Carel du Toit Centre principal Adri Hodgson with some of the children who receive specialised education that helps them to learn to speak.
The Carel du Toit Centre at Tygerberg Hospital is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The centre teaches deaf children spoken language through the use of hearing technology, natural learning experiences and parental guidance.
All the pupils wear some form of hearing device and learn to listen and speak English or Afrikaans spoken language from early childhood.
Centre principal Adri Hodgson said the school’s aim was to teach all deaf children to speak from birth.
She said to achieve that it was important to get all children in the country tested for any possible hearing loss from birth “because the first three years are important for spoken language”.
The centre’s board chairperson Professor Diane Bell, who is also on the Presidential Working Group on Disability for South Africa, and consults to the World Health Organization on inclusive education, said a lot needed to be done before inclusive education became a reality in the country.
“We need increased funding from national and local authorities to provide technology. We need human resources (such as teachers) to support the needs of children with disabilities, with a clear plan to improve learning and teacher capacity in mainstream schools. We also need better data on the number of children with disabilities and their challenges and dropout rates so that we can plan and budget for their educational inclusion.”
The centre does fund-raising for the pupils’ needs, including batteries for their hearing devices, transportation, nutrition and education.
For more information, contact Karen Breytenbach at 076 280 9411 or email tasneem@positivedialogue.co.za