Breaking the Silence: La Salle Graduate Christy Marzzacco Opening Worlds as Speech-Language Pathologist
to Hearing-Impaired Children

Christy Marzzacco always knew she wanted to be a teacher, particularly in small-class settings, but she never imagined she’d be teaching deaf children how to speak.

"I didn't know any deaf people growing up. I took sign language class in high school, but that is it. I guess that is what led me to where I am," she smiles and shrugs her shoulders. Still, even as she was taking the sign language course, she didn't make the decision to specialize in helping hearing-impaired students until she was almost ready to graduate college.

And now, after receiving her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from La Salle University in 2005, the West Chester resident has earned the Master Teacher distinction from the Council on Education of the Deaf. Marzzacco is one of only 100 such instructors in the country.

(Marzzacco will also be presenting at this year's national, bi-annual Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing meeting this June in Pittsburgh.)

Marzzacco taught hearing-impaired students in middle school and high school in Maryland. She returned to Pennsylvania and began working with younger students who were hearing impaired or deaf. She realized that she needed to learn new information and techniques to help these students to learn language and to speak. She enrolled in La Salle’s Master of Science program to become a speech-language pathologist.

She was selected as one of the outstanding students in the program when she graduated. Dr. Barbara Amster, Director of the Speech-Language-Hearing Science programs (SLHS) at La Salle, said, when she presented the award to Marzzacco, that she “demonstrated outstanding academic, clinical and research achievement as well as exceptional character, leadership, and service to the program and the profession. She has been an exceptional student since she began the SLHS program. She is an industrious student who was chosen to receive one of the first La Salle University Oral-Deaf scholarships because of her commitment to working with hearing-impaired children.”

Once Marzzacco started teaching in Delaware County, she realized, "These children are learning to talk and you cannot waste a second. If they are taught properly, they can grow up to be more like everyone else," she said, using her fingers to make quotes at the words "everyone else.”

Not too long ago, teaching a deaf child to speak was unheard of, and a large community of deaf persons grew up mute. Now, with new technology and surgeries, parents have options.
"When we first meet the parents, we go over their goals for the child. For some, it is that they learn to speak; for others, that is not the case, and we refer them to the proper institutions," Marzzacco said. "Hearing impairment is such a rare disorder that many schools don't require a full-time teacher; many districts don't," said Marzzacco, who is based at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit (DCIU) in Morton, Pa., and also works at a pre-school in Newtown Square.

She’s at the preschool three and a half days a week, but has an office at DCIU, where she sometimes works with students one-on-one, or where students can come for testing, or where families come to find the social services and education for their child.

School districts that don't have a need for a full-time teacher for the hearing impaired outsource to organizations like DCIU, which assigns teachers, like Marzzacco, to schools.

"It is really easy to become complacent in this field, but that’s not best for the student," she said. This is another reason why Marzzacco enjoys working at DCIU. "Other teachers won't allow you to sit back. They keep raising the bar," she said.

Nicholas was already two years old when he was fitted for his first hearing aid. Before that, his parents knew he was hearing impaired, but "we were first-time parents, and we didn't know what to do," Nicholas' mother said. “We started with in-house care. Then Nicholas entered preschool, and it changed our life as a family.”

This happens often, said Marzzacco: "Many parents learn their child is deaf and automatically assume they have to start taking lessons in sign language."

Before Nicholas started at the Intermediate Unit, he was testing below average for his age group. In just one year, he made remarkable improvement. His language test scores went from the 70s to between 115 and120. "Hearing-impaired people are often mistaken as less intelligent as a direct result of their inability to hear," Marzzacco said.

"We weren't sure he would learn how to speak,” Nicholas’ mom said. "Everything changed when he started school with Christy. He was more confident and was better able to use his hearing aid." Nicholas will start kindergarten in the fall at regular school, which for his parents is a cause of both joy and anxiety. “I think Nicholas would have eventually come along on his own; but after just one year….” said Nicholas’ mom, adding, “I wish he could keep Christy with him all the way to college.”

-- Sarah Klem