Hearing Therapy

iBrain’s Hearing Education department incorporates many forms of sign language (from American Sign Language (ASL) to Signed Exact English as well as Tactile sign language) specifically to meet the needs of our students who are deaf, have hearing challenges (wear hearing aids or have a cochlear implant) as well as those who are “hearing” and have difficulty processing and understanding spoken language. 

When sign language is incorporated with spoken language, it gives the child the ability to “see” what is being taught. Sign language in conjunction with the spoken word helps the child to process information more effectively and to comprehend, retain, retrieve and demonstrate what they have learned. 

We utilize sign language to help our students to develop language, communicate, use their assistive technology devices, socialize and achieve their educational goals. It helps give our students who are non-verbal and have severe multiple challenges a voice and a pathway to learn through. As an example, some of our students have gone from knowing only three words or signs (such as “eat” “more” and “all done”) to being able to read. The Hearing Education department believes that all students have the ability to learn! 

What is most important is finding what motivates and interests each child, how they communicate (in many cases which parts of their bodies can they move) and incorporating the best techniques and tools, such as “sign language,” to help our children achieve their best!