Classroom for children at Summit Speech School

Childrens learning area at Summit Speech School

The Summit Speech School is a year-round educational institution based in

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246 ...

, Union County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States, which assists children in

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

and

central New Jersey Central Jersey is the central region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation of Central New Jersey is a distinct administrative toponym. Geographic area and descriptions While the State of New Jersey is often divided into North and ...

who have difficulty hearing. The school uses an approach which has been described variously as an oral-option or auditory-oral or auditory-aural method, in the sense that the program helps children "to listen and talk without the use of

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

". The school receives funding from various sources, including the Junior League of Summit and the

State of New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware Ri ...

. It hosts benefits to raise funds. According to a report in 2010, fund-raising is on-going and ranges from $800,000 to $1 million a year. It has been assisted in the past by volunteers. An introduction to music had been provided by renowned educator Capitola Dickerson for thirty years.

History

The Summit Speech School was formed in 1967 with assistance from the ''Junior League'' and with efforts by volunteers such as Diane Hunt Lawrence. The first building was located near Overlook Hospital. In the nineteen eighties,

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

Arthur F. Ackerman was president. The school moved to its present facility in

in 1997 into a former warehouse. Since 1997, according to one report, the building has been owned by the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

of New Providence. In 2008, New Jersey was on the verge of passing ''Grace's Law'', which requires health insurers to pay up to $1,000 per ear for hearing aids for children younger than fifteen years old, and the law was named for a former deaf student of the Summit Speech School named Grace. In 2009, volunteers including Betse Gump helped set up libraries for the children at the school. In 2010, the school was visited by

Mary Pat Christie Mary Pat Christie (née Foster; born September 15, 1963) is an American investment banker who was the First Lady of New Jersey between 2010 and 2018. She is the wife of former New Jersey Governor and 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie. E ...

, the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

of New Jersey and wife of Governor

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. Christie, who was born in Ne ...

Programs

Most children served by the school have severe hearing loss which can hamper their ability to comprehend speech in any environment with substantial background noise. Director Pamela Paskowitz said that the school tries to help particularly young children by teaching them to speak "clearly and often" and to use devices such as

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech und ...

s. According to a previous director: The school offers several programs which vary based on the age of the child: #''Parent-infant program'' to help parents of children under age three. #''Classroom instruction'' for children from ages three to six years old which alternates between "small group language lessons and large group activities". # For older children, teachers of the deaf work with students and classroom teachers at approximately forty New Jersey schools.

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.69726, -74.41373, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Schools for the deaf in the United States Schools in Union County, New Jersey Educational institutions established in 1967 Private elementary schools in New Jersey