CID teachers use specialized tools to determine and target 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.
At all levels, we have a strong focus on developing reading skills, which is especially difficult for many children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We use a phonics curriculum called SPIRE to build phonemic awareness and decoding skills for children starting at age 3. We model enthusiasm for reading and, guided by Missouri Learning Standards, teach reading comprehension using a variety of children’s literature, student favorites and commercial texts.
Finally, we offer a variety of field trips, extracurricular and special activities, and teach art, drama, music and physical education, to fully prepare the children to participate and succeed in their neighborhood schools.