Criteria for APSEA Service for Students
who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
APSEA provides support to students who are deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing. A person who is deaf is described as a person who learned language primarily visually (lipreading, cued speech, manual communication, communication board), and who receives information from the environment primarily visually. A person who is hard of hearing is described as a person who learned language primarily auditorally. Deafblindness involves simultaneous losses of the distance senses. It is a unique disability which requires intense educational intervention on a very individual basis. Deafblindness compels an individual to use the more limited near senses of touch, taste and smell to gain information.
Direct Service
Direct service is service with the student and may be provided to students:
- who have a bilateral severe/profound hearing loss
- who have an educational significant speech-language delay attributable to a hearing loss
- who are preschoolers
- who are deaf-blind
Tutorial Support
Tutors provide direct tutorial service to students under the direction of the APSEA itinerant teacher in collaboration with the classroom teacher. Tutors may be provided to students whose hearing loss necessitates direct service but where caseload constraints prohibit the intervention of the itinerant teacher.
Consultative Service
There is a range of consultative services which include itinerant services, transition planning, auditory verbal therapy, deafblind, deaf with multineeds and student and family counselling.
Consultative Service may be provided to students:
- who receive direct service from an itinerant teacher
- who have a speech-language delay of less than 2 years attributable to a hearing loss
- who have a permanent unilateral or bilateral hearing loss
Consultative services may also be provided to students, families and schools, and the families of preschoolers.
Language Transition Program Service
Placement within a Language Transition Program is predicated on the following:
- that the student's educational and linguistic needs are such that even with the provision of itinerant service is unable to reach the prescribed outcomes. This is determined by the school or board/district representatives in collaboration with APSEA.
- that there is a critical mass to allow a congregated program. (A minimum of four students and a maximum of seven students will be placed in one setting.)
Family and Student Counselling Service
Family and Student Counselling Service may be provided to students who receive APSEA services.
Transition Services
Transition planning is a collaborative service designed to assist students and their families in planning the major transitions during their education and from school to adult life.
Transition services are provided to students:
- who receive Direct Service from an itinerant teacher
- who receive service in an APSEA Language Transition Program
- who are referred for service by the itinerant teacher
- who are between the ages of 14-21
Change in level of Service
Levels of APSEA services are continually monitored during the year and can change depending on a number of factors (e.g., change in student need, increase in caseload etc.) In the spring of each year, APSEA reviews service at a system level in preparation for the new school year.