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DePaul in the News
Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine • September, 2013
Building Sandcastles, Singing Songs
and Growing Up Deaf
By Lillian Rountree Lippencott and Nuelsi Canaan
Gabe met other parents seeking answers to
their questions and concerns about
parenting a child who is deaf or hard of
hearing. They visited classrooms where
deaf children were learning to listen
and speak. They met teachers and were
touched by the gentle ways in which the
teachers interacted with, encouraged, and
rewarded each child.
Jake Dyer shares a laugh with his grandfather Gabe.
Jake Dyer is an active 4-year-old boy. He
spent the summer riding his bicycle,
catching fireflies, swimming and building
sandcastles on the beach with his family.
Jake seems like your typical 4-year-old.
When Jake was born on a cold winter day
in February 2009, he had the clearest blue
eyes his mother had ever seen. A wisp
of white hair above his forehead foretold
that Jake would be special. In the weeks
that followed, Jake was diagnosed with
Waardenburg syndrome and profound
bilateral hearing loss. Jake was born deaf.
At just a few weeks old Jake came to
DePaul School for Hearing and Speech in
Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood with
his mom, Becky, and his grandfather, Gabe.
His mom cradled him gently in her arms as
they met the team of teachers and speech
therapists who would later teach Jake to
listen and speak. This day would become a
turning point in Jake’s life – it was the day
that his parents realized that even though
he was profoundly deaf, Jake had the
potential to learn to listen and speak
without using sign language.
On that day at DePaul School, Becky and
Jake is now 4 ½, and he speaks and hears
so well that when you meet him you would
not know that he is deaf. He has learned to
use his two cochlear implants that enable
him to hear, and he speaks like any typical
4-year-old. He is ready to participate in a
regular preschool classroom alongside his
peers who have typical hearing.
Jake is just one of the 10 children who are
transitioning from DePaul School to regular
education classrooms this fall. Each of
these children is deaf or hard of hearing
and learned to listen and speak at DePaul
School. DePaul provides Listening and
Spoken Language (LSL) therapy and
education to children from birth to age
15. Children who participate in DePaul’s
Toddler-Parent Program and Preschool
Program, like Jake, typically transition to
their neighborhood schools within four
years.
Children who are deaf or hard of hearing
learn to listen and speak at DePaul School
using access to sound provided by digital
hearing aids or cochlear implants. A team
of highly specialized teachers of the deaf,
speech therapists and audiologists provide
each child with an individualized education
to meet that child’s unique needs. In small
groups with a student-to-teacher ratio of
4:1, DePaul students receive a tremendous
amount of individual attention.
“Because of his school experience at
DePaul, Jake has grown into such a mature
and articulate child, inquisitive, eager
to learn new things, and with a desire to
learn new vocabulary and to become more
expressive in communicating,” said his
grandfather Gabe. “What a wonderful three
years. … He loves coming to school and will
have a hard time leaving.”
Jake and children like him are redefining
perceptions of deafness. Jake is profoundly
deaf, yet, with access to sound provided
by his two cochlear implants, he is able to
hear well enough to fully perceive speech,
to listen to the stories that his mom reads
to him before bedtime and to appreciate
music. He is a talkative little boy and sings
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as well as any
of his friends who use their ears to hear.
His life today looks very different than on
that day he was diagnosed as deaf. Jake
can communicate independently and can
participate fully in the hearing and
speaking world.
Jake and his family are members of St.
Joseph Parish in New Kensington.
Rountree Lippencott is director of outreach and development
for DePaul School for Hearing and Speech and is a member
of the Hearing Center Auxiliary of the Children’s Hospital of
Pittsburgh Foundation. Canaan is DePaul School’s marketing
manager and is a member of St. Regis Parish in Pittsburgh’s
Oakland neighborhood. For more information about DePaul
School for Hearing and Speech, contact Lillian or Nuelsi at
412.924.1012 or visit www.speakmiracles.org.
Jake Dyer talks with a classmate at DePaul School.
DePaul School for Hearing & Speech
6202 Alder Street • Pittsburgh, PA 15206
412.924.1012 • www.speakmiracles.org