Better Hearing & Speech Month

Communication -- The Shortest Distance Between Two People

2011 Better Hearing and Speech Month WINNERS

Congratulations to our winners!  And thanks to all students who submitted entries for the annual statewide Better Hearing and Speech Month coloring and essay contests.  We are pleased to announce the grand prize winners and runners up in each category.  Each student received a certificate and a monetary prize. 

Coloring Contest Winners

		Grand Prize Nataleigh Tupi, Third Grade Trinity South Elementary School Janice Sonson Washington, PA
		Runner Up Olivia Zinnen, Third Grade Quarry Hill Elementary School – Mary Palmer Bucks County, PA
		Runner Up Brenden Kosey, Second Grade Trinity South Elementary School – Janice Sonson Washington, PA
		Runner Up Aliana Altomare, Third Grade Trinity South Elementary School – Janice Sonson Washington, PA

Essay Contest

Henry Richards – Grand Prize
Mid Vallley School District
Selena Melesky
Throop, PA

I like communication because I am able to communicate with people by talking person to person, by cell phone or by text messaging. I also like the communication that newspapers, magazines and books bring to my life. My favorite kind of communication is face-to-face communication. It is the best form of communication because we can see the person right in front of us. With face-to-face communication, we see people’s facial expressions, body language and hear their tone of voice. I am able to tell if someone is happy, annoyed, sad, angry or excited. I like communication.

Scarlett Rivera – Runner Up
Upper Merion Middle School
Sue Ellen Larkin
King of Prussia

Communication helps people learn and share in many ways. Without communication it would be hard to learn anything about different people, such as you wouldn’t know peoples’ names, age or cultures. Another reason why communication is important is you wouldn’t be able to make any friends, or speak to any family members that you don’t live with. The next reason is you wouldn’t know how to speak your own language. It would be hard to listen to the news, watch television or learn in school without communication. Being able to communicate with others helps you learn about people from all over the world. It also helps you get better jobs such as acting, newscaster and teacher. Overall, being able to communicate with others helps bring people together!

Dalton Psomas – Runner Up
Homeville Elementary
Laura DeMoss
West Mifflin, PA

Communication is quite important because you need to talk and hear everything. Before you talk, think before you speak so nothing comes out wrong. One way of speech is sign language. Sign language helps deaf people speak all the time. Another way of speech is talking. Talking is most important in your life because it is what brings us together. Another way of speech is listening. Listening is the number one most important thing in speech. Listening is what we use when another person is talking. Everybody brings us together with speech because speech is about talking, listening, sign language and other kinds of speech.

Steven Hill – Runner Up
21st Century Cyber School
Karen King
Gap, PA

There are many kinds of communication. I attend cyber school because this works for me. People communicate and learn differently by what their needs are. Some people can learn in a group by listening. I learn best by working on the computer. Performing is a type of communication that is useful because it’s entertaining. One of my IEP goals is to write a story which is boring for me because I’m not moving and not active. So I made puppets and performed it using sound effects which I found interesting. You need to communicate by what works best for you.