At Marshall University on the third floor of Smith Hall, there are not only classes for college students, but there is also a pre-school there. If one was to go into this classroom, at first glance they might not understand why this is on Marshall’s campus. The few children there act and behave like any other preschoolers would, despite them all having severe hearing loss or complete deafness.

The Luke Lee Listening, Language and Learning Lab (or the L) is a program at Marshall for children with hearing loss and their families. The L focuses on teaching the children how to listen and talk. No signing education takes place. The goal of the program is to have the children be on the same developmental level as their peers as they enter kindergarten and stay on the same level throughout their schooling.

The students there use hearing aids, but if that isn’t enough then some of them use cochlear implant devices. These medical devices are surgically implanted into the child’s ear in the cochlea. The electrodes from the device stimulate the cochlea, which then stimulates the brain, giving the child access to sound. The electrodes replace the hair cells on the cochlea that are missing in those with hearing loss.

There is an external part of the device called the speech processor which has a microphone on it. The external part attaches to the head through a magnet and the other part of the device sits on their ear. Although the range of hearing isn’t quite to the level it would be if they could hear normally, it is only just below.

In order for the children’s brain to learn the ability to listen, the L starts with babies. As soon as infants are identified and diagnosed to have hearing loss and also have hearing aids, they can start to see them for individual therapy until they are three years old. All of the therapy sessions include the parents to train them as well, because they are the ones who will be spending the most time with the child.

Jodi Cottrell, the program director, preschool teacher, therapist and only listening and special language specialist in the state of West Virginia, said there are many different strategies that they use in order to make sure the children have the most optimal access to sound and to teach them how to listen in different ways.

“When a child first begins to listen, we will use strategies like getting close to their ear, using a sing songy voice and using parentese to make sure they have good access to sound because that is easier to hear,” Cottrell said.

They use short phrases in the beginning and as they learn to listen they make the phrases longer. Also, they use very few visual aids, so as to make sure that they are learning through listening instead of through visual cues.

Through a strategy called audition first, Cottrell will describe what she is talking about before she shows it, so as to stimulate the audio center of the brain over the visual.

Another example of an exercise that Cottrell will do with the children is to hide a picture somewhere in the classroom. After it is hidden, the children will open their eyes and Cottrell will explain to them where it is. Then after listening to Cottrell, the children will go and find it, showing that they listened to what she had to say.

There are about 25-30 kids in the program at the moment, but in the preschool there are usually about 3-6. A small classroom helps to give more one-on-one type of learning and also helps to diminish the noise of the room in order for the students to be able to focus audibly. The rest of the children in the program come to the L for therapy.

Katie Counts, a Marshall University classified staff council employee, has her daughter Cailyn enrolled in the program at the L. She said that her experience as a parent of a child who was hearing impaired was nerve-racking and stressful at first.

“Once we found Jodi and the program, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Counts. “We knew it would be alright.”

The L is holding the L Speakeasy Gala at the Maylon House on Oct. 21 to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. All the proceeds the gala makes will go to the L to make up for the drastic budget cuts that it has had to make in the past year. The budget cuts have also hurt their prospects of opening an L campus in Kanawha county.

Noah Gillispie can be contacted at [email protected].