Ahmedabad: Deaf kids step into the world of sounds

The kids aged four to 11 years graduated towards studying in a 'normal' school. These kids were born deaf and got a cochlear implant as part of a government programme.

Dr Neeraj Suri, a cochlear implant surgeon, said that a campaign has been on to detect deafness in children immediately after they have been born. "Of the 50,000 children screened so far, deafness was detected in 1500 of them. And this is in Ahmedabad alone, imagine the scene in the rest of the state," said Dr Suri.

She said children lose out a lot of learning when they are unable to hear. "So even if a cochlear implant is done, which is usually done around 1.5 years, there is a lot of catching up to do," said Dr Suri.

Bharat Thakor, father of six year old Anjali, who lives in Kadi has been helping his daughter with learning at the school run by Tara Foundation. "She got a cochlear implant when she was six-years-old. Until then she would not speak but now she speaks well. Now that she has been trained she can go to a normal school," said Thakor. The children at the foundation are given speech therapy, behavioral therapy to help them catch up on learning that they might have not got due to lack of hearing.

The 'graduation' was inaugurated by Chiranjiv Patel , managing director of PC Snehal Group of Companies.

Shilpa Choksi, CEO and co-founder of House of Marigold, said that not much efforts are being put into matter of deafness. "We decided to work on the issue because no one else was doing much. This is preventable with an early intervention and these kids can be like any other normal kids," said Choksi, who was inspired by Gulzar to work in the field.

Lowdown

Of the 50,000 children screened so far in Ahmedabad, deafness was detected in 1500 of them. Cochlear implant is done, when the child is around 1.5-years of age.