The campus program contains an infant, preschool, kindergarten, grammar school and high school program that adheres to the framework of the state curriculum requirement. What children are learning at the CSD in the 4th grade, says Stern, are what children are learning in the same grade within the Fremont Unified School District. In the past, expectations for deaf children were watered down. The ASL and English skills of our kids will get stronger than ever before. Yet it is the disbelief in this statement that drives Sussman's staff to use intense individualized therapy sessions that sometimes last from 45 to 50 minutes.
Art work is a form of therapy both schools employ to exercise a child's cognitive abilities.
Philip dictates to Sally what it will mean if he paints his whimsical space scene palette with black paint. Three teachers walk about the classroom signing encouragement. The children at each school don the same bright clothing, treaded shoes and nonchalance of strangers trekking through their territory. Oral school students dress-up in hospital scrubs and nurses hats and lie Trenton down on a bed in a mock operating room to acclimate him to his upcoming experience. And sometimes, Stern says, the procedure does not deliver the promised results, which is a clear sign that a child's deafness is not being accepted.