27 December, 2019, Bengaluru: Balavidyalaya, the Chennai-based school for young deaf children, hosted the international conference titled ‘Parenting Children to Listen from Infancy & Talk for a Lifetime’, on December 19 and 20, 2019, at the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, as part of its golden jubilee celebrations.
The conference brought together policy makers, special educators, speech therapists, audiologists, doctors, psychologists, social workers and parents engaged or associated with deafness.
A healthy interaction and exchange of information between professionals from different parts of the world during the conference threw light on challenges and solutions on different issues faced by the policy makers, institutions, educators and parents in grooming deaf infants and young children into speaking babies, and thereafter help them grow into confident youngsters who are able to claim their rightful place in the mainstream society.
(L-R) Shiva Jayagopal, Winvinaya Foundation, Prof. G. Raghuram, Director IIM Bangalore, and S.S. Jayasankar, Oorja Cochin, at the golden jubilee celebrations of Balavidyalaya, Chennai.
The conference had nine sessions. On Day One, the third session featured Professor G. Raghuram, Director, IIM Bangalore. His spoke on ‘Experience of IIMB in making the courses inclusive’. Prof. Raghuram discussed IIMB’s equal opportunity policy and how the institute strives to make the courses inclusive.
Other speakers at the event included Dr. Himangshu Das, Director, NIEPMD (Chief Guest); Dr. Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, Professor Emerita of the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences and Research Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, US; Dr. Suni Mathew, Director, AYJNISHD; R. Rangasayee, Chair, Audiology Committee, IALP; Prof. Roopa Natarajan, Academic Officer & Chairperson, Sp, Lang, & Hg Sc Dept, SRMC; Dr. M. N. Nagaraja, CEO, Dr. SRC Inst of Sp & Hg, Dr. N. Ratna, Former Director, AIISH & AYJNISHD, Mumbai, and many more. Saraswathi Narayanaswamy, Honorary Director and Dr. Meera Suresh, Honorary Vice Principal, were also present.
Prof. G. Raghuram, Director IIM Bangalore, speaks on the ‘Experience of making courses inclusive at IIMB’, at the golden jubilee celebrations of Balavidyalaya, Chennai.
Balavidyalaya believes that it is the right of deaf and hard of hearing children to become part of the mainstream society through learning to speak like most children. The school admits infants and young children less than three years of age, focuses on developing oral language skills in them using the DHVANI Methodology and integrates them into mainstream schools when they are five years old. The school has to its credit more than 1200 alumni who are part of mainstream society, in all walks of life.
