they must be at the end of the day when working with the kids. They are so patient and so kind and really work hard to teach the toddlers language and every day skills. This can be a chore some days as there are five kids in Mollie's class. Mollie will be one of two who have the cochlear implants. The other children have various hearing devices.

On a typical day in the classroom we sing the good morning song and the children have a picture of themselves on the board and they are learning to find the picture of themselves and move it to school from home. Sounds simple enough but this is a real chore to get Mollie to understand that the picture is "me". Meaning she has to understand the concept of me. We work on pointing to pictures and saying "that's me". Pronouns are very challenging for hearing impaired children to learn. As any preschool class would be, they have new concepts to learn each month. For example in January we are working on simple words such as hat, help, cold, etc. This month they are reading about Froggy and how he wants to go outside in the cold weather. The children are read the same story every class and the goal is to help them learn to identify and dress froggy in shoes, pants, hat, scarf, shirt. The goal is to offer the kids three choices and ask them to pick out the item the teacher asks for. So for example this month Mollie has learned shoes really well. She does not know pants, shirt, socks, scarf or even hat (still working hard on this). After this is completed the parents leave and go into a viewing room in which we can watch the children without them seeing us and we can hear them. On any given day their therapy will be cooking in the kitchen, arts and crafts and using large motor skills.

I am proud to say that Mollie really enjoys cooking and there are lots of words and skills there that she has learned. One of her first words was "more" and more can be used in so many ways. She also can say "stir, turn, round and round, shake, shake, shake, cut, pour and open" As they say this is an area of play and work that is rich with vocabulary words.

Mollie has also learned to ride a tricycle in the halls of the school. There is so much room and such great toys to learn large motor skills with. She is such a champ and loves to ride her bike around at home. Thank goodness for rubber wheels I say. She has completed this skill faster than Madie did and Nate. Spring shall be fun with everyone finally riding bikes.

By the end of two hours at school the kids are worn out and ready to go home. Parents come back into the classroom and sing the "Bye Bye Song" in which we learn to say our names and the concept of going home. It also teaches the children to sit and be attentive and prepare them for age 3 schooling.

Each month we receive a progress report of what words Mollie has a concept of, can say and then what she knows spontaneously without being prompted. This is the most important because it means she really gets it! I think the best word she has learned this month alone is "help". This has cut down on so much of her frustration when she cannot do something by herself. She has learned to come to us and ask for help to put on her jacket, put on her tutu, just any number of things. Wow, help is a powerful word.

Mollie also has a therapist with whom she meets on Mondays for one hour of private therapy. Mrs. Angela is Mollie's buddy and biggest cheerleader. At the same time Mollie is most frustrated with her because Mrs. Angela makes her work. There is no rest for the weary on Mondays and Mollie learns so much in this one hour. The concepts she learns are in tune to her classroom learning just more in depth and this really helps Mollie to hit home with her words.

I think Mrs. Angela is a good therapist for me as well sometimes. She is so great about talking to me and helping me to understand this all. She is great about answering our questions and prompting us to ask questions. She is also our biggest cheerleader and never hesitates to tell us how good we are doing with Mollie. She really attributes Mollie's progress to us. How she can say this I don't know, we would have no clue how to go about teaching Mollie if it were not for these gifted women. They are so compassionate and are really doing the work they love and it shows.

If they should read this blog - kudos to you gals because you are making a difference in Mollie's world and our world. Thank you!