"I have been working in deaf education for over 25 years, but in my mind I'm just as young as can be. Every time you turn the corner there is a new piece of equipment and new potential." — Maribeth Lartz, Professor, Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program
Maribeth Lartz developed the perspective and ability to work in the deaf education field at a young age. She attributes much of her success to growing up with her grandparents who were deaf without spoken language. "I was able to see the cultural side first. I think it was important because without that piece, understanding is a partial, almost a biopsy of the whole." Her familiarity with deaf individuals motivated Lartz to declare a major in the field with reservations about changing her mind during undergraduate work. Yet once she got involved in researching and understanding language development, Lartz quickly realized she had the desire to make the field her life's work.
After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in deaf education at the University of Texas in Austin, Lartz started her professional teaching career in Texas at the Mesquite Regional Day School for the Deaf. Lartz credited that experience as an excellent base that encouraged her further development in teaching and academia. After her time in Texas, Lartz came to the Midwest and earned a Ph.D. in Special Education with emphasis in Early Childhood Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lartz also worked for 10 summers as an early childhood consultant for parents at the Illinois School for the Deaf and has served as principal investigator and co-investigator of three large grants. She is currently the principal investigator for a large grant program that provides graduate education in early intervention with children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
In addition, Lartz participated in a national project entitled Join Together. The project, which ended in August, brought together deaf education teacher preparation programs across the nation to enhance the use of technology among university teachers and students. The ultimate goal was "to encourage university teachers to use the technology so they could model it for the pre-service teachers," said Lartz. Heading Illinois State's contribution to the project, Lartz succeeded in recruiting faculty members from surrounding area universities. "We were able to incorporate innovative technology into some of their teaching plans," said Lartz.
In July of 2007, Lartz received a U.S. Department of Education grant to start a graduate program for oral-auditory deaf education that focuses on children with hearing loss who are younger than three years of age. The $800,000 grant pays for tuition, some travel, and even books for students. In addition, students in the program are provided with unique learning opportunities such as the observation of a cochlear implant surgery. Students work with infants and toddlers and are more involved in working with parents and families than ever before. Lartz says that this presents a unique challenge for the program but believes the work will ultimately enhance students' learning experience.
For Lartz, this grant comes on the heels of several research projects related to oral-auditory learning and early intervention. Lartz has authored and co-authored publications on the competencies necessary for oral-auditory teacher preparation programs, early intervention, and on assistive technology use by college students with hearing loss. In 2000 Lartz and colleague Sharon Litchfield received a $5,000 university research grant to assess the needs of teacher preparation programs related to oral-auditory competencies. In another project Lartz and Patricia Scherer of the International Center on Deafness and the Arts co-directed a grant to provide professional development to teachers working with children using cochlear implants.
When speaking on the subject of oral-auditory learning, Lartz expresses concern that the work she has done is seen as a casting-aside of other communication modes—especially sign language. In contrast, however, Lartz's main priority has been and remains to be a child-first approach to teaching and learning. As determined through first-hand experience and research in the deaf education field, Lartz has found that some children and adults have communication and learning needs that are best satisfied through spoken language while others best communicate using primarily sign language. "I feel that it should not be an either/or situation. Truthfully there are going to be kids all along the continuum," said Lartz. She also explained that even for children that best communicate through oral-auditory language via the cochlear implant, the device will need to be removed before taking a shower or going swimming. During such times the need for alternative communication is unavoidable. "Programs such as this one are intended to increase options, not hinder them," said Lartz.
Lartz explained that for many reasons, teacher preparation for oral-auditory programs is an imminent need. From the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening that detects hearing loss in infants earlier than ever, to the highly improved technology of hearing aids and cochlear implants, more and more families are opting for their children to use spoken language. "Right now the amount of children requiring teachers with oral-auditory knowledge and competencies is too large to be satisfied," said Lartz. She compares her current push for awareness and advancement to the '90s when she and the deaf education field as a whole pushed for an increase in the use of sign language to meet the needs of children who were deaf. "Now I feel I am advocating another communication mode for the same reasons—especially regarding the family of the individual," said Lartz. "We must keep in mind that what we are doing should always center on the child and the family's needs—what works best for them."
Lartz's research has shown that there are only five teacher training programs across the country that is primarily auditory-oral. Illinois State is one of two deaf education programs in the state and according to Lartz, trains well over half of all deaf education teachers in Illinois. Because of this, she believes it is Illinois State's obligation to play a large part in the "retraining, retooling, and developing of a new skill set that wasn't needed 10, 15, 20 years ago in the majority of teachers that were being sent out." Though implementation of programs teaching these skills is still lacking, Lartz is motivated to create as much headway for graduate students and auditory-oral learners as possible. "It's been a challenge, but I'm having a lot of fun."
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