Special Report
ON THE
- OVER
'We Were Relentless' from page A15
brother, Brian, 27, of Miami Beach. "And
I always felt a part of things, never, ever
neglected. And I know Jordan wouldn't
have the listening skills he does if our par-
ents didn't hone in on them his entire life."
Jordan at 2 months
Jordan, 5, in his Superman costume
Jordan, 13, speaking at his bar mitzvah at the Birmingham Temple
A16
February 12 • 2009
„IN
son. "We wanted to make sure Jordan
was understandable, and we didn't want
him to have flat, deaf speech;' Mollene
said. Jordan learned breath control and
his parents taught him to speak with the
rate, rhythm and intonation of a hearing
person. "I played the piano up and down
the scales and he listened and repeated the
intonations:' Mollene said. Today Jordan's
speech reflects all of that.
Jordan also learned non-speech sounds,
like the whistle blown during a hockey
game and the ring of the telephone.
Jordan's parents also worked with him
on language development. "We taught him
five words every day:' Marty said. "And one
idiom, because the hearing impaired don't
understand the nuances of the idiom, tak-
ing everything very literally."
Whatever Jordan did became a lesson.
"Traveling, sitting down to dinner,
going to the grocery store were games for
Jordan, but lessons to us," Marty said. "He
practiced listening to peripheral noises
and people talking. Brushing his teeth was
a 10-minute experience."
The couple created "language experi-
ence" books for Jordan. If they went to a
farm or Cedar Point, they took pictures
and put them into a book along with
vocabulary words and sentence structure
lessons.
To make the studies more fun, Mollene
and Marty often found themselves crawl-
ing on the floor, singing, dancing and
jumping up and down.
All of this was normal in the Levin
household. "The way we lived was just
a way of life for all of us:' said Jordan's
School Days
When it was time for Jordan to go to ele-
mentary school, the Levins resisted pres-
sure from the school district to put him
in special education classes. "He belonged
in a regular classroom:' Mollene said,
explaining their understanding that being
with hearing peers would give him a bet-
ter chance to succeed in a hearing world.
"I also assured them that the extra help
Jordan would need would be our job, not
theirs;' Mollene said. "I told them, `Treat
him like everyone else. He actually doesn't
realize he is different than the other kids.'"
At the end of each school day Mollene
met with Jordan's teachers. "I had a note-
book to write down the concepts that
were done that day so we could do them
at home she said. "He wasn't a problem at
school, but we worked at home endlessly
to make up for what he missed in school."
Jordan had no idea what Mollene was
going through. "I didn't know she was
doing anything different:' he said. "I
thought all parents picked their kids up
from school and talked to the teacher."
Throughout his school career, Jordan
worked with his parents in study sessions.
"Maybe the stars were aligned for
Jordan and my parents:' Brian said. "It's
lucky my mom's a teacher and that my
dad's a damn smart guy to be able to re-
do middle school and high school. Jordan
is the product of a lot of hard work."
When Jordan was a senior in high
school he was diagnosed with attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
and began taking the drug Ritalin, which
boosted his concentration level.
Along the way, Jordan also had the
obstacle of ulcerative colitis to combat.
Making It All Work
"Jordan is a phenomenally accomplished
athlete, with phenomenal coordination:'
his mom said. "He is an amazing snow
and water skier. He played hockey in high
school and still plays. And he is incredibly
strong."
The many activities and sports were
blended into his days along with the les-
sons."One spring, baseball and hockey
overlapped, so Mollene would drive Jordan
between the games and I would sit in the
back of the car with him and we would do
homework:' Marty said.
Of course, there were concerns.
"When Jordan first started taking driv-
ing lessons we worried about how he
would watch the road if he needed to turn