Erin Sizemore’s class at Seven Oaks Elementary School (SOES) in Wesley Chapel isn’t your average preschool class. Her students are not just learning their ABC’s -- they’re learning to listen and speak.
“It’s giving them those listening and language opportunities all day long and hopefully through fun activities, so they don’t even realize that they’re working on those skills,” said Sizemore, who teaches the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Preschool class at SOES.
All the children wear cochlear implants or hearing aids. For lessons, Sizemore wears a transmitter.
“When I have this on and I’m using it, it cuts down on background noise and it helps them to focus just on my voice for instructional purposes,” she said.
The goal is to help each child progress so they can attend kindergarten with the rest of their peers. This learning option for hard of hearing students has been met with praise by parents from all over the county.
“He has just made huge strides, he started here when he was 3 and he is just totally a different child,” said parent Mary Carrasquillo about her son Matthew, one of Sizemore's students. “He didn’t really speak much when he first came here.”
Now, two years later, Carrasquillo can see the difference in her son’s speech.
“He’s done well where he can communicate with us and have a conversation and learn and progress,” Carrasquillo said.
SOES currently hosts the program on their campus, but students from anywhere in the county can enroll.