Newswise — Teachers from all over the state of California are heading to Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland (CHRCO) to attend seminars that focus on teaching children with cochlear implants. CHRCO is one of the many hospitals in the nation to provide patients with cochlear implants, but is one of the few hospitals that offers both patients and their families with complete team care.
Children with cochlear implants have different needs when it comes to learning because they have a different way of hearing and processing information. Cochlear implants don't necessarily fix a child's hearing. The implants do provide the child with an idea of what the world may sound like. Since these children are processing information differently, they need to be taught differently as well.
The teaching seminars occur monthly, except in the summer. Teachers are invited to listen to professionals speak about their experience with children who have received cochlear implants and offer advice on the best way to educate the children. Each teaching seminar has a theme, ranging from topics such as "preschool years" to "total communication" .
"It's more of a philosophy than a teaching guide" , says Molly Walker, a Speech and Language Pathologist at CHRCO. "The goal is to fit the children with cochlear implants into a regular classroom setting" . Since each child is so different, there isn't a technique that will work for everyone. The seminars allow teachers to come together to discuss what has and has not worked for them, and to receive advice on how to get children to reach their full academic potential.
About Children's Hospital & Research Center OaklandChildren's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is a designated Level I pediatric trauma center and the largest pediatric critical care facility in the region. The hospital has 181 licensed beds and 166 hospital-based physicians in 31 specialties, more than two thousand five hundred employees, and an operating budget of $287 million. The hospital's research institute has an annual budget of $41 million with more than 300 basic and clinic investigators. Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) has made significant progress in areas including pediatric obesity, cancers, sickle cell disease, AIDS/HIV, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.
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