Carrie Jackiewicz, Special Services Coordinator
We recently had a visit from Marne Sullivan, a graduate of the class of 2008. She is currently working on her master’s degree at the University of Southern California, and she runs track. Marne has become an advocate for people with hearing loss on social media. She does an amazing job of sharing what her life with hearing loss is like, such as not hearing something at a track meet, or dealing with moisture in her cochlear implant.
When Marne was a student at Child’s Voice, we had just begun to teach our Self-Advocacy Class to the PII students. When we created this class, our goal was to give our students the skills to be successful in their neighborhood schools and beyond. We had just started to work on our curriculum for the class, beginning with topics such as understanding hearing loss, using communication repair strategies, and learning in a large group. We did a lot of role play and discussion to practice different skills.
Over time, we have continued to refine our curriculum and we have incorporated more social-emotional skills into our lessons. Students ask themselves questions such as “How does it feel when I cannot hear in a large situation?” and “When I am the only kid with hearing loss in my class, I feel____.” We have also added more problem solving into our lessons (“How can I help myself when someone talks quietly?” “What can I do if someone is covering their mouth when they are talking?”
When our alumni come to visit, we typically chat about what they have been doing since they graduated. Self-advocacy skills don’t typically come up in conversation, so we don’t have specific information about how our class has helped our students. Perhaps we need to do a survey of our alumni to find out if and when they use the skills they were exposed to when they were at Child’s Voice. For me personally, seeing Marne own her hearing loss and share her life with others is so rewarding. I am happy to see her advocating for herself and others with hearing loss and I hope more people will learn about hearing loss from her.
Photo: Marne Sullivan (Class of ’08) reads a story and talks about her experience in school and sports during a recent visit.
Follow Marne Sullivan on Instagram at @hear_and_out.