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Education is the birthright of every individual and the Children with hearing impairment (CWHI) are no exception. They too must enjoy equal opportunities to enjoy the fruits of education as their hearing counterparts. Their educational needs must be given due importance and has to be met through special ways so as to meet their special needs and requirements. This in turn facilitates integration wherein, the CWHI are placed in normal hearing schools along with the non-impaired children for instructional purposes. Thus, with all these as their aims and goals, Rochiram Thadani High School for Hearing Handicapped caters to meet the educational needs of CWHI with the help of well trained, experienced and competent staff of Special Educators, Speech Therapists, Audiologists, Psychologists and Social Workers.
Here, in this school, the special needs of the CWHI are met :
By adopting different principles of developing language in CWHI such as
- Use of multi-sensory channel.
- Useful language to be taught to the children.
- Meaningful situation and context to be used.
- Language to be considered as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
- Language learning to begin very early.
- Language acquisition to be a continuous process and not simply a product of the classroom.
- To keep in mind the needs and interests of the child.
- The goal of language programme to be Automatic development.
By adopting Special techniques such as
- Conversation
- News
- Story
- Directed Activity
- Visit
- Poem
Through Natural Method of teaching language to CWHI
The Natural Method believes that language is not teachable - it is learnable. In this method, the child is expected to acquire language implicitly (without any conscious effort or teaching about language.) through interaction occurring within the environment.
By using different modes of communication like
- Oralism : In which verbal language is developed in deaf children through aural / oral mode and through.
- Total Communication : In which verbal language is developed in the deaf students with the support from visual / manual mode.
In the school Auditory training is undertaken on a daily basis in which the residual hearing of the students are used to the optimum level by fitting the children with appropriate hearing aids. Providing auditory training is a crucial aspect for developing speech and language in CWHI. Thus, the development language and communication skills are given due importance and the students are gradually integrated in the regular school set-up. This in the long run, helps them to become a part of the Mainstream Society.
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