Creating A Better Future for Children with Hearing Impairment

Summary

Each year in India, 1,00,000 babies are born with hearing impairment. Out of which less than 1% receive a quality education. Six-year-old Misha was also born with hearing impairment. Her parents, who are daily wage labourers, could not afford special education system and enrolled her in a regular government school. But Misha couldn’t reach her appropriate learning level and was unable to recognize alphabets, fruits and vegetables etc. This remains an unmitigated problem for a large population of hearing impaired children from economically vulnerable families who are unable to access special education due to lack of resources. Misha’s parents later enrolled her at the Sadhan Resource Center run by INIDAdonates’ partner VAANI, free of cost. Since this shift in education in 2019, Misha’s parents have seen drastic improvement in her learning ability.

Misha now knows 65 words of fruits, animals, body parts, vegetable, colour etc. She can now read and write English letters and 1 to 30 numbers. Most importantly, she is now able to expresses herself through Indian Sign Language and actively participates at school and home. Misha also independently executes everyday activities like going to shop and buying sweets, completing homework, getting ready for school etc.        

Deafness in itself is not a learning disability. Learning difficulty arises because deaf children cannot communicate. A three-year-old deaf child without access to special education will only know about 25 spoken words, compared to 700 words for a hearing child of the same age. Pre-lingual hearing impairment impacts speech, cognitive development and hinders chances of education and employment, but it can be mitigated by ensuring access to special education for all hearing impaired children.

INDIAdonates and its partner, VAANI aim to provide 150 deaf and hearing impaired children, in the age group of 2-14 years, from resource-poor families, total and complete access to communication, information, life skills and knowledge to reach their full potential as individuals and as members of society. The parents of these children are daily wage labourers, landless agricultural labourers, domestic workers and other daily-wage earners from the cities as well as from nearby semi-urban and rural areas. The project is also designed to provide social and emotional support to the parents.

The project seeks to support two centers in Guwahati and Kolkata, West Bengal, each catering to 75 children. The children will be attending the center every day with a parent and will receive special education in Language, Basic Mathematics, Gross Motor Skills and Life Skills. Each child will receive individual attention with regular monitoring of pre-determined learning goals. The children will be provided with nutritional supplements helpful for their development. The students will also receive group sessions on speech therapy. Additionally, the parents will attend workshop and awareness sessions and will be provided with social and emotional support in care-giving through the creation of a community of parents.

Through the enhancement of learning skills, the project will contribute towards improvements in future employability and quality of life of children living with deafness. Misha’s story is one among many who are still struggling to communicate with their loved ones, make new friends and explore new opportunities. This is their chance.