This centre strives to make children with hearing disabilities speak while integrating them with those whose hearing is normal

To hear little tongues

By Hiranthi Fernando

Four year old Nadunie's hearing is impaired. Her mother Renuka accompanies her daily to the Centre for Education of Hearing Impaired Children (CEHIC).

"I realised that my daughter was deaf when she was about two years old. Her responses to sounds were very low. Her grandparents were reluctant to accept that she had a problem. They insisted she was late in talking and objected to any treatment. I brought her to this centre only recently, but I find an improvement in her understanding already," Renuka said.

Kosala is just two. His mother Ganga who was at the centre with him is also deaf. The child's father's hearing is also impaired. Given the family history, Ganga knew her child's hearing was impaired by the time he was six months old. She now brings her son to CEHIC twice or thrice a week for training.

Mithuri Tharanga is one year and eight months. "I realised he was deaf when he was one year old," said his mother Sithara. He did not speak and showed no response to sound. At that age his elder brother had begun to talk.

Sithara took Mithuri to Dr. Cynthia Jayasuriya, an ENT specialist who told her about CEHIC. Since November last year she travels from Negombo three times a week so that her child could get help. "I find a definite improvement. He now says "Thaththa"," Sithara said.

At the centre, little Mithuri has been tested for the degree of his hearing loss and a prescription has been made out for a hearing aid. Sithara is hoping to get it free from the Pradeshiya Sabha.

Nadunie, Kosala and Mithuri are just three young ones who have hope for the future. The education and training they get at CEHIC, will help them join mainstream education at the school going age.

"Children start as young as eight months. Early detection and intervention is vital," Sister Greta Nalawatta, the Founder-Directress of the centre said.

"The mothers accompany the children, and we train them to bring up the child as a 'normal' child. The drawback is they do not have enough language. Mothers are advised how to bring up hearing impaired children so that they are exposed to language and sounds. It is important to speak to the child," she said.

To make the children speak is the aim of the Centre for Education of Hearing Impaired Children (CEHIC). Founded on the vision that all hearing impaired people, should have the opportunity to attain an equal place in society, the Centre at Dalugama Kelaniya, provides pre-school education free of charge for children, together with training for their mothers.

The main aim is to integrate these children with 'normal' children at every stage of the education process beginning at pre-school level and continuing through their mainstream schooling.

The driving force behind CEHIC is Sister Greta whose experience dates to 1965, when she joined the staff of St. Joseph's School for the Deaf at Ragama.

Its educational programme then was based mainly on the use of sign language. When undergoing training as a teacher in Special Education at the Government Training College at Maharagama, Sister Greta was disillusioned because she did not agree with the traditional methods of deaf education and the social marginalisation of hearing impaired children.

She felt these children could be integrated fully into society if a different method of teaching was adopted.

"To label a child with a hearing impairment as handicapped, disabled or abnormal is an injustice. Being hearing impaired does not mean that a child is backward. These children are intelligent, with a variety of talents and they have the potential to achieve great things," Sister Greta said.

She accepted a scholarship to Japan to study new techniques in education for hearing impairment-this proved to be the turning point.

There she studied new methods of pre-school training using audio-aural techniques.

The children were helped to speak, using their residual hearing which was amplified by hearing aids.

On her return from Japan, Sr. Greta opened the first pre-school which attempted to integrate hearing impaired children into the mainstream education and social system, at St. Joseph's School for the Deaf in 1982. Since then, undaunted by many disappointments and obstacles, Sr. Greta has persevered, assisted by the parents who formed the Association for the Hearing Impaired.

At the fully equipped centre at Dalugama which was opened in 1992 around 50 to 60 children attend the pre-school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. There are seven classes with not more than eight children in each.

The pre- school also has two classes for children with normal hearing.

They come together for gymnastics, sports, music, sculpture and art.

At the age of five, the hearing impaired children are integrated into normal schools. Some government schools have special units for deaf children. Sr. Greta is attached to St. Francis' at Dalugama which has such a unit. Many of the children from CEHIC pre-school attend this special class which further helps them to integrate.

The child's hearing is assessed before admission. They are regularly tested to assess their hearing abilities.The results are marked on an audiograph. "At the start, the children have to be conditioned before a proper graph can be made. For the little ones, there is play audiometry. Various sounds are played to them and their reactions are observed,"Sr. Greta explained.

Based on these assessments, appropriate hearing aids are recommended and sometimes provided for those who cannot afford them

With her long years of experience, Sr. Greta has developed her own methods of education and integration of these children.

Their morning begins with physical training to music combined with breathing exercises, voice training and auditory training. With the children's hearing amplified by hearing aids, they are trained to listen, lip-read and speak using various techniques of auditory and oral therapy. Using picture boards and cards, letter cards, and soft toys the children are taught to recognise objects, animals and letters of the alphabet, to listen and repeat the sounds they are taught.

Different breathing exercises are practised such as blowing up coloured balls, blowing expandable whistles, pronouncing 'p' and 'b' sounds and blowing powder off the palm. Some exercises are practised in front of a mirror so that the child could observe the shape formed by the lips.

Sr. Greta explained that breathing exercises are essential for these children and are devised to be fun.

"I try to make education a joyful experience for the children and not a burden. We try to create a pleasant, relaxed environment so that the children come happily to school.I try to have something new for them every day," she said.

Extra classes are conducted in the afternoons for hearing impaired children who have been integrated into normal schools. Classes are held at all levels, covering the government school curriculum. Qualified teachers from regular schools are trained by Sr. Greta to teach hearing impaired children.

On Saturdays a Daham Pasal and various extra curricular activities such as sports, dancing, pottery, woodcraft, handicrafts and home science are conducted.

Future plans include developing CEHIC into a resource centre of excellence so that their services could be shared. Since early integration is essential it is planned to eventually establish a primary school at Dalugama for children of both hearing impaired and normal hearing.

The aim is to spread the idea that hearing impaired children can hear and speak and can be integrated into mainstream educational and social systems.

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