Carrie's Heart

I always enjoy working with the students in the "Audicion" group. This group has students who all have hearing impairments. The students instruction is bilingual focusing on Mexican sign-langauage and written Spanish. At CAM in Playa their is one audicion group with students ranging in age from preschool to sixth grade. What a challenge! Students in the audicion group typically do not have intellectual disabilities and thus the focus is on the regular education curriculum with an emphasis on communication using sign language. It is really interesting observing the group and seeing how skilled the students are at utilizing sign. Again, the challenge faced by special educators is that the educational system in Mexico does not support the need for these children to have any secondary education. Their teacher Manuel spoke with me about the success stories he has experienced of students going on to find employment in the community. Unfortuneately, there are also many instances of students who do not go on to live independent lives and who are even taken advantage of within their colonias. One aspect of CAM that really impressed me is that often former students are hired as teacher assistants to work in the classrooms with younger students after they have graduated. The teacher assistant pictured with the audicion students is a former student who did a really great job working with the students in small group activities.