University-School-Center Collaboration in Support of Identifying and Treating Minority Children with Hearing, Language, or Speech Difficulties: Fulfilling the Spirit of "No Child Left Behind".

St. Martin Hall, a demonstration school affiliated with Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, collaborated with the Harry Jersig Center to test students for speech and language difficulties or hearing loss. A significant number of the children were from economically disadvantaged homes. Most of the children were Hispanic. Audiologists and speech pathologists assisted by graduate students from Our Lady of the Lake University conducted screenings of 108 children over a four-month period. Children who failed any screening were referred for further testing and possible intervention. This collaboration demonstrates how good will, cooperation, communication and energy can do much to improve the lives of children when school and parent resources are limited.________________________ lassrooms today are filled with an “educational hum.” Noise is everywhere! What would it be like if you were not able to hear your teacher teaching a phonics lesson when all of the other children could hear perfectly? That is a problem that many children face in schools every day. Statistics show that 15% of children from 6 to 19 years of age have some degree of hearing loss in one or both ears. A Vanderbilt University study found a 14.3% rate of hearing loss in a national sample of children who were of school age. The American Speech Language Hearing Association reports that more that 1 million U.S. children have some degree of hearing loss (Black, 2003, May). The Gallaudet Research Institute indicates that 40% of children with hearing loss have additional disabilities (GRI, 2003a, 2003b). This concern has national significance that C NATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION JOURNAL-ELECTRONIC 2___________________________________________________________________________________ reaches far beyond the individual students and the demonstration campus of this study. The “No Child Left Behind Act” mandates that every child be on grade level by grade three. Educators nationwide are seeking ways to reduce the number of children in our special education classes but have they considered that a child’s learning problems may be due to a hearing loss? Considering these realities investigators wanted know the following: 1) Do these statistics accurately represent what is happening within the economically disadvantaged minority population of St. Martin Hall? 2) What is the impact of hearing, speech and language difficulties on future learning and placement of each St. Martin Hall student?” and 3) How could the special relationship among a university, its demonstration school and a center specializing in hearing, speech and language disorders lead to collaborative intervention to identify and intervene on behalf of students with hearing or language difficulties early in their academic lives?