Kids with hearing loss build connections at Vancouver Island beach day

Students with hearing loss on southern Vancouver Island build confidence and community at an annual beach day in Saanich.

Students with hearing loss on southern Vancouver Island spent Wednesday playing games and enjoying each other’s company at a beach in Saanich, B.C.

In many cases, the students are the only kids with hearing loss in their schools. Those kids have an opportunity to connect every year at the Greater Victoria School District’s annual deaf and hard of hearing beach day.

“Every kid who has a hearing aid will come here,” said Grade 3 student Antonio Melo. “I’m like them.”

Roughly 85 students from various districts on Southern Vancouver Island attended the event.

Antonio’s father, Pablo, said it’s rare to run into families with a similar experience.

“They can see that they are not alone,” he said.

“Being able to connect with other kids that face the same challenges and overcome the same challenges is going to inspire them to keep moving forward and to have a healthy life.”

Grade 11 student Olivia Eassie is proof of the connections and confidence students build through the event. Eassie said she’s been attending the beach day since elementary school and has made lasting friendships as a result.

“It’s important for us to know other people with hearing loss and be able to relate to them because we can’t find that a lot at school or in public places,” she said.

Pablo said he wants to see more provincial funding directed to speech and occupational therapy in schools.

“We have to struggle applying for grants or financing it by ourselves, so it just adds more challenges to the current ones we already have,” he said.

Teacher Megan Jantz said she attends multiple schools a day, working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. There are a variety of tools and professionals that can help the students she works with, such as visual language interpreters and communication facilitators, she said.

“Those are all key pieces to some of our students’ teams that are hard, that we need to find funding for,” Jantz said.

The school district and province - through the Provincial Outreach Program: Deaf and Hard of Hearing - helped fund Wednesday’s event, she said.

“(We’re) trying to make those social connections and friendships that last beyond,” she said. “Maybe they’ll meet up in middle school; maybe they’ll meet up in high school.”