Ruby Sainsbury is busy learning how to write her name, how to unfasten her lunchbox – and how to hear her teacher in a classroom full of noisy schoolkids.
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The five-year-old is one of seven Illawarra children with a hearing impairment who’s off to mainstream school thanks to the support of The Shepherd Centre.
Born three months premature, the Mount Warrigal girl has bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Fitted with her first behind-the-ear hearing aids at four months old, she began auditory and verbal therapy with the Wollongong centre at seven months.
Now she’s ready for big school, and her parents Mandy Rorsch and Tim Sainsbury couldn’t be prouder.
‘’We can hear from 20 decibels; she hears from 48 on one ear and 52 in the other,’’ Ms Rorsch said.
‘’So if she’s in an extremely quiet environment she may be able to hear – but add in any background noise or chatter and she can’t.
‘’So she relies on her hearing aids, which have an FM system which means her teacher or I can wear a microphone and our voices are transmitted straight into her hearing aids.
‘’Thanks to the technology – combined with the early intervention therapy – she’s more than ready to start school next month and she couldn’t be more excited.’’
Ruby’s listening and spoken language therapist, Kate Baird, is also pretty excited to see her little charge make the switch to mainstream school.
‘’A lot of challenges come with starting big school because the noise at school makes it much harder to listen, even with hearing aids or cochlear implants,’’ Ms Baird said.
‘’We do a lot of work to build up children’s social and problem-solving skills, and generally to build their speech and language skills to enable them to access the class curriculum.
They’re comparable to their typically hearing peers in terms of speech and language.
- Kate Baird, Wollongong Shepherd Centre therapist
‘’It’s the best thing to see them ready and to know they will be okay – that they’re comparable to their typically hearing peers in terms of speech and language.’’
As for Ruby’s mum, there’s certain to be a few tears shed come February 2 when she starts Kindy at Mount Terry Public School. ‘’The school has excellent support and Ruby is more than ready for school – but I don’t know that I am,’’ Mrs Rorsch said.
Meanwhile Ruby’s got her priorities right for day one. ‘’I just want to make some new friends,’’ she said.
Deafness is one of the most common disabilities diagnosed at birth, affecting one in 1000 Australian babies born each year.
This year a record number of children are graduating from The Shepherd Centre’s early intervention program across NSW, ACT and Tasmania.
CEO Jim Hungerford said more than 250 children would access this therapy in 2017 – at a cost of almost $20,000 per child.
As a charity, The Shepherd Centre relies heavily on public donations to fund over half of this cost.
To help out, visit www.shepherdcentre.org.au or call 1800 020 030.