Hearing, Speech, and Deaf Center: Rosen Preschool Dual Language Initiative

How Investing in Early Learning Educators Empowers Children and Families to Be Confident and Creative Thinkers

Located in Seattle's Madison Valley, the Hearing, Speech, and Deaf Center (HSDC) Rosen Family Preschool offers two Seattle Preschool Program classrooms for three- and four-year-olds, serving deaf and hard of hearing children and families. HSDC is part of the new SPP classroom expansion for the 2024-2025 school year and a recipient of facilities grant funding for classroom improvements in 2022.

The Hearing, Speech, and Deaf Center - Rosen Family Preschool is designed to have two cohorts: the bilingual American Sign Language (ASL) for deaf and hard of hearing students and the ASL immersion classroom for hearing children whose families are committed to using ASL in the home. Rosen Family Preschool fosters a constructivist, play-based classroom inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early learning. Using that philosophy, HSDC incorporates the Creative Curriculum in the classroom that promotes bilingualism in ASL and English for all its students. Preschool classes for three- and four-year-olds take place Monday through Friday from 9am to 3pm.

Leading the three-year-olds SPP classrooms are Sam Sanders, assistant preschool teacher Misty Haggard, and preschool classroom assistant Amir Ahmed. In the 4-year-olds SPP classroom, teachers Cynthia Butts and Malvana Ramborger co-facilitate instruction.

Pamela Grossman, Director of the Rosen Family Preschool Program, says all teachers in the program and staff are deaf and native speakers and says finding quality and dedicated educators was not easy to arrange. Grossman says it took time to build a high-quality preschool classroom that met the needs of families and prepared their child to be kindergarten ready. HSDC started serving only infants and toddlers, at first. "It took 10 years for us to build a program that didn't stop when children turned three, they had to just wait until they were five years old to go to school," she says.

"My teachers have to be gorgeous language models, beautiful signers… So very often we are looking for people who love children, are motivated to become educators… but maybe because of the society that we live in they had a lot of barriers to becoming a professional teacher," says Grossman. "DEEL has helped us take down a lot of those barriers by giving us funding so that we can get these teachers educated - and we are very active in [DEEL's] Dual Language Initiative."

Teachers are supported in their educational journey as well; Grossman says they have teachers with master's degrees and have connected teachers to certification courses to meet state requirements. HSDC partners with Gallaudet University in D.C. for the deaf and signing community to further support early educators' learning and face-to-face instruction. "DEEL has empowered us to bring in a specialist [so my team] can get direct instruction from a deaf professional," says Grossman.

Grossman emphasizes the importance of having educators who reflect the children in the classroom. "HSDC has empowered me to get those people the experience and education that they need to show up in classrooms as deaf educators," she says. "That's the brilliant piece of it is having these deaf adults that not only the children can look up to and that the families can see it and say my child has limitless potential, just like this adult."

Ariele Belo, Co-Executive Director of HSDC and a member of the Washington State School for the Deaf says her role in community outreach focuses on reaching children and families through accessible communication tools. HSDC invites parents, caregivers and families to tour the site and learn about birth to infant programs, early learning programs - including the Seattle Preschool Program - to experience the in-classroom teaching and learn about services through on-site clinic which offers audiology care, hearing aid fittings, in-house speech language therapy, and more. The Hearing, Speech, and Deaf Center welcomes families to tour their site; schedule a tour at HSDC's website.

The Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center serves families in Seattle and is supported by the 2018 Families, Education, Preschool and Promise (FEPP) Levy. However, HSDC also supports deaf and hard of hearing children from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

For more information about the Seattle Preschool Program visit DEEL's website. Parents can start the application at Seattle.gov/applySPP. For information about Rosen Family Preschool, visit https://hsdc.org/education/rosen-family-preschool.