Special to ViewUNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger, center, sits with Alyssa Rodriquez, left, Jack Saccoliti, Dallas Gutierrez, Grace Gutierrez, Aspen Sorenson and Karley Misso at the Meet the Rebels basketball clinic hosted by the Las Vegas Paradise Sertoma in November. More than 60 Nevada chapter of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing members took part in the event. The chapter?s next event is a family picnic on Saturday at Acacia Park, 50 Casa De Fuego St., in Henderson.
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The board members of the Nevada chapter of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are hoping to catch infants and children who fall through the cracks.
"We, as a chapter, want families to know they have a choice," said Kim Sorenson, the president of the Nevada chapter of AG Bell.
The chapter originally formed a year and a half ago, and started meeting regularly at the UNLV Preschool nine months ago.
The mission of AG Bell is to encourage "independence through listening and speaking by providing support, advocacy, education and networking for (people) with hearing loss of all ages, their families and professionals."
AG Bell works to connect professionals and educators with families of children or individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. The group promotes an oral deaf method of teaching children who are deaf and hard of hearing to speak. The group also promotes early screening and intervention to use assistive devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.
"Every deaf child has some residual hearing," said Corrine Altman, co-president elect for the Nevada chapter of AG Bell.
According to the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, a cochlear implant is an electronic hearing device that is placed in the inner ear. The device sends electric currents to the auditory nerve, which simulates natural hearing.
Sorenson said that after a child or adult receives the cochlear implant, he or she goes through extensive speech therapy. With time and progress, students can be sent to mainstream schools, sometimes, Sorenson said, as early as kindergarten.
Sorenson's 7-year-old daughter Aspen is profoundly deaf and used a cochlear implant to hear. Sorenson said Aspen received straight As in first grade. Her teachers recently told Sorenson that there is a possibility Aspen could finish the auditory-verbal intensive program next year.
"The technology is here. Aspen's not the exception. She's part of the new generation," Sorenson said.
Two of Altman's children were diagnosed as profoundly deaf before they were 2. At the time, cochlear implants were done selectively and her children did not receive their implants until they were in their teens. Now in their 20s, Natalie and Anthony have graduated from Las Vegas high schools.
In 2001, the Altmans worked with state Sen. Terry Care to write Assembly Bill 250 that resulted in Nevada Newborn Hearing Screening.
Chapter secretary Laura Richards' son Evan attends third grade with his peers at a neighborhood school and receives services from the Clark County School District to help him in the classroom.
"Early intervention -- that's the key," Richards said.
Sorenson stressed that AG Bell needs funding to support its cause and mission. Currently, the Nevada chapter has about 150 members.
"We're definitely a nonprofit organization with a heart," Sorenson said.
Altman said supporters of the oral deaf education method do have challengers.
"One of the misconceptions is that we don't accept our kids. It's actually the opposite. We embrace them," she said.
AG Bell holds monthly meetings at the UNLV/CSUN Preschool on the campus of UNLV. The meetings are open to members and nonmembers.
The group's next event is the Spring Fling Family Picnic on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Acacia Park, 50 Casa Del Fuego St., in Henderson. RSVP by Wednesday by calling 348-4815.
The next chapter meeting will be May 23 at 6:45 p.m. at the preschool.
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