About 20 years ago, I was amazed when realizing that children with hearing loss could talk like normal-hearing children. From then on, my relations with hearing-impaired children began.

Children with hearing loss communicated with others using sign language, but most people didn’t know how to sign, and therefore communication difficulty arose. If hearing-impaired children could talk, they could integrate with the society more easily, and social cost might decrease. With this thought in mind, we started a program enrolling hearing-impaired children from 3 to 6 years old in Hui-You Preschool affiliated to National Women’s League. Unexpectedly, a simple idea like this turned out to be the starting point of early intervention for the hearing-impaired in Taiwan.

At the same time, National Women’s League was adjusting her directions of service on the basis of social needs. In view of positive outcomes that emerged with the promotion of education for the hearing-impaired population, we decided to initiate “Tian-Ting Project.” The sewing workshop in which women used to sew uniforms for the warriors on the battlefield were remodeled into classrooms for auditory training. Unlike conventional education system, hearing-impaired children from birth to three years old were included in the project. We were determined to realize the idea of “early identification and early intervention”, and provide children from 0 to 6 an opportunity to receive education for the hearing-impaired. ?

Good teachers are the key to successfully developing education for the hearing-impaired. Therefore, in 1995, National Women’s League invited Ms. Judith I. Simser, a Canadian auditory-verbal specialist, to stay in Taiwan as a lecturer and trainer for one year, hoping to raise the level of the teachers of the hearing-impaired, and to introduce auditory verbal method to our country. Much feedback was received from the field of education for the hearing-impaired. More people realized that hearing loss was not equaled to disability. People with hearing loss could hear the world.? ??
In 1995, with the financial support from National Women’s League, NWL Foundation for the Hearing Impaired, ROC, was founded as the agency to promote services. We set up an audiometric test booth which met international standards, and recruited professionally trained audiologists. We were the first educational organization in Taiwan that included audiologists in the team. By combining audiological management with teaching of the hearing-impaired, our teachers could get a good grasp of children’s hearing status and speech perception skills, adjust lesson plans accordingly, and provide appropriate counseling.

Like seeds getting ripen, the foundation set up two teaching centers sequentially so that families with a hearing-impaired child can choose a center closer to them. Next, Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center established Cheng Hsin Auditory Medical Center, the first multidisciplinary team in this field in Taiwan. With the establishment of the medical center, the service is extended to hearing-impaired adults. Our intention of setting up a foundation is expanded as well.

With advances in technology and research, we realize that “to listen and talk” is not our long-term goal for these children anymore. The new ultimate goals of the early intervention for children with hearing loss should be—to help them cultivate abilities of learning and problem solving, well integrate with the mainstream society, and become independent individuals. To accommodate the new trends, the foundation keeps improving our teaching by applying the theory of multiple intelligences to the education of the hearing-impaired. Proposed 10 years ago, this theory has been widely recognized in the field of special education. Remarkable results are also found in our children after they enter elementary school. We are gratified.

To pay is to gain. As president of the foundation, I feel joy whenever I look back on the history with my co-workers. At the same time, I feel force to motivate us to give for children with hearing loss. We are not satisfied with the fact that we have already served more than several thousands of people. We have a grander wish—we have hopes for all the hearing-impaired children, and we want to make a dream for each of them, a beautiful dream that will come true.