Special Education Project for the Hearing Impared

When Foundation staff surveyed slum disabled in the nineteen eighties, they discovered that by far the most common handicap was impaired hearing. The foundation also discovered that many of the hearing-impaired children were not attending school. There are private and state facilities for deaf and partially deaf children but they are very few and far between. In terms of access and cost they are out of reach of the majority of poor families.

Doctors working with the survey found that many children whose hearing is impaired are suffering from damage to the auditory nerves. This kind of damage can often be mitigated, at least partially. If the child can be trained to understand speech at an early enough age, they need not be excluded from the national school system. It was for these children that the DPF opened its school for the hearing-impaired in 1986.

Each child is fitted with a hearing aid tailored to his or her individual needs. These hearing aids then remain the child's property for life.

The special school currently has twenty children aged from three to ten, divided into two classes under the care of four teachers.

The school day begins with assembly, for which the pupils join with children from the kindergarten next door. In class they learn good health habits and social skills, counting, reading, writing, drawing and painting. Above all, the children learn at all times the essential skills of listening and communication. The teachers work often with individual pupils or in small groups training the children's speaking, listening and lip reading abilities.

The children from the special programme are integrated with their peers from the Duang Prateep Kindergarten as often as possible. Many extra activities are arranged, such as camps, outings, sporting and cultural events. These activities also give opportunities for recreation with other children.

The teaching staff work closely with parents and guardians at all times. Parental involvement in the training of their hearing impaired children is very important. Teachers explain to the parents the needs of children attending special education. Parents who take time to practise communication with their children are rewarded by seeing more rapid development of speech and listening skills.

In 2003 the Duang Prateep Foundation was able to open a special 'sound lab' for the hearing-impaired children. The new facility is an air-conditioned room, in which hearing-impaired children can practice their speaking skills with the aid of the computer. The computer makes sounds for the children to repeat and monitors their replies. Correct responses from the children are rewarded with recognition on the computer screen. The computer records each child's progress and provides progressively harder exercises as the child's speech ability improves. The new facility will also be beneficial for other children and adults in the Khlong Toei community who have speech and hearing problems.

Children stay at the school for between two and four years. The hope is that they will subsequently be able to attend normal primary schools. Where the level of disability makes this impossible, they are sponsored to attend more advanced special schools.