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As we received
the excellent report from the teacher, our hearts were filled with
thanksgiving. Five years ago, we were grieving over our hearing impaired
child, Josiah, wondering whether he would ever learn to speak. Now at the
age of six, he is enjoying school, playing and learning very well along
with other kids in Primary 1.
The first hurdle
we had to cross was accepting his hearing impairment. Being our first
child, we wanted everything to be perfect for him. It was a big blow to
discover that he had a permanent handicap. It took us a few months to
struggle with our own emotions before we could move on to start him on his
therapy.
Getting our
active one-year old to put on his hearing aids was difficult to begin with.
Following that was intensive one-to-one attention given to him almost every
waking moment. We talked and played with him, read book after book, scouted
around for all kinds of educational toys to stimulate his mind and
frequented places of interest. By the age of two, he had a sizeable
vocabulary but very poor quality speech.
Then we had to
agonize over the decision of sending him for a cochlear implant. Four
months before he turned three, our family flew to Sydney
for the procedure as the program was still at its infancy in Singapore.
It took him one month to adapt to listening with his implant, but after six
months of rehabilitation, there was vast improvement in the quality of his
speech.
Josiah continued
to grow and learn through four different pre-schools, establishing a very
good foundation in his English. However, it was difficult getting him
started in his Chinese, partly because we introduced it rather late and we
do not use the language regularly at home. It is our new challenge to get
him to enjoy learning his mother tongue.
We were
initially a bit apprehensive about Josiah adapting to a class size of forty
in Primary 1 this year. With the support of his teachers, Josiah is able to
adjust to the mainstream curriculum. He listens well in class and also
participates actively in class discussions. He is very happy playing soccer
with his classmates during recess and also makes friends on the school bus.
As he reaches
each new milestone, we believe that with patience, perseverance and
prayers, Josiah can overcome his challenges to lead a rewarding and
fulfilling life.
~ Mun Bin
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