Miss-Delectable
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Breaking free from sound of silence
DEAFNESS from birth was once a disability that threatened the education, social skills and employment chances of most children it afflicted. But a new generation of children born deaf can start school with similar speech and hearing abilities as their non-deaf peers, according to new research.
The cost-benefit analysis to be released in Canberra today by First Voice, a coalition of non-profit centres that helps children with hearing loss, argues that for every dollar invested in early intervention services, the community reaps $2 in benefits.
Those who get help early will complete more schooling, are more likely to get a job, enjoy higher incomes, have a better quality of life and avoid injuries, according to the analysis prepared by Econtext Pty Ltd.
''Even children who at birth can't hear a jumbo jet flying overhead can have age-appropriate listening and language skills by the time they start school if we can get all the ducks in a row,'' Dimity Dornan, chairwoman of First Voice, said.
The ''ducks'' start with diagnosis in the days after birth through the national newborn screening program introduced in 2002. Next comes intensive early intervention programs combined with hearing aids and, if needed, cochlear implants by six months of age.
A decade ago children had to wait until they were nearly five for the implants, and other techniques to enhance children's listening skills were less developed than today.
''If children don't receive sound in the early months of life it's a lot harder for them to catch up,'' Dr Dornan said. ''It was Helen Keller who said 'blindness separates us from things … deafness separates us from people'.''
The report claims most graduates from early intervention programs run by First Voice members, including the Shepherd Centre in NSW, can attend mainstream schools and finish year 12 whereas, typically, deaf children have left school by 16.
For Ali and Richard Porter, of Northmead, the diagnosis of profound deafness in their son, Elijah, came as a terrible shock. ''I remember sobbing and saying he was never going to hear me say I love him,'' Mrs Porter said.
Soon after the screening test when Elijah was two days old, the family began early intervention work at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. Hearing aids were not enough and by six months Elijah was fitted with two cochlear implants. ''When they 'switched on' the implants, he looked up in shock. It was from then I knew he could hear me,'' Mrs Porter said.
''Now he's actually ahead of his [non-deaf] peers with his speaking.''
The Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, in announcing Hearing Awareness Week yesterday, reminded families they could get up to $12,000 in early intervention services under Labor's Better Start for Children with Disability initiative.
Dr Dornan said the extra money was ''fantastic'' but non-profit centres that dealt with hearing loss received only 20 to 30 per cent of funding from government, and needed more support given the long term benefits of early intervention services.
I don't know where he got this bull about Deaf kids finishing school at 16 from.
DEAFNESS from birth was once a disability that threatened the education, social skills and employment chances of most children it afflicted. But a new generation of children born deaf can start school with similar speech and hearing abilities as their non-deaf peers, according to new research.
The cost-benefit analysis to be released in Canberra today by First Voice, a coalition of non-profit centres that helps children with hearing loss, argues that for every dollar invested in early intervention services, the community reaps $2 in benefits.
Those who get help early will complete more schooling, are more likely to get a job, enjoy higher incomes, have a better quality of life and avoid injuries, according to the analysis prepared by Econtext Pty Ltd.
''Even children who at birth can't hear a jumbo jet flying overhead can have age-appropriate listening and language skills by the time they start school if we can get all the ducks in a row,'' Dimity Dornan, chairwoman of First Voice, said.
The ''ducks'' start with diagnosis in the days after birth through the national newborn screening program introduced in 2002. Next comes intensive early intervention programs combined with hearing aids and, if needed, cochlear implants by six months of age.
A decade ago children had to wait until they were nearly five for the implants, and other techniques to enhance children's listening skills were less developed than today.
''If children don't receive sound in the early months of life it's a lot harder for them to catch up,'' Dr Dornan said. ''It was Helen Keller who said 'blindness separates us from things … deafness separates us from people'.''
The report claims most graduates from early intervention programs run by First Voice members, including the Shepherd Centre in NSW, can attend mainstream schools and finish year 12 whereas, typically, deaf children have left school by 16.
For Ali and Richard Porter, of Northmead, the diagnosis of profound deafness in their son, Elijah, came as a terrible shock. ''I remember sobbing and saying he was never going to hear me say I love him,'' Mrs Porter said.
Soon after the screening test when Elijah was two days old, the family began early intervention work at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. Hearing aids were not enough and by six months Elijah was fitted with two cochlear implants. ''When they 'switched on' the implants, he looked up in shock. It was from then I knew he could hear me,'' Mrs Porter said.
''Now he's actually ahead of his [non-deaf] peers with his speaking.''
The Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, in announcing Hearing Awareness Week yesterday, reminded families they could get up to $12,000 in early intervention services under Labor's Better Start for Children with Disability initiative.
Dr Dornan said the extra money was ''fantastic'' but non-profit centres that dealt with hearing loss received only 20 to 30 per cent of funding from government, and needed more support given the long term benefits of early intervention services.
I don't know where he got this bull about Deaf kids finishing school at 16 from.
