DIVERSASIA - Best practices

Hicare, is a Society for hearing impaired children and is running 10 schools in the country. These institution provide early intervention and training to children with hearing difficulties. The aim is provided at early intervention. A formal assessment of the hearing capacity of children is done in the diagnostic centre and intervention is provided in the childcare centre.

The team visited one of these schools situated in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. According to the school philosophy children are to be mainstreamed in government schools after they are provided the required training. 400(350 children have joined the pre school and 50 class IV, V and VI) children have been mainstreamed in the ordinary school in the past 20 years. HICARE acts as a feeder school to the other schools. 43 children have been provided training in the field of computer.

According to the school statistics 80% of the children whose parents approach the institution have congenital hearing loss. The institutions provide home care programs for children(2 and half year old) and there are plans to increase this service especially for children with moderate hearing loss. The unit also provides advice to parents and has prepared video programs and pamphlets for building awareness in the community. HICARE is in a position to provide technical and academic training.

The institution discourage the use of sign language. Picture charts are used to provide training. Children in the younger classes during the training sessions are seated on the ground facing the teachers in semi circles. Older children were found seated on chair with a table(in the shape of horse shoe). The teachers sit in the grove created by the flat horse table. This allows good eye contact and children can lip - read each other and the teacher. Children are taught to take part in ordinary conversation as normally as possible through speech therapy, lip-reading and use of hearing aids. The teacher-student ratio is usually 1:5. The teacher is very closely involved with the individual students engaging them in verbal communication during the education program activities.

Children with profound hearing loss are also given continuous specialized training. In higher grades education is also provided within Hicare School itself. according to the school policy ex-students comeback twice a year for hearing assessment and for the adjustments of hearing aids. For those who can afford the hearing aids the services are at a cost, while for others they are provided free of cost. The faculty also conducts training programs for teachers who teach in schools for speech and hearing impaired.