Hearing-impaired students get glimpse of opportunities

ST. LOUIS -- Kazoos, cookies and a semi-truck represented a world of opportunity to hearing-impaired children at a career fair Tuesday in St. Louis.

More than 50 children ages six to 11 learned that any job is available to them, despite their hearing loss.

"We want to inspire them and show them even though they are hearing-impaired, they can try hard and do anything," said Susan Barrett, a primary teacher at The Central Institute for the Deaf, the fair's host.

Principal JoEllen B. Epstein said the fair -- a first for the school -- was modeled after similar ones held at mainstream elementary schools. She also said her deaf and partially deaf students can take on any career. The school, part of Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, focuses on oral teaching, which develops speaking and listening skills. Other schools teach children to communicate through American Sign Language.

Students from St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf in suburban Chesterfield attended the fair and learned about food, safety and music.

Carrying around bags of pamphlets and candy and chattering away, students rotated in groups throughout the afternoon. They flashed cards to change the tempo and volume of a clarinet performed by a St. Louis Symphony musician, then joined him in "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on their own kazoos. A pastry chef helped students create -- and eat -- their own cookies. A fireman -- a father of a former Institute student -- and a police dispatcher relayed messages of safety, which Barrett said is particularly important because of potential communication problems between students and rescuers.

Institute student Jelynn Louis said her favorite guest was the pastry chef. The 11-year-old didn't know what career she wanted yet, although Barrett predicted her student would be an artist.

Three of every 1,000 babies are born deaf, Epstein said. Parents send their children, from as young as 18 months old, to the Institute to prepare them to move into a mainstream school by the time they are 12 years old. Some parents relocate from other cities so their children can attend the Institute, said Epstein, whose own parents did that for her sister in 1949. Seven of the school's 67 students live on campus in dormitories.

Seventy-percent of her students have cochlear implants, which send auditory signals to the brain, Epstein said. Being an oral school, the focus is on learning to speak, and not relying on sign language to communicate.