Landon Nicholas at Walt Disney World

Dear Friend,

On September 27, 2006 my third son was born, Landon Nicholas. At five weeks, my wife and I were confronted with the reality of a diagnoses; profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Having no experience with hearing loss, we had no idea what this would mean for our son and began to search for as much information that we could find. We found many different methods for educating our son  and many of these tracks are built around significant believe that ASL (American Sign Language) should be the dominate form of communication for hearing impaired individuals.

In recent years different approaches to deaf education has rely heavily on advancements in technologies, such as cochlear implants. After looking at all the options, we decided the best thing for our son would be bilateral cochlear implants. That decision did not come easy based on the limited information about long-term educational affects of these devices. Although there have been significant advancements in technology enhancing residual hearing in hard-of-hearing children, ASL is still the dominate form of education for the hearing impaired. For those who choose different methods of deaf education, there is still no significant access to resources or research. For example, although Auditory Verbal therapy has been practice for a number of years; there is only one certified Auditory Verbal therapist in the state of Louisiana.

With that in mind, in 2007 I decided to design and build a Website for parents with students on a AV curricula path. As a professional computer programer and a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University with a Masters in Educational Technology, my growing expertise is using technology to educate. The task of constructing this Website and applications for my son, has been joyful and humbling. With the support of my current university, Our Lady of the Lake College, I have enrolled in the Ph. D. program at Louisiana State University to complete my academic studies in educational technology. I thank God on a daily bases for allowing me to help my son's development and it is my personal goal to help others in the same situation.

The site has been constructed to align instruction with the Auditory Leaning Guide's learning outcomes. This guide is a four year curricula path with a specified set of learning outcomes. The results of these outcomes should be the mainstreaming an aided or implanted student into a normal classroom setting. It is also intended to be a social network for people dealing with issues of deafness. It is the goal to give measurable feedback to parents to let them know the progress of their child at all times. It is not intended to replace a qualified therapist, but all activities on this website are performed with my son through the guidance of his therapist.

Thank you for taking the time to visit this Website, please feel free to join the community. 

Thanks,

Eric Seneca