AIR DATE MAY 5, 2022
Title: Deaf and Communication Awareness
Learn about resources available in central Florida for children with deafness or communication barriers and their families.
Guests and Locations
Silent Hope, Founder – Marilu Santos
OCPS Instructional Support, Director – Elizabeth Padilla
Orange County Community Resources for Individuals with Deafness
According to the NIH, about 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children are born with hearing loss in one or both ears. Deafness is a challenge that many children face, and one that adults can experience as well, whether it be a product of time or a medical condition.
I sat down to speak with Marilu Santos, founder of Silent Hope, and Elizabeth Padilla, Director of Instructional Support with Orange County Public Schools. They both share all the county’s resources, from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program to community outreach and more.
Understanding Communication Barriers
One of the biggest challenges deaf individuals face is communication, especially as a child.
Marilu chimes in on her experience, “A communication barrier can look different for every family. It could be a cultural difference. So, the communication between one culture and another culture can mean completely different things. As Latinas, we know you say something in Spanish, and you translate it into English and it loses its meaning or it has a completely different meaning. So, a barrier is anything that the communication between the two people trying to communicate isn’t effective, something that’s causing that.”
However, just because communication barriers exist doesn’t mean we should throw our hands up in defeat. Marilu continues, “The biggest way you can overcome a communication barrier is acknowledging that it exists. I think oftentimes people don’t know that there is a barrier. They just seem to say, well, they just don’t understand. Or there’s some type of frustration or discouragement or sadness or just something that’s going on that communication isn’t effective, and they don’t even realize it.”
Orange County Programs Available to Families with Communication Barriers
Silent Hope makes community outreach a top priority. Their biggest programs are sign language classes: beginners, intermediate, and baby sign language.
They also provide 1:1 mentorship to parents that have a child who is deaf or experiences any type of communication barrier.
“The parents that have children who are born deaf or hard of hearing, we can partner them with an interpreter that knows what their school system is going to be like later on,” Marilu continues, “We also have a camp in the summer, which is one of our favorite things that we love to do. We host a camp at the facility of Faith Assembly in Orlando, and it’s a weeklong camp, day camp. And at that camp, it’s not for, just open for everyone, it’s open for children that are deaf, children that are hard of hearing, siblings.”
School-Based Programs
Lake Sybelia is one of our elementary schools that hosts students that require total communication as part of their educational curriculum and academic needs. “Here, we have all grade levels from pre-K to fifth grade, where we also have audiologists that work with and in the classrooms. We have an audiology booth that allows for us to get to students that may need to have hearing aids that need to be tested, make sure that students are hearing the best that they can, so they have access to instruction,” Elizabeth explains.
She continues, “As part of a regular monitoring cycle, we work with the students here, and they don’t have to travel to another audiology office. They don’t have to go to the doctor; they can get those services here. And then we have good communication with our ENT groups that are throughout central Florida, where we communicate back and forth to make sure that we’re giving the best type of care that we can to them.”
If you are interested in Silent Hope or Lake Sybelia Elementary School, you can find out more by visiting their websites and getting involved.
