Tuesday, September 07, 1999

Two fathers, one dream

---

Men build bridge for so daughters can cross into the world of sound

BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Steve Burns and daughter Courtney. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Steve Burns' wish is fairly simple. One of these days, he wants his daughter to hear a symphony orchestra.

        The Miami Heights father also wants Courtney, now 3, to be able to pick up the telephone to ask a classmate about homework assignments and to have normal conversations with other girls about girl stuff.

        “We don't want to put any limits on our kids,” said Mr. Burns, 39, finance director for the Hamilton County Recorder.

        That's why he and Michael Gartner of Anderson Township, a national finance manager with Procter & Gamble Co., have devoted the last three years of their free time to open the Ohio Valley Oral School in Cincinnati, a place where their deaf or hearing-impaired children will learn to speak and communicate orally.

Michael Gartner and daughter Haley. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        When the school opens in the summer of 2000, Cincinnati's Oral School will be the 12th in the United States. It represents a movement fueled by the increasing use of cochlear ear implants — devices that allow some pro foundly deaf children and adults to hear sound, distinguish speech, speak and respond to the sounds of the world around them.

        Its opening will give Cincinnati two specialized schools for deaf and hearing-impaired children — St. Rita School for the Deaf in Evendale, enrollment 125, where sign language is the primary educational focus, and the Ohio Valley Oral School, which will use intensive speech-language therapy to help 15-30 deaf and hearing-impaired children learn to talk.

        The Oral School movement also highlights a continuing debate in the deaf community: Should deaf people embrace their deafness by learning only sign language, or should they integrate into the hearing community by learning to speak?

        The Gartners and Burnses have made their choices.

        “This school is absolutely critical. Our kids can't afford to be left behind,” said Mr. Gartner, whose 4¹/₂-year-old daughter Haley lost much of her hearing from a meningitis infection when she was 5 months old. “We decided we wanted our children to learn to communicate. We have other children in our families who are not hearing-impaired, and want to give all of them every opportunity to participate in an oral world.”

INFOGRAPHIC

How the implant works

        The demand for oral-based schools is directly linked to the growing use of cochlear ear implants. First approved for adults in 1984, implants were OK'd in 1990 for children and can now be used as young as 18 months.

        In turn, a growing number of parents are choosing schools that encourage oral communication and lip reading — not just American Sign Language — as the primary method of learning and interacting.

        In 1996, Mr. Gartner and Mr. Burns launched the nonprofit Advocates for Children with Cochlear Implants (ACCI), an organization that plans to open the Ohio Valley Oral school as a nonpublic charter school. As with other oral schools, the hope is that by third or fourth grade, all students will have undergone enough intensive speech and language therapy to be mainstreamed into public or private schools.

        “We are an alternative for children who want to learn to talk,” said Mr. Gartner, whose daughter received a cochlear ear implant shortly before her second birthday.

        The implant is fitted surgically and replaces the ear anatomy with microphones, transmitters, decoders and processors. It picks up audible signals and turns them into electrical signals that can be transmitted to and interpreted by the brain as sounds. It allows many profoundly deaf people to regain lost hearing or to hear for the first time in their lives. And once they can hear, many can begin to learn to speak.

        Although exact numbers of deaf/hearing-impaired children in the Tristate aren't available, an estimated 1.7 percent of all children nationwide have some degree of hearing loss and 0.1 percent are considered deaf, according to Dr. Eleanor Stomberg, director of audiology at the Cincinnati Speech & Hearing Center. Applied to the Tristate, that would amount to more than 8,300 hearing-impaired and nearly 500 deaf children.

        Since 1993, Children's Hospital Medical Center has provided cochlear ear implants to 24 children and is following another 12 children who had implants elsewhere.

        When they first met, the Burns and Gartner families were in similar situations: Both had daughters with deafness or profound hearing loss. Both had opted for cochlear implants for their children. Both wondered what the future held.

        Courtney's hearing impairment was detected when she was an infant. She was fitted with hearing aids at 1 and had the cochlear implant just before her second birthday.

        “We were told she would hear emergency sounds only — sirens, doorbells, that sort of thing,” said her father. “But we feel she's very bright. With the implant, she's understanding language now and trying to articulate a little bit.”

        Since Haley received the cochlear implant, she is playing piano, singing songs, interacting with other children, talking on the telephone and responding to others' voices.

        “She sings the Barney song,” her father said proudly, noting that many people don't even know she has a hearing problem.”

        Those are the kinds of activities and interactions the fathers hope will continue and intensify when their daughters attend the Ohio Valley Oral School. It will be organized around the philosophies and curriculum of the Moog Oral School in St. Louis, launched by educator Jean Moog, former director of the Central Institute for the Deaf. Ms. Moog will serve as a consultant to the Cincinnati school for three years.

        Mr. Gartner says word of the Cincinnati school's pending opening is drawing interest from parents who have moved to other cities or who send their children out of town to attend Moog-like schools elsewhere, Mr. Gartner says.

        The organizers of the Oral School do not see their plans clashing with the mission of St. Rita School for the Deaf, and vice versa. Certainly, the two have different philosophies.

        “The oral method is well based,” said Greg Ernst, executive director at St. Rita, “but I've found that in the majority of cases, it's not the best for the deaf students. At some age and point in life, the deaf child will need both (sign language and oral skills).” At St. Rita, sign language serves as the basis of the curriculum.

        But Cincinnati is large enough to support a variety of programs for children with hearing problems, Mr. Ernst said, and the opening of the Ohio Valley Oral School “allows parents to make a choice between which kind of program they want their children to get into.”

        For the Burnses and Gartners, the choice was obvious: They wanted their daughters to hear, talk and interact with the world as normally as possible.

        Both families had considered moving to cities that already had oral schools, but a visit to St. Louis got them talking. And then Mr. Burns threw out an idea.

        “I looked at Mike and said, "You know? Let's do it here,'” he recalled.

        Since forming the ACCI, Mr. Gartner and Mr. Burns have raised $120,000 locally from Procter & Gamble, Dualite, LeaseNet, American MicroProducts and the Knights of Pythias. Their five-year goal is $2.5 million from private and corporate donations.

        The project has received a three-year $1.2 million start-up grant from the Oberkotter Foundation, launched by a former United Parcel Service executive whose daughter was hearing-impaired.

        “Our daughter has been the catalyst to do this,” Mr. Gartner said. “Now it's our opportunity to do something for the community.”

        Added Mr. Burns: “I would never wish this on any child. But when my wife and I decided to do this, we realized that it's such a small challenge compared to what some children face. This is not life-threatening. It's not something we can't get past. I can't wait for my daughter to say to me, "Dad, thanks for everything you did.'”

       

---

Two fathers, one dream
Death rates elevated in Appalachian areas
Deck collapse reason sought
Web site helps wage war on cholesterol
Area noveliest comes home for latest book
Yeah, whatever you say
Cintas Center rising on Xavier U.'s campus
City sweeps up after smooth-running fest
Ends of Butler Regional Highway ready for traffic soon
Food just one part of 'Taste'
Ohio lawmaker asks to review amusement-ride safety laws
Sweating for credit - online
Annual picnic a politician's feast
Tornado sirens get increased attention
Two black groups back councilman
Uniforms allow instant recognition
Ex-officers running for council
Families shop Thriftway; Butler schools get a cut
Health, housing head list of Baptists' concerns
Sister cities celebrate 10 years
Social Security mailing future benefits calculations to all
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST