CID EXPERTS FEATURED AT NATIONAL MEETING OF COMMUNICATION PROFESSIONALS

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, November 26, 2005 –  Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) school principal JoEllen Epstein, MAEd, CED, assessment administrator Christy Borders, MS, CED, primary-middle school coordinator Barbara Lanfer, MAEd, CED and teachers Jennifer Johnson, MS, CED and Abby Zoia, MS, CED were among featured speakers at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), November 18-20 in San Diego, CA.  

Epstein and Borders spoke about CID’s practice of teaching hearing preschool children alongside hearing-impaired children, or “reverse mainstreaming.” Their analyses showed that some children benefit from the language and social interaction with their hearing peers, while others do not. They discovered specific language patterns in preschool classrooms where reverse mainstreaming was perceived effective, but these patterns did not appear in classrooms where reverse mainstreaming was perceived ineffective. Further study could lead to ways to predict whether and at what point a particular hearing-impaired child might begin to benefit from interaction with hearing children at school. The work may lead to more effective class grouping strategies in oral schools that offer reverse mainstreaming.

Lanfer, Johnson and Zoia discussed CID’s use of SPIRE, a multisensory intervention reading program by Sheila Clark-Edmands, both to help hearing-impaired students overcome difficulty learning to read and to address additional needs in learning speech and language. The teachers presented several case studies and demonstrated how they have used the SPIRE to promote language growth in addition to basic reading skills in children with hearing loss.

ASHA is the national professional and scientific association for more than 120,000 hearing, speech and language professionals. The ASHA convention, which annually attracts approximately 10,000 attendees, is a comprehensive conference for speech-language pathologists, audiologists and speech, language and hearing scientists. This year’s theme was “Using Evidence to Support Clinical Practice.” The conference offered a wide variety of educational sessions highlighting the latest developments in research and clinical practices for professionals who provide services in schools, hospitals, health care centers, rehabilitation clinics and other settings.

Founded in 1914, Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is located at the southern tip of the Washington University Medical Center complex within the city of St. Louis, Missouri. At the CID oral school, deaf and hearing-impaired children from birth to age 12 learn to listen, talk and succeed in the mainstream without the use of sign language. CID also offers mainstreaming assistance for deaf and hearing-impaired students, continuing education deaf education workshops for professionals, collaborative research opportunities, consultation and training for schools with oral education programs for deaf children, and educational tools used to help deaf children in all 50 states, all provinces of Canada, six provinces of Australia and 33 countries.

Epstein, Lanfer and Borders serve on the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences (PACS), a CID at Washington University School of Medicine program.*

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*CID at Washington University School of Medicine is a consortium of hearing and deafness research, clinic and graduate degree programs owned, funded and operated by the University but closely affiliated with CID. Formerly the CID-based Washington University Department of Speech and Hearing, the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences has been fiscally separate from  CID and a CID at Washington University School of Medicine program since September of 2003.