Iona to receive $1.25 million disability specialist federal grant

Iona College in New Rochelle has been awarded a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The funding is for a new program that will provide scholarships allowing graduate students to become specialists in working with hard of hearing and deaf children.

The grant covers a five-year period starting in July of next year, when the Advanced Certificate in Deafness program is scheduled to launch.

Each year, eight Iona graduate students will undergo special training designed to equip them to become specialists in working with deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. The grad students will devote a full academic year and the summers before and after it to the training, and will then be required to work in the field with the children and families for two years or repay the scholarships.

Iona says that the new certificate program is unique in the metro New York area.

“When a family finds out that they have a deaf child, they are referred to early intervention providers. Those professionals may not have any experience with deaf or hard of hearing children,” said Amanda Howerton-Fox, assistant professor of education at Iona, who with Michelle Veyvoda, associate professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders, designed the certificate program and applied for the grant.

“This certificate program is a good example of something that really needs government support because while there are relatively few deaf and hard of hearing children, those who do not have access to high-quality specialists may experience profound linguistic, social and cognitive delays due to lack of language access,” Veyvoda said. “These children deserve professionals who are specifically trained to work with them and their families.”

“Deafness is one of very few disabilities that can cut you off from language completely and the people around you won”™t realize that it”™s happening or know the effects of it until you are older,” Howerton-Fox said. “So, it”™s important to have specialists who understand the effects of language deprivation.”

Iona noted that the ideas in a piece by Howerton-Fox that appeared in the journal Education Sciences in 2019 influenced President Biden”™s policies regarding the need to help deaf and hard of hearing children.