It was only when Foong Mei or better known as Mei Mei did not react to a loud noise behind her that she realised something must be wrong.

As Mei Mei explains, her mother did not know what to do at first when she was first diagnosed until she came across a newsletter from Pusat Majudiri ‘Y’ for the Deaf under YMCA Kuala Lumpur.

So at the age of one year and 10 months, Mei Mei was enrolled in the early intervention programme.

After completing the programme, she attended kindergarten in a hearing school setting, while YMCA staff continued to visit her house to provide support.

Her primary education and first year of secondary school took place in an all-deaf school setting. In Form Two, she made the decision to switch to normal classes.

Hoping to continue her undergraduate studies in Canada, she said she scored 1A in Mathematics in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia last year.

Mei Mei was sharing her experiences on being born deaf at a workshop on Early Intervention for Children with Hearing Impairment held recently.

Sign language interpreter Lucy Lim helped to translate Mei Mei's experiences.

Hearing loss

Hearing loss has been called an “invisible” disability because someone cannot tell an individual is deaf just by looking at him.

While some cases of hearing loss are reversible with medical treatment, many lead to a permanent disability.

Hearing aids and cochlear implants may alleviate some of the problems caused by hearing impairment, but are often insufficient.

Consultant audiologist Ronald Burgess says that the primary role of the ear is that of receptor, to receive and transmit auditory signals to the auditory centres in the brain.

Once sound is turned to electrical signals, they are sent to the auditory nerve and then the brain.

The brain decides what the sound is and helps us to “know” what we are hearing.

With intervention, even children with profound hearing loss can enjoy the delights of sound from an early age.

Hearing loss affects more than language. It could also affect cognition, literacy, knowledge, skills and opportunity, independence and self-esteem and also have an impact on family, school and society.

Thanks to modern technologies in assessing hearing problems, hearing loss in children can now be detected early.

To do just as well, deaf children need extra assistance in the form of early intervention to enable them to learn and develop.

Early intervention

Early intervention means “to intervene in the child’s life at a very early age, providing the appropriate medical, educational and therapeutic services,” explains Lim, who is assistant manager at Pusat Majudiri “Y” for the Deaf in YMCA KL.

It is a multi-disciplinary approach so that the child can be guided and supported to learn with professionals supporting the processes.

“Early intervention is important because it provides early support to parents who tend to undergo a period of shock, denial, disbelief, guilt and depression.

“Parents need to access appropriate information about deafness and the deaf community as well as how to cope with a deaf child,” she says, adding that parents are also brought together in support groups to share ideas and to encourage one another.

Lim explains that deafness has an impact on language learning so it is important for deaf children to be taught language at an early age.

It is also important that any bad patterns are discouraged early on.

“Early intervention provides deaf children with opportunities to develop to their full potential,” she adds.

As Melbourne University Learning and Educational Development Department deputy head Dr Margaret Brown says deaf children have the same intellectual potential normal children.

“We acquire language because we hear it and learn to respond accordingly. However, an infant with hearing difficulties is unable to do so,” she says.

As Lim explains, the centre’s integrated programme seeks to deliver programmes and services to ensure the deaf grow up holistically to play a useful and meaningful role in society.

“Our early intervention programme is known as PIP (Parent Infant Programme). When we have our first contact with the family and child, there is counselling, pre-assessment and a programme designed to suit the child.

“Subsequently, once the programme is implemented, we continue to review and assess what’s happening,” she says.

The components under PIP are sensory development, motor development, language development, self-help development, social-emotional development as well as a cognitive and adaptive development.

Dr Brown explains the importance of how each early intervention programme should address the needs of the parent, child or other caregivers.

“Everyone needs to assess the strengths, needs and priorities together. It is also important to set realistic goals and objectives,” she says, adding that there is a need to review its effectiveness, too.

Parents would want to know how their child is doing, whether the intervention is making a difference and if the child is making progress.

Dr Brown says there is a need to assess and monitor to ensure children are progressing optimally, identify any strengths and weaknesses as well as evaluate whether goals have been met.

By Karen Chapman