Children Born Half a World Away Find their Voices at Tucker

	Top left: Ella Schanbacher. Top right: Shawn and Sophia Jo Peters. Left: Natalie Howorth

November 1, 2009 --Sondra and Rob Schanbacher always knew they wanted to adopt. Interested in an infant from overseas, they were eventually matched with a baby girl born in a village outside Hanoi. They traveled to Vietnam to meet their 5-week-old daughter, whom they would name Ella Rose, and wound up falling in love with the country. After a handing-over ceremony, they visited Ella’s village, where they were welcomed by villagers who pointed to Ella and said that she was lucky.

Though the Schanbachers had requested a healthy baby, they noticed right away that Ella had some special needs. A thick cataract in her left eye would have to be removed immediately, and therapy would be necessary to insure her vision developed normally. After meeting these challenges, “we thought we were strong parents,” said Rob.

Then, when Ella was 15 months old, language delays suggested that something else could be wrong. That’s when they learned that Ella is deaf, with a profound hearing loss in one ear and a severe hearing loss in the other. They were overwhelmed by the massive informational binder they received after Ella’s diagnosis. But they did find one page about Tucker-Maxon. After watching the videos on the school’s web site, the Schanbachers saw that deaf children could learn to listen and speak with early diagnosis and intervention, and they called Tucker-Maxon.

Ella received a cochlear implant six weeks after her diagnosis, and it was activated on November 11, 2008—election day. Rob recalls that “you could see her world opening up when she started to hear.” Today, Ella is a lively, curious two-year-old who loves music and books and is on track to have typical speech and language by age four.

Says Sondra, “When people ask me about international adoption, I tell them it’s all about resources. We are blessed to be where we are, in this part of the county, close to a school full of this kind of talent. Looking back at what we’ve gone through, we are so grateful that she’s at Tucker-Maxon. Everywhere she goes, she’s surrounded by people who want the best for her.”

WHATEVER SHE’S NEEDED

Natalie Howorth’s parents, Andrea and John, knew that Natalie would have special needs when they met her in an office building in China’s Yunan Province at 11 months. Natalie was born without external ear canals (atresia) and with malformed outer ears (microtia).

For the Howorths, there was never any doubt about which communication method Natalie would use. Through friends who also had a child with atresia and microtia, they knew it was possible for Natalie to listen and speak with the help of a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) and early intervention services. When the Howorths called their educational service district to get services for Natalie, they were told that there was a private option—Tucker-Maxon—but they assumed it would be prohibitively expensive. They checked the school out anyway and were surprised to find that it was affordable.

Natalie began early intervention with Pam Fortier, whom Andrea describes as “my parenting coach.” Pam helped Andrea and John understand which speech sounds Natalie has trouble hearing, like “s” sounds at the end of words. She also taught the Howorths how to incorporate language-learning into play and daily life.

“At some point, words started coming out of Natalie’s mouth that we had no idea she knew the meanings of. It was fun to watch her progress past ‘mama’ and ‘uh oh’ to all these other words like ‘ball.’”

As Natalie makes the transition to from early intervention to preschool, she still gets “crazy excited” when she sees Pam. The Howorths are grateful that “even through its own financial struggles, the school has continued to give Natalie whatever she’s needed.”

A STRONG DESIRE TO SPEAK

Lisa and Chuck Peters adopted their son, Shawn, from Chengdu, China in 2006. He was five years old and had been living in the orphanage since age two. The Peters knew that Shawn had a hearing loss. They had requested a deaf child, because they are deaf themselves.

Lisa’s hearing loss was caused by meningitis. She started learning to speak and lipread at Tucker-Maxon when she was eighteen months old, but hearing aids were not sufficient for her to hear sounds. Today, she hears with the help of a cochlear implant. Both Lisa and Chuck grew up speaking and lipreading but learned American Sign Language (ASL) as adults. They use ASL as their primary form of communication.

When the Peters brought Shawn home, he was fitted with digital hearing aids. Though he’d worn analog hearing aids in China, he hadn’t acquired language. The Peters enrolled Shawn at the public Columbia Regional program, where he was placed in a deaf classroom, but they found “no spoken language goals there.” Although Shawn learned ASL quickly, “he expressed a strong desire to learn to speak and listen.” After searching for private speech therapy services, they decided to enroll Shawn at Tucker-Maxon. It wasn’t an easy decision. Lisa knew that Shawn would have to be immersed in spoken language at home as well as at school, and that meant that she and her husband would have to speak with him rather than signing.

In the meantime, the Peters had adopted another child from China, Sophia Jo. Like Shawn, she was five years old and had a hearing loss. Like Shawn, she’d had no access to intervention services and hadn’t acquired language.

Choosing between ASL and spoken English was “a big issue,” says Lisa. “We wanted to give them the best we could.” Ultimately, the Peters wanted both their children to learn to listen and speak, giving them the option to learn ASL later on, like Lisa and Chuck did.

Today Shawn has a cochlear implant as well as a hearing aid, and Sophia Jo has two cochlear implants. Says Lisa, “Helen Keller said that talking is every deaf child’s birthright. It is true! While Tucker-Maxon works hard with our children, I work hard to support that too by keeping my commitment to use my voice.” She adds, “Both children are different and very unique. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.” —Jessica Johnson

This article is from the Fall 2009 issue of Now You're Talking.