History
 

After teaching for 30 years in deaf education, Sandy Heflin became convinced that in order to really impact the lives of the students she was teaching, she had to convince parents that communicating with their children was not an option or a good idea, it was ESSENTIAL. Early intervention and parental involvement are two of the most important factors of academic success.

Students Sandy had taught would graduate and return to say "hello" – pregnant, on drugs, unemployed and living on SSI. Their potential all but wasted.

Sandy began to question herself, "Was I such a bad teacher? Was I not doing everything I knew how to give them an adequate education?" She agonized over the fact that so many of her students graduated HS with only a first to third grade reading level- functionally illiterate.

Then Sandy discovered that this was true for 90% of Deaf High School graduates all over the US! She realized that number was really not surprising when 90% of parents do not learn to communicate fluently with their Deaf children. With no language input at home, of course, children can not learn to use, read or write a language they had not been exposed to. She began trying to convince parents to become involved.

The last five years of teaching, she began using a color-coded language system and saw students jump one to three years in language proficiency! The results were astounding. It was amazing to see her students connect the dots. Once they had the ASL proficiency, learning English became an easier task by comparing ASL to English and giving them English structure in visual patterns they could see and remember.

After 30 years, Sandy Heflin left teaching and directing Deaf Ed programs to concentrate on two things: convincing parents to become active participants in their child’s education and giving them the tools to do that.

This was why and when she founded Color of Language...a non-profit business, with the goal to hopefully change the lives and educational experience for  thousands of Deaf children.