May 2014: News from FAID – a report from our speech therapist Frozina

Like every year, Frozina, the speech therapist funded by Lebanon Trust, has sent us a detailed report about the problems she encounterered this year and the progress that she has observed in the deaf chidren at the school.

Children attend weekly group sessions as well as individual sessions. The classes concentrate on developing oral communication, improving voice quality (intensity, frequency), minimising alteration of words, developing comprehension of words and whole sentences, enlarging vocabulary, correcting different aspects of the children’s language, improving lip-reading skills.

On top of this, meetings with parents take place regularly, in collaboration with the school’s psychology department. The first goal of these meetings is to inform the adults about deafness, speech therapy, and language. Also, there are practical sessions aimed at teaching parents how they can motivate their children to practice oral language more and more in their daily life.

Thanks to these efforts, the youngest children (aged 3-6) make great progress in attention level and in developing a vocabulary appropriate for their level. Elementary school pupils start speaking spontaneously throughout their day, and learn to sing. Older children become more and more proficient in oral communication, although not without difficulty.

It is very encouraging that over the years a growing number of parents become interested and get involved in their children’s schooling and speech therapy, which in turn motives the children more and more.