Association urges parents to enrol deaf or hard-of-hearing children

Parents and guardians of children who are deaf or hard of hearing are being encouraged to enrol them into one of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf seven schools.

Executive Director, Kimberley Sherlock Marriott-Blake, told JIS News that education is the core focus of the institution.

“...Ensuring that students are enrolled and adequately supported in schools is critical for us. Currently, we are at 50 per cent capacity and across the system we have approximately 400 students enrolled,” she said.

Sherlock Marriott-Blake, who was addressing a JIS Think Tank on Wednesday, pointed out that based on estimates, the association should have at least 1,000 students enroled in its schools.

“Based on how [mainstream] education system is structured, you have on average a classroom with 44 students. Now, if you are a student who has hearing loss and uses a hearing aid and is seated in a classroom with 44 teachers and a blackboard dividing the classroom, nine out of 10 times you are not catching much in that classroom,” she stated.

“The impact this has on the student is… for a number of years they are performing at a bare minimum or below bare minimum and unfortunately they just pass through the (education) system,” Sherlock Marriott-Blake added.

She informed that the association is working on sensitising persons at the community level, on the importance of having a deaf or hard-of-hearing child learning in an environment which is tailored to their specific needs.

“Our goal is that no matter the extent of the hearing loss, the child can be supported and the child can be given the education that they deserve because we are firm believers that every child can learn and every child must learn,” Sherlock Marriott-Blake stated.

She is also appealed to parents and guardians to have their children assessed, if they are not responding the way they should.

“Even if the child is not deaf and we can’t place them in a school for the deaf, our ability to assess and connect parents with other assessment agencies is something we value,” she said.

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