Help Your Students Reach Their Full Potential

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students are impacted by more than hearing loss.

Most DHH students learn English at a slower rate than hearing students.

Children who eventually communicate through sign language usually are not introduced to American Sign Language or a signed system until after toddlerhood.

Children who are used to amplification and communicate through spoken language usually don’t receive optimal benefit from amplification, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, until they are several years old.

The etiology or cause of hearing loss often leaves a child susceptible to neurological and learning differences. These etiologies include Cytomegalovirus, Meningitis, CHARGE Syndrome, and complications of prematurity.

These learning differences can impact a child’s academic development beyond the impact of the hearing loss itself.

Every student has unique strengths…

…and they should have access to whatever they need to reach their full potential.

Dr. Santa-Teresa has the training and experience to discover those strengths as well as challenges. 

Panorama Therapy also provides provide consultation with skilled professionals in psychoeducational assessment, neuropsychological assessment, assessment of language development, and assessment of emotional functioning of DHH students.

In-person psychoeducational assessments by Dr. Santa-Teresa are available in New Mexico, Oregon, Minnesota, and Kentucky.

We can also provide consultation for professionals providing direct assessment of DHH students. This includes:

Can’t most school or clinical psychologists appropriately test DHH children?

Not ethically.

The codes of ethics for both Clinical Psychologists and School Psychologists prohibit working outside the bounds of their competence.

Psychologists who are not trained and experienced in working with DHH children are not competent to accurately assess their abilities and potential.

“The DHH child in our district communicates through spoken English. Why can’t our regular school psychologist do the assessment?”

Even though this child may communicate through spoken English you will not know the impact of the hearing loss on learning unless your evaluator is skilled at interpreting assessment results for DHH students.

Using an interpreter is an option, but interpreting alone will not give you insight on what the results mean.

There aren’t special tests for DHH.

There are some nonverbal assessments that are appropriate for examining nonverbal learning potential.

There are also some nonverbal assessments that are too narrow in focus to accurately predict academic functioning.

Psychologists who are experienced in testing DHH students like to use a combination of assessment measures that can show both language-related functioning as well as nonverbal functioning.

Dr. Santa-Teresa provides the highest quality assessments for DHH students.  Contact her now.

DHH children cannot reach their potential until educators understand their individual strengths and challenges. Let us help. Email rst@panoramatherapy.com to set up a free 20-minute video or phone consultation.

The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) is the federal law that mandates free and appropriate education for children with disabilities. As part of IDEA students receiving special education services are evaluated every three years as a way of identifying strengths and needs and developing appropriate Individual Education Plans (IEPs). These evaluations are usually conducted by highly skilled school psychologists and include assessments of cognition, academics, and adaptive behavior.