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December 2012 Happy Holidays!
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Greetings!
Happy Holidays to you AND your families!  We here at Double Pride want to do everything we can to see a happier and more successful new generation of deaf and hard of hearing students AND THEIR DIVERSE FAMILIES! We are overjoyed with the wonderful partnerships we are developing around the country using an INTERDISCIPLINARY approach, partnering our experienced Signing Family Counselors/Coaches/Consultants with Deaf Educators to address the needs of this new generation of deaf students AND THEIR FAMILIES more effectively. These new partnerships are directly related to the 6 hours of Double Pride training we provided to 200 teachers of the Deaf in USA and Canada in March 2012. WE TOGETHER can improve family communication QUICKLY with research based family systems approaches that work FAST to give the family the communication tools they need to become a happy "Double Pride Family"!  
This newsletter has several recent examples of these wonderful partnerships blossoming. We give special thanks to Marla Hatrack of A.L.L. for inviting me to San Diego last September to talk about "Successful Deaf and Hearing Siblings-How?" We also thank Lafayette Elementary School, Deaf Community Services Agency, and Parent Links for giving us HOPE here at Double Pride about what WE CAN do when we work TOGETHER like your new after school program this school year! WOW! Thank you for your inspiration and LEADERSHIP!
Thanks to Michele Tompkins, ECE teacher at California School for the Deaf, we are currently looking at the new Infant Mental Health approaches at theZero to Three website as a model for us to follow. And thanks to Jenn Watt, Toddler Teacher at Oakland Burbank School and Laura Kim, Teacher at Lafayette Elementary School. A special thanks to Cecil Devers, Mental Health Professional at Therapeutic Nursery School at East Bay Agency for Children in Oakland for giving us a tour of their successful interdisciplinary approach. They employ mental health counselors to work along side the preschool teachers INSIDE the classroom DAILY, providing both individual and family counseling for at risk
minority preschoolers who were not able to succeed in traditional preschool settings.  We are now spearheading a new proposed pilot project and working with grant writers to secure funding. The project's goal is to demonstrate in one school year how an interdisciplinary team can DOUBLE or TRIPLE the current number of families signing. We plan to demonstrate more successful family communication approaches by including the hearing siblings quickly. We plan to combine all the best practices from our specialized fields TOGETHER into one unified interdisciplinary seamless approach. We will work with teachers to guide/coach the families as quickly as possible to IMPROVE FAMILY COMMUNICATION by combining the "Best Practices" we already have from each of our respective fields of expertise: Early Childhood Educators, Signing Family Systems Experts, Sign Language Researchers, Administrators, and Grant Writers. This strong collaboration as one interdisciplinary and unified team will be the key for the project's success.    Again from the bottom of our "Double Pride hearts" we wish YOU AND YOUR WONDERFUL DIVERSE FAMILIES a very merry holiday season TOGETHER -- happily communicating on our road to expanding happy Double Pride families, schools and communities! We want to develop "Double Pride Family Communication-Miracle Grow" with your support. Warmest regards, Sheila Jacobs, MFT CEO, Double Pride 
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Parent Testimonial:Loni Scalercia
Hearing Mother of Gallaudet Freshman,
President, A.L.L.
Alliance for Language and Literacy for Deaf Children
Sheila,
Thank you so much for coming to San Diego and taking the time to help us rethink how we work with families. The perspective you have is a gift from God.
Loni
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Laura Kim
DHH Special Needs K-6
 | | Laura Kim with AB |
"I must tell you something.
Many good things have been happening lately since you returned to Northern Cal. Remember AB? He's been sprouting and is still growing!!! Not only AB but my other students are sprouting too! ;) Sprouting up quickly like a 'wildfire of communication'!"
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Attachment-Oriented Success Story at Lafayette School
One of the highlights of visiting this mainstreamed elementary school with about 40 deaf/hoh students there was my experience in a special needs classroom with one particular student, a 6 year old boy. The teacher asked me if I could help her break through his way of being "too independent" and always walking away.
In 20 minutes, I was able to work WITH this teacher and coach her on ways to more successfully ATTACH to this student through using his favorite story with his favorite character and by using ATTACHMENT techniques of "mirroring" and playing "peekaboo" and using more verbs to connect us.
Very quickly teacher realized she needed to COPY his behaviors in order to CONNECT with him emotionally. The student then would begin to COPY teacher's behaviors then suddenly they are CONNECTED/ATTACHED. I was able to use various psychological oriented attachment stages to "JUMPSTART" his delayed attachment process. Suddenly when I waved good bye because the teacher had to walk this student to lunch, she was literally walking like a "Mommy Duck" and her student was copying EVERYTHING and walking like a "Baby Duck" like actual IMPRINTING that is supposed to happen VOILA PAHHHHH!
The teacher shared that later that day when she took him to the bus, this student for the first time reached out his hand on her shoulder and gave his teacher a kiss on her cheek to say good bye! So touching!
5 weeks later, I checked in with the teacher on this student's progress. AMAZING!!!!
This student's signing has "exploded" and he is now signing sentences with 4 signs like:
"I want computer please." Also he volunteered to jump on stage with his teacher who was teaching the new Evening Family ASL Class and was beaming in participating in assisting his teacher in demonstrating new signs. His parents were in the class BEAMING to see their son take on this new role as teacher's aide!
I am realizing that these tools of SUCCESSFUL ATTACHMENT are really the basis for more successful classroom and family communication.
The teacher and I both agreed that this was indeed "Miracle Grow" on her deaf student's academic performance almost! In just 5 weeks the student is now linked to his teacher, classmates, teacher's aide, and his parents in evening ASL class once a week.
We have many ways we can coach families and teachers on how to "jump start" your ATTACHMENT PROCESS quickly and provide "Miracle Grow" for your students to attach quickly to you as their teacher and then you guide them to building more attachments to their classmates, other staff, and most importantly to their families as quick as possible so that the student can start to make up for lost time as fast as possible to start "catching up".
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Sheila's 365 Day Challenge
Teach your deaf students how to teach their hearing families 10 new signs each week. Demonstrate and role play with your deaf students so they practice teaching their hearing sisters, brothers, and parents how to sign 10 new signs a week.
In one month...10 signs/week x 4 weeks = 40 new signs per month.
In 10 months... 40 signs/month x 10 months = 400 new signs per school year.
In 10 school years...400 new signs per year x 10 years= 4,000 new signs that teachers helped their deaf students teach their hearing families!!
Real Life Example:
Jennifer Ratchel, Teacher, Bakersfield
Jennifer received a $500 mini grant to buy video cameras to lend her deaf students. The cameras are used to film the student teaching his and her family at home. Then the student brings the video to share with class in "show and tell". This is one way students can share and LINK their classroom communication to their home and family communication for a more successful communication bridge!
Congrats to Jennifer!
Read more about her "Teaching Sign Language to My Family" project.
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Gallaudet University
Professor at Georgia Tech and VL2 Researcher Dr. Jenny Singleton studies how infants and children who are exposed to a signed language develop visual engagement skills. This article is a discussion about natural language acquisition in the classroom and discusses "matching" and "mismatching" engagement. |
International Sign Language Day
We had a great time celebrating last month in Sacramento with the wonderful CODA Sistas and Antoine Hunter performing!
 | Coda Sistas - "No One"
Video by Ken Arcia |
 
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 Tura Franzen: Hearing Mother of Deaf Son
When Sheila first called me with a strong sense of urgency and asked me if I was aware that over 80% of hearing parents of Deaf children did not sign, my first thought was, "Well, yes." After all, I am a hearing parent of a Deaf son who is now 44 years old. And then the usual guilt rose up inside me. But there was no judgment in her voice and she was asking me... ME..."Why?" My second thought was, "Do you have several days?" Not only am I a mom but also I worked as the Nursing Supervisor at CSD, Fremont for 8 years. I saw my story- the hearing mom of deaf child- over and over again so much so that I got used to the idea and felt like it was the norm...
It felt strange to have Sheila Jacobs, the person whom I considered a "Deaf Families Expert", ask for my thoughts. After all, she was a hearing daughter of deaf parents. And here she was calling me - a hearing mother of a deaf adult -
to ask me what I think!
Read more of Tura's story.
 | | Donaldson & Sweigart Family |
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Through Your Child's Eyes:
American Sign Language
Produced at CSUN by the CA Department of Education in support of using sign language/ASL in Deaf Education throughout California
![Through Your Child's Eyes: American Sign Language [Subtitled]](https://thumbnail.constantcontact.com/remoting/v1/vthumb/YOUTUBE/c2f8e51e247a43f792b3eef893ad4385) | English
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 | | A Trav�s de los Ojos de su Hijo: con el lenguaje estadounidese de se�as |
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Great Resource for Parents:
works to empower parents of deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers through mentoring, networking, and resources. See their current newsletter for more information.
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Collaboration Works! Wednesday After School Program Launched This Year
CONGRATULATIONS Deaf Community Services of San Diego, Inc., Lafayette Elementary School, and Parent Links for all WORKING TOGETHER on this amazing Wed After School collaboration starting this school year!
This program was designed because the Principal/Administration of Lafayette Elementary School had the wisdom to call a Townhall Meeting last Spring 2012. They invited the Deaf Community, hearing parents, and others to bring various ideas and to assist in achieving better educational outcomes for their deaf students.
Six months later the Wednesday after school program was implemented, offering E5,a n Empowerment Program with Deaf adults and teens; an on site Tutoring Program with their Literacy Specialist; and a brand new evening ASL Class for the Whole Family (including the deaf students and their hearing sisters/brothers of all ages), coordinated and designed by Parent Links.
You are the model for what we can all do to "connect the dots" between Deaf Community, Deaf Education (mainstreamed/residential programs), and Hearing Families working together WEEKLY!
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 | Storysigning Strategies
Early Childhood Education,
California School for the Deaf
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Save the Date!
July 19-21, 2013
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Just One Person
 If just one person believes in you. Deep enough, and strong enough, believes in you. Hard enough, and long enough before you knew it, someone else would think, if he can do it, I can do it. Making it... Two! Two whole people who believe in you. And if two whole people believe in you. Deep enough, and strong enough believe in you. Hard enough and long enough there's bound to be some other person who believes in making it a threesome. Making it... Three...people you can say, believe in me. And if three whole people, why not... Four. And if four whole people, why not... More, and... More, and more. And when all those people believe in you, deep enough and strong enough believe in you, hard enough and long enough it stands to reason you, yourself will start to see what everybody sees in you. And maybe even you, can believe in you, too. |
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