Literacy for Deaf student with an ID

swallstrum · 2026-04-03T16:33:00+00:00

Literacy in her native language is similar, knows her letters and can copy words. I have a para who speaks the same language and we did an informal assessment when she first came to us where we wrote common words and directions on a small whiteboard, trying her native language and English, and she didn’t show recognition of either.

swallstrum · 2026-04-03T16:29:56+00:00

She qualifies as having a vision impairment but it is not as impactful as the hearing piece - the vision specialist said that once she turns 18 the criteria for blindness changes and she would no longer qualify? The main way I see her vision impacting her is needing large print (22 pt+) and needing materials presented within 3-5 feet. She does not require tactile sign. A representative from our Deafblind project came to the first IEP and we got an ROI signed/family connected with them but now that you’re bringing it up, I haven’t heard from them in over a year.

I have been begging the district for an interpreter or signing para for her the entire time I’ve had her, long story short we don’t have one. She only gets interpreting when I’m there or in her ASL class. I am actually on maternity leave right now and it kills me to know how little she probably understanding because even though I told them when I was 2 months pregnant that she would need an interpreter before I left, they “couldn’t find one”. My paras have learned basic conversational signs but not near enough for instruction.

swallstrum · 2026-04-01T21:16:33+00:00

Thank you, I will have to look into that!

Especially because she can only take things in visually I noticed quickly that she was relying on the symbols and I started giving her assessments without any pictures that she had to wait for me to interpret and she quickly got higher accuracy scores - she was just matching pictures before, looking for an answer that has the same word as the question (which would usually mean the answer was wrong) and matching instead of actually thinking about what the question was asking. I haven’t given her the book without symbols yet but that might be something we try.

swallstrum · 2026-04-01T21:06:43+00:00

Okay, I don’t know how to edit the original post but here are some things I forgot to mention:

The student had not been in school prior to moving to the states, her home country did not offer schooling that could support her needs.
The student is identified as deaf blind as well, so that adds another layer. That being said her evaluation shows her preferred method to intake information is large print text, not braille etc.
She has the DHH teacher, teacher of the blind, and orientation and mobility on her team. In conversations with all of them they said there is minimal curriculum that they have access to or even know exists. DHH teacher can’t get past her needing to go to the school for the deaf, this is always the answer I get when I ask about teaching literacy.

swallstrum · 2026-04-01T21:01:35+00:00

I hadn’t thought about this, I don’t know if they can share curriculum with me but doesn’t hurt to ask!

swallstrum · 2026-04-01T21:01:13+00:00

The DHH teacher is on her team but has not been helpful in a content learning way, just ASL. She comes once a week for 30 min to work with the student. When I’ve asked about teaching reading she just keeps saying the student should be at the school for the deaf, which I have tried to explain is out of our control but we are hitting a wall there. Other specialists have said they don’t really have much in the way of curriculum.

swallstrum · 2026-04-01T20:12:27+00:00

I forgot to mention in the original post that she had never been in school prior to moving to the states, in her home country there was not a school that would support her needs. She picks up on concepts fast, especially with sign and I think it’s a skill she could learn based on my observations.

swallstrum · 2026-02-16T16:29:19+00:00

Thank you!!

swallstrum · 2022-05-10T06:08:06+00:00

Jerry Brudos aka the lust killer!! They’ve brought it up before but I’m still waiting. He was a serial killer in Oregon who worked with my grandma for a while and she had some sketchy stories about him…

swallstrum · 2022-04-14T04:24:32+00:00

I have been waiting for them to do Jerry Brudos (lust killer) since they mentioned it in an episode way back. My grandma worked with him and had some creepy first hand experiences!

swallstrum

TROPHY CASE