Kenia: Children who do not hear well can also go to school

Kenia / 17 de agosto de 2016 / Por: MERCY MBARIRE / Fuente: http://www.nation.co.ke/

Hearing impairment is a condition that includes deaf and hard of hearing and can be classified according to the degree of hearing loss: Mild, moderate, severe and profound.

A person with mild hearing loss can follow normal conversation if there is no noise in the room but needs to face the speaker so as to hear clearly. One with moderate hearing loss only hears sounds that are very close or loud; hence, they may miss a considerable amount of speech going around.

Severe hearing loss means the person cannot hear normal speech and therefore requires a hearing aid while with profound hearing loss they hear no speech or other sounds and depend entirely on sign language.

Clearly, hearing impairment means the person faces a lot of challenges at home and in school. Even worse, some parents are in denial about their child’s condition, hence take them to regular schools and they end up dragging behind their colleagues while most drop out of school at an early age.

Some teachers also take long to identify such children and they are likely to develop low self-esteem as they can’t cope with their peers.

Poverty may contribute to parents or guardians not being able to take the deaf child to a special school in order to be taught sign language.

Wrong placement of such children may also affect the child. Teachers may regard them as slow learners and brew a negative attitude towards them — which may, in turn, lead to behaviours such as truancy.

Special needs education is vital in this case as it provides appropriate modification in the curricular teaching methods, educational resources, medium of communication or the learning environment to cater for individual differences in learning.

The Kenya Institute of Special Education (Kise) trains teachers in special needs education. It is, therefore, paramount that parents, caregivers, community mobilisers, social workers and teachers identify children — particularly up to eight years old — with special needs to facilitate early intervention.

The community should also be sensitised about the causes of such disabilities and informed about the importance of accepting these children. Such a child should be referred to the nearest sub-county

Education Assessment and Resource Centre (EARC) offices for assessment and placement.

Ms Mbarire is a sub-county education assessment and resource co-ordinator and trained special education teacher based in Laikipia County mercymarete@gmail.com

Fuente noticia: http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/health/Children-who-do-not-hear-well-can-also-go-to-school/1954202-3346618-prr60oz/index.html