Early diagnosis can help severely deaf kids, says expert
Mumbai: Three-year-old Abdullah Qureshi is seated next to his mother Zeenat in a small classroom. Laying out an array of objects required to dress for school, his teacher instructs the mother to brush her teeth, wipe her face and comb her hair. The child watches his mother carefully and when its his turn, he obeys as well. Abdullah, who was deaf by birth, recently received a cochlear implant, and engaging the parent is part of the rehabilitation process.
As two rehabilitation centres for hearing-impaired children, Aured and KDN Shruti, celebrated their annual day recently, experts utilised the occasion to show how severely deaf children who have received cochlear implants can lead a near-normal life if treated early. Wearing black magnetic discs on their head and sound boxes inside their shirts, the implantees put up a spirited entertainment show.
Vandana Hariname, audiologist at the Shruti intervention centre in Juhu, says parents must quickly seek help if the baby does not respond to auditory stimuli and patiently await results once the child is under treatment. Aziza Tyabji Hyderi, who runs the Aured therapy centre in Mahalaxmi, would like children to be brought in before they turn three as that reduces disability and helps them to integrate into regular school.
In India, cochlear implants became available only in the last decade, and the city only has three or four professional rehab centres. So Zeenat Qureshi commutes from Mumbra to Mahalaxmi two times a week, while Kalyan resident Suchita Kolte brings her daughter Bhavika to Juhu.
Unlike a classroom, auditory verbal therapy for cochlear implantees involves engaging an individual child in the presence of his parent, usually the mother.
The teacher sits beside the child, not opposite him because that would tempt him to lip read, says trainer Dildar Dalvi.
We discourage sign language and lip reading. The aim is to teach the language solely by listening.
Like other teachers at Aured, Dalvi was a parent who stayed on to help children similarly disabled to her own. The outcome of a consanguineous marriage, Dalvis older son is an implantee while his brother wears a hearing aid.
Hydari says children who lose their hearing at a later stage have the advantage of perspective. They only have to be reminded of the sounds they were once familiar with.
However, those who are deaf by birth have to be taught the very alphabet of sound. Apart from having to recognise the natural sounds of a dog barking or a car honking, there is such a range of sounds within the home that a child must learn to identify, Hariname adds.
Over the past two years, eightyear-old Bhavika has learnt to differentiate between the doorbell and the ring of the telephone. She can identify the sound of water as it fills a bucket and spills over. Zeenat says that an excited Abdullah runs into the kitchen every time he hears the pressure cooker whistle or the sound of the grinder.
Implants cost anywhere between Rs 6-10 lakh, but the Qureshis believe it is a worthy investment. The first time the cochlear device was switched on, my son was afraid and began to cry, Zeenat said.
For some days, the softest sound was noise that disturbed the peace of his silent world. He would often remove the contraption and set it aside. Now it takes effort to get him to remove the device before he goes to bed.
SOUND SENSE: Children with hearing impairities attend a class at the Aured Therapy Centre in Mahalaxmi