Nine third-formers, all described as “profoundly deaf”, began secondary school this year at Hutt Valley Memorial Technical College.
The 13-year-olds, eight of whom were victims of the 1964-65 Rubella epidemic, are the first pupils to use the new Deaf Unit at the College.
Though the unit offers special facilities for language and speech work, the children attend daily classes in core and optional subjects with other third formers at the College.
“Our main aim is to integrate the children as much as possible,” Lesley Hamilton, one of three teachers with the unit, said.
“One of us always accompanies a pupil to his or her class to help with any problems they may have, but we have already noticed that other pupils are only too willing to help the deaf children with their work.
“The children are very happy at the College. The understanding shown by other pupils has made their transition so much easier,” Ms Hamilton said.
The teachers are hopeful that the group, who have been together since their work at Taita Intermediate, will continue with their studies at least to senior class level.
“I think the change in School Certificate where pupils can get a certificate for each subject, may encourage them to sit the examination,” Ms Hamilton said.
One of the biggest problems for the children has been to “grasp the sense of the abstract.”
“As infants, they tended to take everything very seriously and found it difficult to understand fairy stories and games of pretence,” Ms Hamilton said.
“It’s really only in the last year that they’ve been able to understand the idea of pretence, but even now they have some difficulty in writing imaginative stories.”
“However, because deaf children tend to be more visual, they are often better at practical subjects than hearing pupils.”
Last year two of the pupils won nationwide art competitions and two had work accepted for a display organised by the Wairarapa Art Association.
Members of the group have also done well in sports that year, three having been selected to represent the College in the inter-school athletic sports and a fourth has just returned from a swimming carnival in Nelson.
“The parents are a great help in providing support,” Ms Hamilton said. “They understand their children’s handicap and many spend at least an hour a day helping them with their homework.”
“Naturally the children are very excited when they receive good marks for their classroom work and always come back to the unit to show us what they’ve been doing.”
The unit is one of more than 30 attached to schools throughout the country, the first having been set up at Clifton Terrace School in Wellington in 1955.
Though the children rely mainly on a combination of hearing aids and lip patterns in their speech work, they also use the unit’s speech trainer and group aid.
The speech trainer is designed for the use of a teacher and an individual child, while the group aid can be used by a teacher and up to eight children at any one time.
“Educating the public about the deaf is a vitally important aspect of our work,” Ms Hamilton said.
“We hope that by speaking to senior classes at the college about the workings of the unit, that pupils will have a better understanding of deaf people. If they meet them in their adult life.
Caption under upper photo: Venus Sullivan (Akatarua) gives a practical demonstration of the equipment in the unit to fellow third formers [l.] Wayne McMenamin [Eastbourne] and Simon White [Korokoro]. A second room containing indoor sports facilities is to be opened shortly where deaf children may entertain their friends. Wayne and Simon are just two of the many pupils at the College who are interested in “how the unit works”. —C138
Caption under lower photo: As part of their speech training, [l.–r.] Amanda Roughton [Silverstream], Brendan Hill [Petone], Clare McIver [Normandale] and Tracey Davis [Wainuiomata] take part in a session on the group aid machine in the deaf unit at Hutt Valley Memorial Technical College. Mrs Ness Gear [l.] and Ms Lesley Hamilton are two of three teachers who work with the children. Mrs Gear has been with the group since they first attended a similar unit at Pomare School as infants. —C137
