Yesterday a mother we are trying to help in the south of India, called up.She does not have the required support as far as her hearing impaired child is concerned.She is touch with me for the last 6 months now. She was desperate for her 3 year old and then through some contact she had contacted me. She was so depressed then and had the worst things to say about her life and the deaf child.I too was saddened by the situation and kept talking to her to try and help her come out of her situation. Her husband decided to visit us here in Pune He visited us 3 months back to understand the techniques we have to teach, the deaf child.He took the videos I post on the youtube under the name "rouchi6". He took lectures from Mrs. Hudlikar and went back a happy and educated man.The mother saw the videos and soon enough we were able to get her out of the situation and today she is a very happy and motivated mom.She calls me about every month 1-2 times and is has all her queries listed down with examples, explanations and all the details that can give me an idea of how her lil girl is doing. I put in all that I know from my own experiences and tell her how to go about it. She asks me to give some demos and we take videos on that topic and put it on you tube so that she knows how to solve that problem.
On the phone y'day she said that the inputs from blog and the videos we have posted , have helped her immensely.She is now knowledgeable enough to know the difference between good and bad or ineffective speech therapy.She is talking to her 3 year old after learning from us in spite of the distance and I heard her lil girl speak on the phone. She spoke so well!! I am so happy and thankful to God that yes, we were able to change a life of a family with this little effort.It takes me quite some time to edit the videos and to put the lil movie on the net, but it is all worth it if we were able to change some life. I now feel it is possible to even now give speech therapy sessions from a distance thanks to the technology.She recommended the videos and blog to the so called audiological center where she goes for any help. They rubbished it and consider the method we learn as " old and outdated". The mother immediately said it does not matter how and what she is teaching, the bottom line is the kids are talking and going to normal schools. I feel the method we learn will be effective even 20 years from now as it is not just the bookish knowledge that she is giving us. The education, books she reads, experience of the last 40 years and what she sees around herself is all knitted into the teachings she gives us. We are not confined to a boring room, but have sessions in her garden, living room, bathroom , prayer room, bedroom or in the park, in the vegetable market, you name it and we are there. I am so blessed to have her in my life.Now this lady is coming to visit me with her girl and will see for herself how normal our lives are.I am inspired to work harder in documenting the teaching and to share it with other parents.I hope we are successful in our endevour.
Rouchi, this is wonderful! I hope she has a good time visiting you. I hope she can see how well everyone is doing and have lots of hope and encouragement from that. It is a lot of work, but the work can be fun (lots of language opportunities and talking, talking, talking about everything)!
ReplyDeleteThere are free listening and language print-outs and activities at http://www.hearingjourney.com/Listening_Room/preview.cfm?langid=1 (click on "kids" for the child-oriented language games). We use the games from this site every once in a while for Nolan, because they come up with cute ideas!
This is very inspirational! You wrote awhile back about how frustrated you were with institutional obstacles to change, but even in the face of that you're able to reach out and help other families. And think of the ripple effect, when this woman tells other families about your videos and techniques, and it spreads from there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Leah and Julia, I am really hoping that one day we are able to show right from wrong and people would see the efforts we are putting in in a small way.Thanks for your continuous feedback. It makes me feel I am on the right track.
ReplyDeletehi rouchi,
ReplyDeletei can't describe in words what u n maam r doing for the cause.it is very important to hav a speech therapy in normal environment rather than a closed class room cause kids feel happy there n don't feel stressful at all.maams method involves all aspects of day today life which is important for comprehension of speech.i regularly watch ur vidieos n read ur blog to learn n understand more which help me immensely n inturn help my child.i try every day to read something to her n make her repeat after me.yterday maam showed how vowels can help improve their speech.i am very thankful to both of u for helping people like me who doesnt hav enough support to keep going n doesnt hav access to therapy centers.As i told u earlier that rashi's therapy center doesnt allow me to sit during the therapy session n i hav to depend on them for the feedback when i can see for myself what is going on there.thanks again keep up the good work, we need u to help us.
simran