Parents Counselling
After diagnosis of hearing impairment, doctors send the child with the parents for admission in our school. It’s very difficult for the parents to accept the fact that their child is not able to hear at all or is profoundly hearing impaired. We can feel their sad state of mind when they enter the school premises along with the child. They are always in a state of shock and have a firm belief that there is no future for their special child. Initially the parents seem to be somewhat reluctant to educate the child with a presumption that the child is handicapped and no education will help.
Our role begins here. First of all we console them. We assure them that we are with them in this crucial period. At the same time we guide them about the solutions to teach their child. This is a gradual process which proceeds step by step.
When the child gets familiar with the teachers and also with the school environment, hearing evaluation is done by our audiologist and proper hearing aid is suggested. Meanwhile, social worker visits home of the child and gets the family history. Parents do co-operate us wholeheartedly because by now they are quite hopeful about their child’s progress and future. If the child stays back at home, his class teacher along with the counseling staff visit his home and guide the parents.
In this way, schooling and speech training of the deaf child starts. Now it’s the responsibility of the teacher to give him speech training and develop communication skills.
These stages from admission up to schooling constitute parent counseling, which is most essential in education of handicapped in hearing. As a result, with the co-operation of parents, we are successful in bringing the child in the mainstream of society when he is grown up.
Parents counseling brings remarkable changes. Parents themselves come to school 2-3 times a week and get guidance from teachers.
Counseling journey is made through these steps:
Doctor - Diagnosis of hearing impairment.
School - Counseling of parents.
Audiologist - Hearing evaluation and fitting of proper hearing aid.
Social Worker - Home visit – family history
Teacher - Speech training
Thus the child is happy and the parents are satisfied.