The Mothers’ Training Program consists of five stages. Stages 1 through 4 each have a duration of six months. Stage 5, the final stage, extends over a period of one to two years.
First Stage
- The child is conditioned to wear and accept hearing devices throughout waking hours.
- The child is conditioned to be away from their mother during training hours (spending time with another mother).
- Exposure to sounds is provided to develop auditory skills.
- Common objects are introduced through speech reading and listening (show, give, and tell).
- The child learns to recognize objects from a specially prepared object book (individualized education program).
- The relationship of each family member is introduced using a specially prepared photo album.
- The calendar is introduced, covering the day, date, month, and year.
- Verbs are introduced by giving commands to perform actions such as run, crawl, and jump. This is done in three stages:
1. Through speech reading
2. Later through listening
3. By reading the commands in written form and performing the action.
Second Stage: In this stage child learns to participate in group activities as in a regular school
- Prayer and calling attendance are conducted to instil discipline in a group setting.
- Identification of colors, numbers, body parts, common objects, etc., is initially done through speech reading and later through listening.
- Familiarization with sounds begins with vowels followed by consonants.
- Practice in speech reading and listening to the above sounds is provided.
- The child is spoken to in simple sentences using pictures of animals, birds, fruits, vegetables, and similar items.
- Introduction to writing includes activities like scribbling, pattern writing, and colouring.
- Games are played to stimulate listening and improve concentration, using blocks, beads, toys, etc.
- Reading is introduced by matching identical words and words to pictures.
- Cognitive skills are developed through simple yes or no questions.
Third Stage
- Students gather and for the morning assembly and participate in prayer and the National song. This ensures a sense of discipline and patriotism in the students.
- Children learn to obey more complicated commands in sentences, incorporating prepositions and adjectives.
- Incident-oriented lessons comprising two to three sentences are used to prepare the child to answer WH question forms: Who, What, Where, When (time and situation), Why, and How.
- Verbs are introduced through incident-oriented lessons.
- Training includes speech reading, listening, speech correction, comprehension, and visual memory.
- Rhymes and action songs are introduced.
Fourth Stage
- Children engage in prayer and recitation of verses and singing the National song.
- Incident-oriented lessons are conducted in three parts:
✓ Part 1: Describes the incident.
✓Part 2: Provides information directly connected to the incident.
✓Part 3: Includes abstract information that is indirectly connected to the incident. - The lessons are designed to be informative and interesting, so that the deaf child can acquire more academic knowledge than a typical child of the same age. This approach helps the deaf child to integrate successfully in a regular school setting.
- Full sentences are used when talking to the child along with pictures to prepare the child to participate in conversations with their hearing counterparts.
- The child is trained to answer questions, starting with filling in the blanks and progressing to choose and write.
- Games are played with typically developing children to develop alertness.
- Basic Mathematics is introduced, covering:
✓Counting coins
✓Understanding the clock and time
✓Using scales
✓Simple arithmetic - Simple exercises are conducted once a week.
- Basic environmental knowledge is imparted to all students.
- Storytelling using sequence pictures keeps the students engaged and interested.
- Both indoor and outdoor games are conducted to inculcate team spirit.
Fifth Stage
- Students are encouraged to say prayers, recite verses and sing the National Anthem on their own
- Complex incident-oriented lessons are introduced
⇛ More information and knowledge in Science, Social sciences and Mathematics.
- Preparing the child for general conversation including group discussions.
- Story telling without using pictures in subjects like Mythology and History.
- Introduction to reading newspapers, comics, magazines.
- Reading of stories and checking of comprehension including the moral of the story.
- Identify the talent in the child and promote the same:
⇛Drawing and painting
⇛Dancing
⇛Literary skills
⇛Sports
⇛Other extracurricular activities.
The ultimate object is to develop the young deaf children to be a partner in progress of the Nation and to Society at large.
Facilities to the Children:
Continuous training in Oral-Aural approach.
Practical oriented curriculum – Age appropriate and individualised training programme in 1:1teacher – student ratio.
Specialised services:
Auditory Verbal Therapy (A.V.T.)
Periodical audiological, speech, language assessment.
Free ENT consultation.
Free food and transportation.
Free field trips.
Alumnus: More than 500 children along with respective mothers have been trained so far and the children are pursuing their respective education in various schools and colleges. Every year 10 to 12 students who wrote SSLC Board examinations have come out in flying colours.
Calendar Events: New year celebration, Celebration of festivals like, Sankranti, republic day, Shivaratri
Apart from oral, written tests conducted once in every three months.
Orientation to Mothers:
Audiology
Psychology
Child Development
Teaching Methods
Parents Meeting: Sharing experience by senior mothers and old students.
Advantages to mothers: Upon the completion of the training program, the mothers will be given tests. Successful participants will receive certificates, which can help them secure employment in similar centres.