Deaf and hard of hearing children of all ages, and their families, will have the chance to look at their world in a new way during the first weeks of August as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advocacy Resource Center hosts the fifth annual Communication Arts Day Camp.

“The best way for them to learn is for them to see everything,” said Lisa Suerdieck, communication support specialist for the center. “They need to see what is happening.”

The camp will be held Aug. 11 through Aug. 15, is free of charge and is still accepting registrations.

Throughout the week participants will go on tours of police and fire departments, visit the Sierra Safari Zoo, play at the Great Basin Adventure at Rancho San Rafael Park, go swimming and visit Maplewood Horse Stables, among other activities.

Through the camp, the directors of the center hope to acquaint deaf children with some of the lessons that they may not learn at home.

“Speaking children learn incidentally about police and firefighters by overhearing their parent’s conversations,” Suerdieck said. “We tried to find activities (for the camp) that they (deaf children) didn’t learn about incidentally.”

Edina Jambor, regional office supervisor for the resource center, added that the camp aims to provide a bridge between the hearing and deaf worlds that can be crossed by both the children and the public agencies they will be visiting.

According to Jambor, often public agencies do not know how to handle a deaf or hard of hearing person that may need their immediate help, requiring the use of an interpreter before that person can fully take advantage of their rights.

“We hope that this helps them (public agencies) to better understand the needs of deaf people,” Jambor said. “It is hard to make those contacts and set up that networking, so that they can know what to do if they arrest a deaf person, for example.”

The communication needs to go both ways, Jambor added, opening the eyes of the deaf community to proper behavior in the hearing world.

“We would like to teach them how to function in the world,” Jambor said. “They have their own isolated little world and sometimes schools don’t have enough time to teach them life skills. We want to teach them this is how you behave in the hearing world.”

This is the first year that the camp will be held in Sparks, rather than in Carson City. The center recently moved to its new location on Pyramid Way, sharing a building with the Northern Nevada Center for Independent Living.

“We are trying to mix the fun and the educational for the kids,” Suerdieck said. “This gives them an opportunity to socialize with each other while school is out and to learn about things that they normally wouldn’t be able to do.”

In order to register for the camp, someone in the registrant’s family must be either deaf or hard of hearing. For registration, contact Lisa Suerdieck at 355-8994 or by e-mail at Suerdieckl@dhharc.org.