Spokane HOPE (Hearing-Oral Program of Excellence)
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Mission Statement
HOPE’S mission is to teach and support children from birth to age 5 who are deaf or hard of hearing so they can listen, speak, learn, and thrive in the spoken language world. HOPE’s vision is for children who are deaf or hard of hearing to reach their full potential, pursue their dreams, and thrive in school, their community, and life. HOPE’s Values: • All Children Deserve to Thrive. We believe every child deserves to understand and to be understood, and to learn and thrive in school, community, and life. • Start Early, Start Strong. We promote early identification, intervention, collaboration, and support to help children and their families customize their choices to meet their unique needs. • Thriving is a Team Sport. We build and nurture robust partnerships with families, clinicians, schools, and community agencies to comprehensively support the children we serve. • Committed to Quality. We utilize cutting-edge technology, educational best-practices, and research-based clinical supports to ensure program excellence and to advance student success. • Here for Good. We operate with integrity, transparency, teamwork, and fiscal accountability for the good of the children we serve and to ensure HOPE will be here for good.
About This Cause
In its 20th year, Spokane HOPE remains the regions’ only program providing the continuum of services from Birth to 5 and the only Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) early learning program for children fitted with modern hearing technology (hearing aids, cochlear implants, Baha systems). We provide in-home services (Birth-3) and onsite small groups for toddlers and preschoolers in a language-enriched learning environment, with the goal to prepare these children for integration into their neighborhood kindergarten with little or no special service needs. Independent, confident and able to speak for themselves, right alongside their hearing peers. Parents whose children are diagnosed with hearing loss face a myriad of care providers, educational decisions, and conflicting emotions. As the family hub connects with different spokes of the treatment wheel, Spokane HOPE has become the linchpin that brings the child the best long-term capacity for school and life success. Since June of 2017, HOPE’s birth to three program served 31 children and their families. Because of this early intervention, the level of language development by age three is much greater and we can move the children’s’ auditory, oral, academic and social skills to a higher level thus setting them up for greater success in their neighborhood kindergartens. The birth to three children served are part of the Spokane Regional Health District's Infant Toddler Network. HOPE is the only program offering a Teacher of the Deaf to provide services to this vulnerable age group. Providing services to infants, as early as three months old, and their parents ensures that babies’ brains are bombarded with language during that rapid brain growth window of time. Because parents have had HOPE’s support, typically from the time of diagnosis, they understand the need for continued intervention services provided only by HOPE’s preschool and prekindergarten listening and spoken language programs. HOPE also offers a weekly Toddler Group where the children served through our in-home, birth to three services come to HOPE’s classrooms to begin their educational journey. Taught by our Teacher of the Deaf, a Speech-Language Pathologist and music therapist, children learn through structured listening, speaking, singing and even dancing activities. This weekly group is also critical to parents as they meet other parents of children with hearing loss. Parent-to-parent connection is a powerful community, allowing them to grow in their knowledge and resources in supporting their child's bright future. HOPE's preschool and prekindergarten sessions were near capacity this year with 16 children accessing the LSL education provided by our specialized Teacher of the Deaf and her team. Early intervention decreases speech and language delays caused by hearing loss. It's critical the children learn to interpret and use the sounds they hear, and this teaching must be reinforced by parents at home. HOPE's two Teachers of the Deaf teach families to 'narrate life' to their children. This includes alerting their child to the sounds of the world (auditory awareness) and building that awareness into recognition (auditory memory). We want them to be exhausted by the end of the day from talking. :) We foster early social relationships with corresponding language, as proper social skills are important in building meaningful friendships. Good communication is necessary for socialization. Embedding rich language opportunities to diversify vocabulary is critical as well. Our first alumni, now reaching high school age, are participating in sports, music, and drama. They run for student government, volunteer in the community, speak publicly to large audiences, and one has even started his own business, going door to door introducing himself and handing out business cards! Young people and parents alike tell us about the learning they gained at HOPE. Parents tell us, without a doubt, that HOPE gave their child a much brighter future.