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Tracy was a December
child '96 (she is 6 years old now). She was diagnosed at 10 months with
profound loss on both ears. She was initially fitted with a Siemens hearing
aid, and changed to Danavox subsequently, however the progress was slow and
painful. It was until she had her cochlear implant that we saw some real
improvements and finally heard consonants from her speech.
When she was
first diagnosed as a hearing-impaired child, our reactions were very much
the same as a lot of other parents out there. It was hard to think that
such misfortune could happen to our family. A lot of tears were shed and
sleepless nights spent wondering if we have done any bad deeds to deserve
this. There was this initial period of soul searching and questioning.
Fortunately, being the man of the household, my husband was able to pull me
out of this emotional havoc. Not knowing where to get help in Singapore,
the first thing that we did was to buy books on sign language because we
thought that would be the only avenue for her to communicate with us. It
was through a friend that we found out later that there is a Parent Support
Group in the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SAD).
It was through
the interaction with other parents like us that we realized that there are
other methods a deaf child can communicate with their parents. For
example:- Total Communication, Auditory Verbal or Auditory Oral, etc.
Honestly, at that point we were rather confused as to which strategy to
adopt. We learnt about cochlear implant and did some research on the
Internet. After much research, our knowledge on hearing impairment and its
intervention strategies was enhanced. We decided to give our daughter the
benefit of hearing with a cochlear implant.
Tracy was implanted at
the age of 3 years 2 months. Looking back, there was no regret; the only
regret was not having her implanted earlier. She is now a speaking child
and is with SGH Listen and Talk Program. Tracy progresses very well with the help
of the dedicated Auditory-Verbal therapist.
Tracy has been attending
mainstream school with normal hearing children and last year, we decided to
delay her Primary 1 enrolment. We felt that an extra year of pre primary
would do more good than harm as she has a lifelong learning ahead of her.
At present, we enrolled her for enrichment classes for 3 hours every
morning and another 3 hours of K2
curriculum in the afternoons. An example of her recent project during the
Chinese New Year holidays was to conduct an interview session with her
aunts and uncles; basically understanding the work types, job titles, roles
& responsibilities, etc. We also send her for Chinese speech and drama
class on Saturdays, and she sang a Chinese New Year song for us.
Looking at her
progress, we are not afraid of what lies ahead of her, something we dared
not imagine when she was first diagnosed. Now, we are very excited to know
what her progress will be in 6mths, 1 yr, 5 yrs down the road. We are
certainly looking forward to the future.
Winnie & John Goh
February 2003
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