CID teachers use specialized tools for determining and targeting a variety of goals. At the preschool level, activities are play-based and theme-related. Daily individualized goals target emerging literacy skills, typical childhood development and pragmatic social skills in addition to speech, language and listening. After age 5, academics come into play. We pay special attention to teaching the language involved in understanding math, science and social studies as we continue to attend to our kindergarteners’ speech and social skills. We have a strong focus on developing reading skills, which is especially difficult for many children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We incorporate children’s literature into our program liberally and offer highly intensive remedial help to any child who needs it. Finally, we use curricula from general education and offer a variety of special activities and classes, including art, drama, music and physical education, to fully prepare the children to participate and succeed in their neighborhood schools.
