CENTRES FOR THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED


1. ATUNDA OLU SCHOOL FOR THE PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY CHALLENGED - 2 - 4, Adamu Oriba Street, Off Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere.

2. MODUPE COLE MEMORIAL CHILDCARE AND TREATMENT HOME- 1, St. Finbarrs’ College Road, Akoka.

3. NATIONAL ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL SPECIAL SCHOOL- National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Ikorodu Rd.

4. OLUSOYE COMPENSATORY CENTRE - 4, Oyetola Idowu Street, Off Sura Mogagi Street,
Ilupeju.

5. ORPHANAGE FOUNDATION - 50, Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi.

6. PACCELLI SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND - 30, Ajao Road, Surulere.

7. WESLEY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF (SCHOOL 1) - 30, Ajao Road, Surulere.

8. WESLEY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF (SCHOOL 2) - 30, Ajao Road, Surulere.

School where deaf and dumb hear, speak

The belief that the deaf and dumb can hear and speak only at power-packed crusade grounds where miracles are dished out by powerful men of God has been invalidated by recent technological innovations. Even at this, tell a strict believer in divine miracles that the deaf and dumb also hear and speak at Ejigbo in Lagos where the people in charge are not even Deacons, you will sound blasphemous. Senior Correspondent CHINAKA OKORO visited Favour Auditory-Oral School where technology has enabled the deaf and dumb children hear and speak.




This may sound eccentric to dye-in-the-wool religious fundamentalists who may see what they regard as pure miracle in the ecclesiastical realm happening outside the realm of religion. For instance, what impression would a strict believer in miracles have when told that the deaf and dumb hear and speak not even at a known miracle, signs and wonders church or religious outfit but at an obscure area of Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb?

But no matter how the religious fundamentalist feels about it, the deaf and dumb can hear and speak through special scientific innovation known as hearing aids. This is possible at a special school for the hearing-impaired children at 3, Chris Idowu Oladipupo Street, Off Egbe/Ikotun-Road, Ejigbo, Lagos known as Favour Auditory-Oral School.

Narrating to Newsextra how and why the special school was established, Mr Johnson Odigili, an electrical/electronic engineer and the Project coordinator of the school, said the school named after his seven-year-old daughter (Favour) was founded when it was discovered, after seven months of the birth of his child, that she had profound hearing loss. This happened, he said, after his baby was treated of pneumonia. He further disclosed that his daughter was taken to Phonics Hearing Centre at Ikoyi, Lagos where, he said, the doctor placed her on speech therapy.

"Favour Auditory-Oral School was established to teach children who are deaf or hard at hearing to listen and talk like children with normal hearing through a systemic approach known as Oral Deaf Education. We were motivated to establish the special school drawing from our experience in dealing with our daughter’s case who was discovered to have hearing loss at the age of seven months after suffering from pneumonia. In the process of her undergoing speech therapy after we had acquired the recommended hearing aids, I got interested in mastering the application of the hearing aids," he said.

On how he became a specialist in speech therapy, Mr Odigili disclosed that as his daughter was going through the speech therapy at Phonics Hearing Centre, he and has wife, Mary, were paying special attention to the whole process and when the doctor discovered their interest and fastness in mastering the process, he trained them to the extent of having a certificate in speech therapy after spending a long period of training.

After their training in speech therapy, the Odigilis decided to establish a special school for children who have the same problem like their child.

"At the end of the training, we had discussions with the doctor on the possibility of establishing a kind of an in-house speech therapy to which the doctor agreed based on our performance. It started just like a vision of founding a small school. We established the school three years ago and today we have a good number of them that we take on in speech therapy," he stated.

Experts have posited that profoundly deaf children can use today’s advanced hearing aids and cochlea implants to obtain access to sound. But this is not enough. A deaf or hard at hearing child, they added, also needs an educator. This is where the role of Favour Auditory-Oral School becomes imperative. The school is dedicated to the belief that children who are hearing impaired can learn to listen, talk, pursue a high academic level and fully participate in a hearing world. With comprehensive educational programme, the school is geared towards developing the listening skills, speech, language and cognitive intellect of the child with the help of professionals and speech therapists and by using a well defined curriculum through a systematic approach known as Oral Deaf Education.

Mr Odigili noted that "Favour Auditory-Oral School has the objective and vision of providing a learning experience that will empower the child to be independent, creative, and self-sufficient and pursue a high academic level as well as fully participate in a hearing world by acquiring listening and speech abilities through training and practice."

How can a deaf child be made to hear and talk as normal as a child born without hearing impairment, one may ask? Mr Odigili said two factors are primarily involved. These, he said, are the instruments and the human element.

He told Newsextra that "a lot of instruments are involved; not just instruments or equipment but human resources are also involved in the process of giving normal education to the hearing impaired children."

He reeled off the human elements to include the occupational therapist, the play therapist, the speech therapist, the speech pathologist, the audiologist who are involved in the development of a child with hearing loss. Of their specific roles he said: "The audiologist is concerned with the equipment that are used in educating the children. Primarily, he is concerned about the workability or suitability of the equipment like the hearing aids. He determines how suitable the hearing aid is for a particular child; how to programme the hearing aids to suit the child’s hearing level. The speech pathologist’s main concern is the quality of sounds and sound production. He is also concerned with how sounds are produced and their clarity. For instance, he checks how the letters of the word sound. He determines whether a child is speaking like a normal person that doesn’t have the hearing loss.

"The speech therapist is concerned with the speech itself. He determines which word to introduce at a particular stage. He also determines the kind of letter, word or sentence formations at every level or stage of the child’s development among others."

Explaining the functions of some of the equipment that are used in Favour Auditory-Oral School, he hinted that the audiometer is used by the audiologist to test and ensure that the hearing aids are working perfectly. He also ensures that the hearing aids are programmed in such a way that the user picks every sound made.

Important equipment the school uses, according to the project coordinator is a special kind of FM (frequency modulation) which the speech therapist uses. It is a special equipment which when connected and programmed by the audiologist disconnects the surrounding and background noises so that if a word is mentioned to the child, he will hear only the word spoken to him irrespective of the surrounding noises. This equipment, Mr Odigili said, is mostly used during a child’s early period of stay in the school. "So it is only the sound you want the child to hear that he would hear while using the FM.

Mr. Odigili seems not satisfied yet as he plans to bring in an "improved technology" for the benefit of those who have hearing loss, even as he added that "though some of them are available in the country."

He said: "Most of the hearing aids in some centres are either improperly used or are not the right ones. There are some centres that are into sign language but the children still wear the hearing aids. When you use the right hearing aids for a child that has hearing loss, there is no need for the sign language. There are different kinds of hearing aids; some are sophisticated while some are not. There are hearing aids that actually work and those are the types we use in our school. Some centres claim to be doing what we do but not at an advanced stage as our centre because we use the right technology which are hearing aids that are well programmed and which ensure that the child hears and speaks after proper applications. Some hearing aids are not programmeable; some are just fixed without the audiogramme. If you have the right technology, it means that you have the right hearing aids, the right equipment, and the right manpower to carry out the right therapy. This situation gives you the right results at the right time."

The amount involved in acquiring some of these hearing aids could be frightening. But it is important to get the right equipment or hearing aids for maximum results. According to Mr Odigili, each of the right hearing aids costs about N350,000. This could inform the school charging moderately as tuition.

"Our charges are very moderate; in fact, the charges are in sliding scale because we consider a lot of things. We don’t reject any child because of fees because what we are doing is more of a humanitarian service," he said.

On the appropriate age at which a child with hearing loss should start receiving oral deaf education, Mr Odigili informed that early detection is very important because, he said, anything concerning hearing and speaking start their development right from the womb.

"Once you detect early enough that a child has hearing loss, action must be taken immediately. This is what we call intervention. You have to intervene quickly by getting the right hearing aids. Age is a determining factor in this process. If a child starts from age one to three to receive oral deaf education, he stands a better chance of quick response to the rehabilitation process than a child who is already six, seven or eight years. "So, getting to listen and speak with the hearing aids at a very tender age gives a good result," he noted, adding that "as a special school, we take them through the normal ministry of education curriculum-nursery and primary school depending on their age.

"The tender ones go through the nursery school curriculum and those that are elder go through the primary school curriculum. All these go hand-in-hand with the speech therapy curriculum."

One striking thing about Favour Auditory-Oral School is that all the 17 children stay in the school for the period of rehabilitation. Even though the fact that most of the children come from outside Lagos State can be adduced as a reason, the school authorities say they took the decision for the purpose of close after-normal-class monitoring. "Majority of the children come from outside Lagos and we had no other option than to provide accommodation for them. The 17 children live in the two hostels we have-one for girls and one for the boys. Close after-school monitoring is another reason for this decision," he said. On the process of rehabilitation, Mr Odigili told Newsextra that "the process starts from acquiring the hearing aids from the hospital which refers them to this place. When they come to the school, they start from the foundation class which is where they are introduced to listening skills. They have to learn the art of listening and at the same time you teach them how to learn some words.

"After they have learnt some words and have mastered some listening skills to a certain level, they are moved to a higher class where you introduce the nursery school programme alongside the speech therapy curriculum. They will be in that class for some appreciable period of time depending on how fast they are in mastering what they are taught. After this, they will graduate to another higher class where they will be introduced to, once again, the nursery school curriculum together with the speech therapy curriculum. We introduce the primary school curriculum only when we are convinced that the children, no matter how few they are, have developed considerable skills-listening, speaking and cognitive-to an appreciable level; and we are sure that they have developed some level of self-confidence to interact in the outside world. At this stage, we graduate them to the normal school programme during which we run what we call an inclusive system."

The project co-ordinator explained that while the children are undergoing the normal school programme, they would need some supports at the early stage. So, what happens at this early stage? Mr Odigili proffered an answer.

"Some of our teachers/therapists would be drafted to the school to assist them at the early stage of the programme. Not all schools are suitable for an inclusive programme because they may not have the time and special teachers. So, we design our programmes so that they will be absorbed into special schools, "he said.

Mr Odigili disclosed that plans are on for the school to establish its own normal school where those who graduate from Favour Auditory-Oral School would continue their normal education, even as he revealed that the Oral Deaf Education gives the children a wide opportunity.

"They can interact in the outside world, they can go outside and express themselves, they can detect danger and go away from the danger zone, they can work in offices just like any other person…" he said.

In spite of obvious challenges the Odigilis face in handling children with hearing loss, they express their fulfilment about their achievements in bringing joy to some homes that are happy that, at the end of their children’s process of rehabilitation, they could interact or communicate with them. At Favour Auditory-Oral School, the combination of technology and seasoned personnel makes it possible for deaf or hard at hearing children to listen (hear) and talk like children with normal hearing ability. However, it is quite expensive to educate a child with this type of challenge due to the high cost of the hearing aids.

Vocation Development Initiatives, Countrywide | Our vocational training courses provide hundreds of teenagers and young adults with tutoring and hands-on experience in the vocation of their choice. Most of our training courses run full time, five days per week. Others run after school hours, complementing the students' scholastic education. Our students include the deaf and mute, the blind, handicapped, women from rural communities, and less-advantaged teenagers from all walks of life. The majority of the courses take place in already established institutions and centres. The classes are taught by skilled volunteers and tutors who impart their knowledge to a dedicated and determined audience

Many graduates from the Family Care vocational training courses have gone on to open their own small businesses, or have pursued additional studies in the subject, some at university level. Some of our vocational training projects include:

Ibadan School for the Deaf, Oyo State: tailoring and fashion design, poultry farming, industrial baking
Maiduguri School for the Blind, Borno State: secretarial and office skills, tailoring
Enugu Cheshire Home, Enugu State: tailoring and fashion design
Ibadan Cheshire Home, Oyo State: poultry farming
Borno State Women's Education Programme: tailoring and fashion design
Family Care Training Centre, Enugu State: computer technician training

The first Autistic School was formally established in Ikeja GRA, Lagos last friday and its is the first of its kind in Nigeria. Although there are some Special Schools for the deaf and Dumb and physically challenged including the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo but this very one, Patrick Speech and Languages Centre (PSLC) is the first of its kind in the whole country.

The school is also a registered member of the National Autistic Society, UK. In her speech, Dotun Akande, the Proprietress of the Centre who also happens to be the daughter of the famous Ijebu Chief Engineer Fowora, stated that the reasons and objectives establishing the Centre amongst other things is to provide special education services for the mentally challenged, hearing and speech impaired children, assist children with intellectual disabilities become self-confident, to bring about awareness in the local community towards rehabilitation of intellectually disabled children among others.

The centre which started with just about 2 children in September 2006 now has 16 children enrolled in the centre. The Proprietress appealed to parents not deny any of their wards who is handicapped in any form the opportunity of coming to the Centre for the rehabilitation of their children among others.

Among those who have contributed to the upliftment of the Centre both financially or otherwise are Engr Mrs Fowora, Otunba and Mrs, Bimbo Ashiru, Seye Kehinde, Publisher of City People, Mr and Mrs Segun Awolowo and of course, GT Bank and many more. To know more about this centre, visit the website at www.pslcautism-ng.org

"It was in 1969, I was three years old when I became deaf. I was told that I suffered meningitis. But my family never abandoned me, they took care of me," he wrote. Six years later one of his uncles came home and informed his father that there was a school for the deaf at Ibadan. He was taken to Ibadan. At Ibadan, he was registered at the School for the Deaf for his primary school education. From there he moved to Ijokodo High School and the Government Technical College, Oyo where he studied electrical installation"

Bimpe, a plump dark complexioned woman was back from work.

I wanted to say hi to Bimpe, using sign language the commonest means of communication in the house, so I asked Ezekiel for the appropriate signs. He obliged. Right fist clenched and brought to the lips, right palm on the left palm, right arm on left and pronto, had said good evening. Bimpe's face broke into a grin. I asked Bimpe how she met her husband. Husband and wife chuckled. She was shy, a flurry of hand gestures followed, her husband wanted her to answer.

They met in primary school Ezekiel was some years ahead of her.

"He was my senior he used to teach me mathematics but I noticed that he was a very nice person," Bimpe, wrote amidst smiles.

Ezekiel had already told me it was God that brought them together.

Their paths later crossed again at the Government Technical College, Oyo, where Bimpe, a native of Ilesha, Osun State, studied Catering. After some years of courtship they got married at the Chapel of Resurrection University of Ibadan in 1997.

James, the only product of the marriage, for now, chose the moment to barge into the room.

“My name is Adegbola Otaru. I was born deaf to the family of Otaru in Edo State, in Igarra Local Government Area. I didn’t go to school initially, since I couldn’t talk. My parents took me to a mechanic who trained me in 1972. The training lasted till 1976, but I did not wait for my freedom before I left.
“Prior to my becoming a mechanic, I attended Ibadan School for the Deaf, along Poly Road. It was after my apprenticeship that I went to Methodist Grammar School, Bodija and later to Technical College, all in Oyo State.”

Asked why he took to the okada business, Otaru said: “There is no job for people like me; that is why I ride a motorcycle to survive. I know how to operate the bike and I have been riding the bike for six years now. I use my mirror always to help me to see the other cars and bikes in the traffic. I cannot hear at all but I can write. That is how I communicate to my passengers and family.
“My wife too is deaf, but she talks a little. But all our four children are normal.

Eebrahym:
Hello fellow colleagues, please kindly assist with any information wrt the caption.
This special child in question is a boy, very smart and intelligent but can neither speak nor hear normally like his colleagues. He is not totally dumb but his speaking is almost not different from that of a baby trying to learn how to speak. He's only 10years old. He's very good in fields like construction and repairs according to his parents, he loves studying and carrying out repairs on faulty electronics at home as well as constructing things imaginatively.
According to his teacher, With little or no assistance, he can work on arithmetics and quantitative reasoning but finds English language and other subjects very boring and difficult due to his condition.
He is currently attending a private primary school where his parent spends huge amount of money to make him comfortable and feel good among his peers but this isn't the best approach to my own opinion. I therefore adviced the parents to quest for good technical school for deaf students where his talent can be enhanced, appreciated and a means of communication will be learnt by him rather than wasting time and money on a private school that handles him just like every other normal children.
So at this juncture, may I ask your own opinion and recommendation(s) of schools that can handle this type of case within lagos or Ogun state.
I.ll be very glad if nairalanders can show positive response to this thread as it can go a long way in both the life of the child and the parent.
Thanks