Miss-Delectable
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With an ear for the deaf - Newindpress.com
To have an ear to hear the pang of the deaf is noble in any way. For Prof. Warren Estabrooks of Canada, it’s a mission too.
Being one among the founding fathers of the Auditory Verbal Therapy, Prof Estabrooks have plenty to share from his own experiences. He had come to Kozhikode for inaugurating one such centre in Kerala - at Govindapuram - for the hearing impaired children.
“Today, with all the available hearing devices and technology, there is no need for our children to remain deaf,’’ he told this news paper. And, implementing the auditory verbal approach could be the first option for these children to relieve themselves from dumbness, he added.
Parents, he asserts, have a significant role to play in improving the communication efficiency of the child.
Auditory Verbal Therapy is a method by which children with significant hearing loss are taught how to hear, listen and understand and speak the language of their parents. Meanwhile, the traditional therapy makes use of gestures and lip reading along with some auditory clues to nurture speech and language, which according to Estabrooks is apt for a totally deaf child with complete hearing loss.
“Unfortunately, even children with some hearing capacity are being taught in the traditional way, denying them a chance to speak like a normal child,” he said. Instructions in lip reading or sign language will hinder the emergence of normal speech and language in the child, he added. Estabrooks is a delighted man for the interest people show in his mode of teaching the deaf. “It has to be spread all over the world as it will equip these less-privileged children to stand independently. Children of yesteryears were unlucky not to have this kind of effective methods at their reach."
The goal of Auditory Verbal Therapy, according to him, is to teach children that sounds have meaning. It can happen only with consistent hearing along with intensive training in listening.
“Don’t lose temper and yell at the child. Speak naturally and give them a stimuli to respond. Wait for the feedback,” Estabrooks advises the trainers in this field. The process of detection, discrimination, identification and comprehension of inputs have to be given due importance.
An element of humour also plays a vital role in the therapy as it will quicken the response. “Clear speech, natural spoken language and strong literacy skills are the results of Auditory Verbal Therapy.”
There are only a few auditory habilitationists in India, who are now being trained with the collaboration of universities in foreign countries. The team at the newly -opened centre in Kozhikode comprises Dr M P Manoj and audiologists Sasidharan Nair and Shabeena Backer.
Having adopted a motto – ‘Silence to Communication’ - they say: “Let many hearing impaired pass through this silence to a new world full of sounds, stories and songs.”
*frowns* We should invite this fella to Shel's school and point out the problems stemming from AVT and such. But of course, he'd deny that and blame it on the parents or sign language. Wtf, no lipreading or it'll hinder speech?! Pffth
To have an ear to hear the pang of the deaf is noble in any way. For Prof. Warren Estabrooks of Canada, it’s a mission too.
Being one among the founding fathers of the Auditory Verbal Therapy, Prof Estabrooks have plenty to share from his own experiences. He had come to Kozhikode for inaugurating one such centre in Kerala - at Govindapuram - for the hearing impaired children.
“Today, with all the available hearing devices and technology, there is no need for our children to remain deaf,’’ he told this news paper. And, implementing the auditory verbal approach could be the first option for these children to relieve themselves from dumbness, he added.
Parents, he asserts, have a significant role to play in improving the communication efficiency of the child.
Auditory Verbal Therapy is a method by which children with significant hearing loss are taught how to hear, listen and understand and speak the language of their parents. Meanwhile, the traditional therapy makes use of gestures and lip reading along with some auditory clues to nurture speech and language, which according to Estabrooks is apt for a totally deaf child with complete hearing loss.
“Unfortunately, even children with some hearing capacity are being taught in the traditional way, denying them a chance to speak like a normal child,” he said. Instructions in lip reading or sign language will hinder the emergence of normal speech and language in the child, he added. Estabrooks is a delighted man for the interest people show in his mode of teaching the deaf. “It has to be spread all over the world as it will equip these less-privileged children to stand independently. Children of yesteryears were unlucky not to have this kind of effective methods at their reach."
The goal of Auditory Verbal Therapy, according to him, is to teach children that sounds have meaning. It can happen only with consistent hearing along with intensive training in listening.
“Don’t lose temper and yell at the child. Speak naturally and give them a stimuli to respond. Wait for the feedback,” Estabrooks advises the trainers in this field. The process of detection, discrimination, identification and comprehension of inputs have to be given due importance.
An element of humour also plays a vital role in the therapy as it will quicken the response. “Clear speech, natural spoken language and strong literacy skills are the results of Auditory Verbal Therapy.”
There are only a few auditory habilitationists in India, who are now being trained with the collaboration of universities in foreign countries. The team at the newly -opened centre in Kozhikode comprises Dr M P Manoj and audiologists Sasidharan Nair and Shabeena Backer.
Having adopted a motto – ‘Silence to Communication’ - they say: “Let many hearing impaired pass through this silence to a new world full of sounds, stories and songs.”
*frowns* We should invite this fella to Shel's school and point out the problems stemming from AVT and such. But of course, he'd deny that and blame it on the parents or sign language. Wtf, no lipreading or it'll hinder speech?! Pffth
