Spring Edition: Talking About Florida

Spring Edition: Offering resources and tips to ensure uninterrupted support for deaf or hard of hearing students in Florida.

LSL Tip: Understanding IEP Goals for Students with Hearing Loss

Individualized Education Plans, known as IEPs, play a crucial role in ensuring that students with hearing loss receive the necessary support and accommodations they require to thrive academically and socially. IEP goals are tailored to meet the unique needs of each student, serving as a roadmap for their educational journey. Hearing loss can affect auditory, speech and language development and academic skills. By understanding these challenges, goals can be created that target the specific needs of students.

Students with hearing loss often use hearing aids, cochlear implants or other assistive listening devices. It's essential to consider the student's hearing technology and any support services they receive when developing IEP goals. This ensures that the goals are aligned with the student's access to sound and communication.

IEP goals should be crafted to cater to the student's needs and abilities, considering their individual strengths and challenges. This approach ensures that the goals set are achievable and meaningful.

For further detailed information, visit Understanding IEP Goals for Students with Hearing Loss: A Comprehensive Guide | Everyday Speech.

Resources

What Makes an IEP Effective?: With the IEP season here, it’s important for school teams to discuss and develop goals that focus on the individual needs of each child, which includes strategies to close any learning gaps and improve communication, self-advocacy and social skills.

Discover the art of writing meaningful IEPs and more in Clarke’s Mainstream News.

IEP "Jeopard y": Target goals focused on independent functioning and spark discussions about the IEP process with older students using a printable game sheet. With 50 questions, this fun activity aids educators in designing customized goals for student needs.

Self-Assessment for IEP Planning: Unsure how to incorporate IEP development into your lesson plans? Utilize the "I’m Determined! Understanding and Preparing for My IEP" worksheet to guide students through a self-assessment. The accompanying student rubric helps gauge their understanding of IEP participation.

Knox’s Book Boxes: Each year, the Florida Coalition for Spoken Language hosts volunteer-led language and literacy initiatives, benefiting hundreds of children with hearing loss statewide. Families receive support and can earn books through literacy challenges.

Additional books are available for families in need year-round through Knox's Book Boxes and service provider collaborations. For more information or to sign up for literacy initiatives, email Literacy@DeafKidsCan.org.

Events

Florida Assoc. of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists

(F LASHA) Annual Convention

June 20-23, 2024

Clarke's Hear Me on the Runway

A Children's Fashion Show benefiting Clarke

Saturday, May 11, 2024

#LSLsuccess Story

Meet Avani, a Clarke Florida alum from 2008, pursuing an undergraduate degree in information technology at the University of Central Florida.

Avani has a bilateral hearing loss that was discovered when she was 10 months old, shortly after her family moved to Florida from India. She wears cochlear implants to access sound and uses listening and spoken language to communicate.

With her degree, Avani plans to conduct research, which currently focuses on using data science to map evacuation patterns during a hurricane, and has included an exploration of how nanomaterials can help degrade harmful substances in the environment.

About Us and This Newsletter

"Talking About Florida" is a quarterly newsletter produced by Clarke Florida that serves as a resource for families and professionals. The newsletter is made possible through the Bureau of Exceptional Student Education and Student Services (BEESS) Discretionary Project Auditory-Oral Education Grant.

Clarke Florida serves children and families by providing a wide range of auditory-oral services and programs through early intervention (birth-three), preschool-first grade, inclusive education settings and speech and language services with experts who focus on achieving key milestones at every stage. The auditory-oral program for children ages three to seven is in partnership with school districts in Florida and the Department of Education.

Have an event or resource to share?

Email Clarke Florida at florida@clarkeschools.org.

Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As an IRS qualified charity, gifts to Clarke are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Clarke teaches children who are deaf or hard of hearing to listen and talk. Since our founding in 1867, we have prepared children to succeed in neighborhood schools and the wider world, evolving to meet the needs of children and families today. Our teachers of the deaf, audiologists and speech-language pathologists partner with families to help their infants, toddlers and school-age children develop listening and spoken language (LSL) skills to maximize their learning. In addition to our work with more than 1,000 infants and children annually, we serve families and adults through a wide range of programs and services--in homes, at our five East Coast locations, in neighborhoof classrooms and using remote technology. Learn more at clarkeschools.org.

Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech | 9803 Old St. Augustine Road #7, Jacksonville, Fl. 32257

Voice 904.880.9001 | florida@clarkeschools.org | clarkeschools.org

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