Sound Solutions (Itinerant Services)

HIP is housed in the host district of Midland Park and follows the curriculum of the Midland Park Schools. This arrangement offers students inclusion opportunities and interaction with age-appropriate, non-disabled peers. Inclusion options may include: collaborative teaching, participation in lunch and recreation periods, or a full spectrum of academic and extracurricular activities. All of our students are eligible to participate in general education, physical education, sports, music, art, and library classes. Progress is documented by Parent-Teacher conferences and report cards that are issued three times a year. HIP students participate in all state-mandated testing, including Terra Nova (grade 2), New Jersey ASK (grades 3 and 4), and New Jersey PASS (grades 5 and 6).

Fully-certified teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing
ASHA (American Speech-Hearing-Language Association)-certified speech and language pathologists with specialization in language, speech, and hearing impairment
Certified auditory verbal therapist
ASHA-certified audiologist
Prompt Therapy
Regular education classroom teachers
Paraprofessionals
MSW Social Worker
Learning Disabilities teacher consultant
Art instructor
Librarian
Music instructor
Physical Education teacher
Physical Therapist
Occupational Therapist
Computer specialists
CART (Computer Access Real-Time Translation)

SPEECH

The speech therapists in the department maintain an intensive speech correction profile of articulation, audition, language, and conversation competence goals for each child.

Students in our program receive a variety of types of speech services. These include individual, small group, and large group experiences. Infused speech lessons occur weekly in collaborative classrooms and self-contained settings. Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) is another venue for specific children.

Speech sessions are offered according to the demands of the IEP. Speech sessions are one-half hour in length and have audition as its base. Conversation skills are taught in small group sessions and are maintained in infused sessions within the classroom environment.

Speech therapists act as consultants to classroom teachers and parents as they bring this process to completion through bridging activities that are recommended for classroom and home. They also communicate regularly with an in-house educational audiologist, as well as outside audiologists and implant centers. In so doing, optimal auditory input is maximized and the children are expected to make full use of their residual hearing either through the use of hearing aids and/or cochlear implants.

Consultation with parents occurs on a regular basis. Parents are invited to participate in therapy sessions in order to learn different techniques to be carried over with their child at home.

AUDIO VERBAL THERAPY (AVP) is offered to newly-implanted children and preschoolers when they enter the program. Parent participation is of the utmost importance to this process. The parents' presence in these sessions ensures carry-over of techniques at home. We offer mentorships in AVT at our site.

PROMPT THERAPY is being offered to some of the children in the center-based program who exhibit oral-motor difficulties. These children are part of a pilot project which was established to focus on their needs in order to improve intelligibility for specific sounds and to increase their functional language.

We host student therapists from Seton Hall University. They complete practicum hours under the guidance of our staff speech pathologists and certified AVTs. Consultants in the field of PROMPT techniques and AVT come to HIP on an ongoing basis for therapists on our staff.


AUDIOLOGY

The academic day in a school setting consists primarily in listening. The classroom is an auditory/verbal environment. Our goal is to ensure that technology is utilized effectively to give our students access to spoken language in the listening environment.

Our full-time audiologist provides comprehensive audiological assessments to monitor our students' hearing status. There is ongoing monitoring of hearing aids, cochlear implants, and FM systems. The educational audiologist works closely with the child's private audiologist to make certain that each child is receiving optimal benefit from his or her current amplification. Real ear measurements and electroacoustic analysis are utilized to determine if hearing aids and FM equipment are functioning properly. In addition, listening checks are performed by the staff to monitor hearing technology on a daily basis.

Relationships have been established with several area audiologists and cochlear implant centers. Two centers currently provide on-site mappings during the school year. Back-up accessories such as batteries, cords, magnets, and headpieces are valuable for our students to use during the school day.

The audiologist consults with speech therapists, private audiologists, teacher consultants of the deaf, center-based teachers of the deaf, and school districts, where many of our sudents have Transitioning. Collaboration between parents and professionals is essential in meeting every child's unique audiological needs.

The Bergen County Special Services program for students who have auditory disabilities is one of only sixteen such programs for students who are hearing impaired in the United States and Canada to participate in a networking system with Gallaudet University in Washington , DC .