Ear to the young and old
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Speech therapist Neela has helped hearing impaired kids to integrate in normal schools at a pre primary stage
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Four-year old Raman (name changed), a hearing impaired child has joined a normal school at pre primary level.
Sixty- five year old Ramakrishnan (name changed) can comfortably listen and communicate.
She quit her well-placed corporate job at the right time just to nurture her hearing impaired son. Neela Govindaraj, an RA Puram resident was convinced she can make him read and speak just like any other normal child. Looking at her success of her personal experience, her husband motivated her to work in the same genre.
After completing a B.Ed in special education from Madhya Pradesh- Bhoj Open University, she started her trust - Sadhya five years back, instead of working in a deaf school. "During my practical sessions in my course I interacted with children of pre primary to secondary level in deaf schools. I realised the importance of personal attention and constant counseling with the parents at an early stage. Auditory verbal therapy that focuses on important principles such as early intervention and integration was not very common then. Hence I started my own to give a one-on-one counseling for parents and train the kids.
There is an aura of warmth as Neela articulates stories with objects and toys and makes them aware of various vegetables, fruits, vehicles, animals, hues. Neela, stressing that the child should be taken care of by the parent before one-year-old, says, "This kind of teaching replicates the home and external environment." As of now, she has one person to help her in the teaching activity and plans to take more professionally qualified teachers.
Apart from limited donations, the trust raises funds by dispensing hearing aids for senior citizens and children. The hearing aid is given only after a free counseling for the senior citizens and their family members. "After putting the hearing aid, there are some adjustment problems and hearing difficulties for a temporary period. Hence we counsel them on the type of hearing aid they should buy, expectations, limitations of the aid and its usage and are free to come even later."
The urge to make it easy for the parents to deal with their children, Neela plans to publish a booklet in Tamil that will highlight information on diagnoses, hearing tests, educational approaches and so on.
Neela is reachable at old no. 75 Karpagam Avenue, RA Puram, ph: 9380638516, www.sadhya.org, email id: sadhya@gmail.com
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