Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf is an auditory/oral school where deaf children listen, think and talk. Our core values are communication; building a community of learners; honoring and respecting individual differences and commitment to community. Instruction at the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf is distinctive for its emphasis on cognitive development. Children with severe to profound hearing loss are given an intensive training that focuses on the sequential development of cognitive processes as the basis for acquiring language and speech. Following the theories of Jean Piaget in child psychology, the school seeks to unfold for each child with a hearing loss, the same intellectual steps seen in the growth of a normal hearing child. By presenting teaching techniques that are cognitively based, it is believed that preschool deaf children can master thought patterns and communication appropriate to their age level. The second area of focus, and equally important, is the school's emphasis on the development and use of residual hearing in each deaf child. Teaching methods focus on the training of the residual hearing of each child, with the use of advanced amplification equipment such as power hearing aids and cochlear implants, to a functional level. On-site diagnostics and audiological services allow for the daily monitoring of each child's amplification equipment, and the availability of loaner hearing aids ensures that every child is given the opportunity to listen everyday. ...read more