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A Profile in Perseverance
Kari Hamrick Can't Hear, but Boy Can She Talk! By Teri Brown
In most ways she's a typical teenager. She worries about school and friends, reads Teen People and is concerned about her weight. But if you look closely, you might be able to spy the hearing aids under all that glossy brown hair.
Kari Lynn Hamrick is profoundly deaf. With hearing aids, she can hear some sounds. Without them, she can hear nothing. But don't try to sign when you speak to her because she won't understand you. Kari is a part of a new generation of oral/deaf children. They may not hear much, but boy can they talk!
"I hated the bus rides because they were so long and lonely on the way to school," says Hamrick, now an engaging 15-year-old. "But I gained the ability to talk. I am glad because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be able to talk with normal hearing people."
There are several different methods of education parents can choose for their deaf children. These include the auditory/oral approach, which utilizes a child's residual hearing; the bilingual/biculturalism approach, which teaches sign language first and then English; and the total communication approach, which teaches English using sign language and a mix of other approaches. After doing an exhaustive study of all the methods available to them, Kari's entire family, parents and grandparents, chose to go the oral route, and the results have been outstanding.
Kari entered Tucker when she was 14 months old and attended school there full time until the second grade, when she was mainstreamed part-time into her local elementary school. The support from Tucker was instrumental in her elementary school success. Not only did Tucker provide itinerant help coming to her elementary school with her, the school also gave in-service workshops to educate the staff on Kari's needs. By the third grade Kari was successfully mainstreamed into her local elementary school.
High school has been more of a challenge.