Another signing family

   Yesterday on the way to the speech therapist, we came across a family with 2 little kids struggling to get into the tram while we sat on our seats. Mt attention was drawn towards the woman as she had exaggerated mouth movements with no sounds.I realized she was deaf and was struggling with the kid's buggy,a little baby on her hip and trying to communicate with her husband through lip reading. He too had his other kid and bags.The struggle they had climbing in while having a tough time looking at each other trying to understand what the other was saying, was very touching for me too.The buggy toppled over,they could not hear it topple over and a person standing by tried to help them. In between all this struggle when they could not lip read, they tried to sign too. I was so frozen trying to understand their struggle. The isolation was obvious as no one in the tram could understand what they were trying to say. But just watched as silent spectators.
    Prisha too watched this thing and was busy staring at them. the family settled down opposite us and started to sign and were busy sorting out the issue, arguing away. After a few minutes,the person looked at me and smiled, I looked at the woman and I told her that my daughter too had hearing aids. She nodded and pointed to her eyes and then to Prisha ...to say that she saw it. The man was without HA but was able to say few words in English. In the hushed tone and signs he asked if she spoke. I learned to lip read and so I said that Prisha wears aids and speaks.He wanted to know if she went to special school.When I told them that she spoke and went to International school like other normal kids,he kept silent.The woman looked on too...I wonder if it was a wishing look. The older kid was deaf too but as he threw away HA, they had got used to it and so did not insist on him wearing them and were comfortable that he too could lead a life like theirs as they knew no other.The man then communicated with a thumbs up for the younger one about his hearing....he could hear perfect ......with a victorious smile. I smiled said goodbye and left at our station.
      Prisha then asked me if these people too could not hear. I had a session with her a few days ago when she was clear she did not want to sign. I told her and reinforced to her about why we keep working on her. She said "mum, I love talking, I always want to talk and talk.I don't want to do signs,you will help me more? And maybe when I grow up,my ears would be alright and I can hear without hearing aids." I was so touched, I held her hand tight and told her that we love her non stop chatter in the house and we love her singing and noway are we going to stop that. I just smiled at her wish , I have told her earlier though that as of now she is always going to have them till science makes progress and we are able to use stem cell to cure her deafness maybe some day.
     This incident made me realize the struggle of the people who have had no access to AVT. The struggle between signs and lip reading, to people not understanding them and also the isolation due to lack of modes of communication made me realize how blessed I was to have Prisha lead a near normal life.She talks, sings and has no issues with communicating her needs to people even when I am not around.No one has to ask me what she wants to convey as she is able to do it herself.She makes friends, plays games and there are gaps in her understanding but that could happen to even hearing kids who has relocated into a new environment.We are all working on her through reading, writing, blogging, activities, games and doing loads of work sheets. It is just......a matter of time.

A link on lip reading

I came through this blog from deaf village.The view point on lip reading is interesting.

http://faceme.wordpress.com/about/#comment-2638

Speech needs attention

Last few days due to her spending a lot of time away from me, I noticed Prisha has regressed in her speech. Gosh , all the hard work of getting her there and then due to lack of spending time makes her go to her comfort zone and out comes her lower jaw and a bit of nasal voicing and there she has a bad voice. Funny thing is the moment I imitate her voice she quickly corrects herself.She is very comfortable with her grand parents, and as they follow her instructions, role plays, dramas, acts, the way she wants, she has no pressure on her and she immediately regresses. I need to focus on the echo stage a lot and do more speech practice.Her school timings are pathetic and so little time is left for her to other things. She met her older cousin and seeing her dance has made her do those "bharatnatyam" steps. I think I will put her in a class as she is quite ready to follow the instructions and learn dancing.
Last week there was a bomb scare in her school. I panicked. After the Mumbai attacks, life seems so uncertain.I rushed to school as I wondered what could be happening. The fear of the fact that in a crowded place how she would be able react, how she would hear in an emergency, would she be able to hear in chaos, etc, questions like these and more haunted me.I died a thousand deaths till I reached school. it turned out to be a hoax call.There was a lot of police and sniffer dogs but they found nothing.I hugged on to my daughter the moment I got her.She is too precious and the insecurity is high in my mind the moment my kids go to school now.
The latest fad with her in her favorite activity , drawing, is drawing hearts.She draws hearts of all sizes and colours and they look so good.She can play with colours of all kinds and as a reward for anything she needs is only things from the stationary shop. Her cupboard is overflowing. Last week we finally managed to clear out a lot. Thankfully she allowed me to throw out stuff.Normally she likes to keep even a fraction of crayon or paper hidden in her cupboard.
We visited the dentist as she developed a cavity.She is quite nervous when we visit any doctor.She was crying as she feared another cut. With a lot of difficulty we managed to fill up her cavity. The doctor was very patient and kept speaking to her with his mouth covered. He was amazed that Prisha did not lip read and was talking like other kids.he asked if I followed signs or lip reading and when I told him about AVT he was amazed. he visits a deaf school close by and had seen the kids struggle with life.I talked about what we do. As a reward for her getting the tooth job done ,for a change Prisha wanted to buy flowers. So she got red roses and zarbera.

Meeting an ex-student

Yesterday I met an ex-student of Mrs.Hudlikar who was one of her bright kids with good communication skills.He was married and come for therapy for his 10 month old deaf child who was diagnosed early and was wearing hearing aids and doing well .The man's mom had come with the entire family to re- learn what had to be taught to the child as the baby's mom was also deaf using sign language and the responsibility to develop the language laid with the grand mother.
During the session we gave out our feedback to the grand mother and we interacted with the family.All was well till the father of the child opened his mouth to speak.I was shocked as the man's language was so not at all clear and we all found it difficult to understand even one word. We all tried to strain and wondered how he was one of the good students. Ma'am was at him again and corrected his speech and was upset at the deterioration of his voice and speech. The man's parents then came out with the real story.The man was married to a deaf lady using the sign language. So for the woman adjustments were made so that she could open the door if the bell rang [ a light was attached to the door bell].There was a lot of writing that was used to make everybody understand.So to make the lady comfortable , the whole family made adjustments with the lady instead of helping her to react to sound and use her hearing aids to listen. The man has done his M Tech and works in a firm where during the interview when the interviewer tried to sign to him , he asked him to speak in English as he could speak. He also joined a deaf club against his parents wishes where most used signs and lip reading.With time the man stopped using his voice and started to depend on lip reading. As a result his voice quality and speech deteriorated.I was so shocked.Prisha too looked at the man with horror.It did give her a bit of fear.It is essential that the deaf person is surrounded with hearing people so that he does not get an opportunity to use any other mode except -speaking through hearing and hearing alone.As the man stopped started to focus on lip reading, he stopped focusing on listening and so stopped speaking. It did give me a big push that with Prisha I have to make sure that she is always in an environment where there is use of spoken language.

Another article in TOI

Today being world's deaf day, Mrs.Alaka Hudlikar had arranged for facts about speech therapy and the various courses to be published in "Times of India".I really hope things improve in India and we have quality courses that would improve the situation.We cannot have correspondence courses for this.We need to teach the teachers better and they have to be able to have AVT training where the focus is on listening and then speaking.Questions should be raised when these teachers , who are trained for the deaf, are not able to produce children who are talking and not using sign language and lip reading.If these methods are being used , then why have hearing aids and cochlear implants and AVT courses.I hope this article is able raise questions and answers are sought by the experts and we can look forward to a better life for the 3 kids in 1000 who are born deaf.
Click on the link to see the page.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JUFUvMjAwOC8wOS8yOCNBcjAwNTAw&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

Class presentation

I am sooooo happy today.Prisha had her class presentation , where they have a little programme to showcase their singing and learning in school and parents are invited.She was one of boldest and clearest to speak on stage.I had tears running down my eyes to hear her speak not in english but hindi! 2 years ago we were aiming at just some communication but today here she was singing away in Hindi. I saw her singing away other nursery rhymes taught in school. Go my girl go , conquer the world!
I loved the way she told me -"Mama you go home, I will come in the bus.". She kept throwing flying kisses from where she sat and I kept giving back too.It was funny that from this far we were speaking looking at each others lips.We do end up looking at lips and can understand since we were at a distance. So it is ok.

A visit by the teacher of the deaf

Today we had a guest in our speech therapy class.She was a principal of a deaf school who use mostly sign language.She said we try to make them speak but they do not .How will they?The language atmosphere is not there as they are surrounded by similar kids and as there is not much conversation , they end up signing.They do wear hearing aids, but are they really focusing on speech or they are mere things hanging?they still lip read as they are not taught to depend on hearing but still depend on visual input.in our class from the very beginning we were focused on sound alone and not on looking and seeing.In the dark the lip reading and sign language will fail.Once a person wears aids,he should be made to be attentive to sound and sound alone.
The teacher was surprised to hear Prisha.She said that what surprised her was, Prisha never looked at the face while being showed something, she picked up 2 people's conversation and learnt from them and that even from behind when she was asked something she responded.But that is what AVT is all about.Learning through listening.Listening and then speaking.The focus is on listening alone.
She told us that the school was a residential one.All the more there is a problem.There is no input from normal sources except the teachers.Each teacher has 15 deaf students.How much can she focus and how much will she talk and what.In such cases individual attention is required at least in the form of family who would make them feel like normal people.At home listening to normal conversation and a variety of discussions would give adequate language opportunity to the child.
She mentioned a thing which is so typical and so education and academic oriented.She said we teach the children , give them answers to questions required for the curriculum, but after they were told to learn and answer them , they looked blank.To this I put forward my view that when the child does not have the basic language to understand concepts, how will he remember the answers?The knowledge is ABSTRACT for them!To learn a complicated thing we need to understand simple things 1st.They are not able to converse as they don't have the language, then how can they remember the answer as they cannot understand it.It is like this......I don't know french, then if I am told to remember a write up in french, how can I just rattle it off?Even if I memorize it I would not be able recall it and say as I don't have an understanding of the language.It just made sense to her.My heart goes out to those children who are not able to speak because of non availability of the right infrastructure , right teachers and correct speech therapy.I wish there was a revolution in India and people had a heart to help and not focus on their own monetary benefit.