Getting Ready for School
Assessment of Your Child's Learning
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Children who are deaf or hard of hearing need careful assessment before and after they enter school, including all kinds of language and emerging school skills. Because you and your team have been doing ongoing assessment since you first began intervention, you should have a good idea of the progress made up until now. When your baby becomes a school child, however, you will need to depend on other people for some of the assessment.

Assessment includes tests, but it also includes observation, language samples, parent report scales and diaries, anecdotal logs kept by teachers of important events, and adult charting of classroom and home progress. Be careful not to test all the time; you won't leave any time for learning!

Every child has different strengths and weaknesses. A child who is deaf or hard of hearing is the same as any other child. Sometimes you can get discouraged when assessment doesn't show constant and exciting progress, but remember that learning happens over time, not overnight. Children don't need to do everything perfectly to be successful in school.