Deaf Students Visit a Deaf Dolphin at Clearwater Marine Aquarium

By Jeni Hatter

Clearwater, FL - About 20 kids from the Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf in Clearwater visited Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) for a field trip like no other. CMA trainers planned a field trip tailored to the kids and their needs. For the first time, the students worked with Panama—a dolphin CMA recently learned is deaf. Through the new “Panama’s Pod” Program, trainers shared Panama’s story and how they can relate to her. Then, the kids got to actually interact with Panama.

Students split into four different groups and were assigned specific hand signals for one of Panama’s behaviors. Kids then worked with Panama on spitting water, spinning, waving and even jumping! Every student even got to feed Panama a fish. The kids then traced their hand signals on construction paper and cut them out. As a special surprise, pictures of the kids with Panama were printed out and given to every child. The kids truly enjoyed their time with Panama and at CMA.

BACKGROUND ON PANAMA:

After almost nine years of living at CMA, we recently discovered Panama is deaf. What’s amazing about this discovery is that she has been successfully able to learn a wide variety of medical, cognitive and high-energy behaviors, despite trainers using whistles during training sessions that Panama couldn’t even hear. She may have learned all of her behaviors by paying close attention to the trainers’ “whistle-faces,” instead of listening to the actual whistle itself to know when she performed a behavior correctly. She learned her behaviors so well that, if it were not for the hearing test results, her trainers would have never known she couldn’t hear the whistle cues. Panama is our oldest and biggest dolphin. She is in her mid 30’s, weighs 450 pounds and eats 18 pounds of fish a day. She is also Winter’s adopted mom and the two live in the same pool. She stranded in October 2000 near Panama City, Florida.

BACKGROUND ON THE BLOSSOM MONTESSORI SCHOOL:

Founded in 2003 by Julie Rutenberg, Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf educates not only deaf and hard of hearing students, but children with deaf family members as well. As the only deaf Montessori school in Florida and one of only two deaf Montessori schools in the U.S., it’s a prototype for a new standard of deaf education for children ages 3 through 15. Instead of grade levels, children are grouped by age groupings. Teachers and pupils communicate through American Sign Language and spoken English. Tampa Bay is home to the fourth largest deaf population in the United States. Blossom not only serves children from Pinellas County, but also Hillsborough, Pasco, and Hernando counties as well.

To view Clearwater Marine Aquarium's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to:  http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-93-Clearwater_Marine_Aquarium