How do you do? My name is Okino Yoshiaki.
Today, Ifd like to tell you about the importance of the early discovery of the hearing loss and the education at home based on my experience. I have three sons and the first son, Yusuke, who is twenty-two years old now, was born hearing impaired. We discovered the fact when he was seven months old. I want to tell you how his hearing loss was discovered. My wife was working as a nurse and my son was sent to the nursery at her hospital. One day, my sonfs teacher said to my wife. gYusuke doesnft respond to my voice no matter how many times I talked to him. There is a possibility that he might not be hearing.h We immediately took him to a hospital. There they had a simple check up and told us g Your child is not hearing.h We couldnft accept the diagnosis and decided to go to another hospital. We took him to the Sapporo City Hospital but the result was the same. After that we consulted at the Health Center. They told us to go to the Sapporo School for the Deaf. The teachers at the Sapporo School for the Deaf noticed that we did not quite accept the situation and told us to see the school doctor at the Hokkaido University Hospital and if the diagnosis was the same, come back to school as soon as possible. My wife and I were very shocked when we heard the diagnosis at the hospital. I can still remember vividly how shocked my wife was at the news. With the son in her arms, her shoulders were shaking and the tears couldnft be stopped. It looked as if she was collapsing at the spot any time. Of course I was worried about my son, but I was more worried about the mental condition of my wife. From the hospital, we directly went to the Sapporo School for the Deaf and told Mrs. Kato Katsuko, who was then in charge of the nursery class, the diagnosis about our son. Mrs. Kato advised us to start schooling right away but we couldnft put our feelings in order and we just went home. At home we talked about what to do from now on. First of all we had to do something about the fact that we couldnft accept the disability of our son. Otherwise, we couldnft make a step forward. We discussed what to do to collect ourselves. We had heard of someone who suffered from a serious disease with unknown causes. He asked for the second opinion at another hospital and they found out the cause of the disease and he recovered. Because my wife was a nurse, we were introduced to a doctor who was an expert of hearing impairment of small children. Seeing him was our last hope. My wife and I took our son to Tokyo to have him checked up in a hospital for a week. The diagnosis was the same. But we didnft think it was no use doing that. It might have been self-satisfaction, but we thought we did all we could do for our son at that time. When we returned to Sapporo, we enrolled our son to the Sapporo School for the Deaf immediately and his training started. Fortunately, his disability was discovered early, he could start the training at an early age, when even a hearing child couldnft talk. I think it had a great effect on his future.
When our son started the class for mother and child, the class wasnft a formal one. Teachers in the kindergarten department helped us out. When our son was three years old, the class was formally approved and named the Parent Infant Program. Teachers give instructions to the children and the mothers so that they can train their children at home, too. At first, my wife looked to be at a loss, but watching the son grow gradually, she seemed to have confident. One day, when I returned home from work, she said excitedly that Yusuke, our son, talked. I was so happy that I talked to him again and again, and excited to hear him talk a childish talk again and again. I guess you were the same.
Next, Ifd like to talk about the time when our son was in the kindergarten department, which was the hardest time of all. My wife took great pains during that time. When children are in the kinder, they intensively learn the basics to talk including pronunciation. At home, they review what they have learned at school every day. When you are always together with the children, you donft notice how much progress they have made and that made my wife irritated. Kindergarten age is a crucial stage not only for learning a language but also cultivating the mind. How do you cultivate the mind of your children? Let me tell you about my experience. I hope it will be of any help to you.
My son drew a picture diary and we talked about the dayfs event together every day. The picture diary was a part of school activity. It was difficult for my son to understand just by talking, but with the help of the picture, he could remember what had happened. For example, when my wife asked him g You did a lot of things at school with the teacher. Did you have fun, Yusuke?h my son would answer gIt was fun playing together but there was a time I felt scary.h He seemed to have felt scary when he had pronunciation training. Teachers are very serious when they teach pronunciation because it is very important for the childrenfs future, but my son seemed to have felt the seriousness scary. On weekends, we tried to go out as often as possible. We played in the park in the neighborhood, went shopping and went for an outing when we had time. When we got home, my son drew a picture diary and we talked about it. Through these conversations, we were able to learn what he liked and disliked and what he was interested in. When he talked about what he likes or what he is interested in, his eyes looked sparkling and his face bright. I think that as we continued doing this, his mind had been cultivated. Gradually he became willing to talk to us. Children at this age are like the dry sponge. They absorb what they experienced grow up at an amazing speed. Therefore, it is important to let them experience variety of things as much as possible. The children have unlimited abilities and possibilities and it is the teachersf and parentsf duty to bring them out. School education is very important but education at home is more important in developing personality. I talked about the picture diary but it is only an example. I recommend you adopt your own method. The important thing is that you talk with your children a lot and try to understand them. It is not good to impose your ideas on them. If you do that, the children tend to keep to themselves. In order to avoid it, you need to listen to your children, not just talking your ideas to them. If you listen to them, they will want to tell you what they feel and think. Then you will have more communication with your children. One of the most difficult things with the hearing impaired children is communication with them. You need to understand their words. You need to tell what you think and feel. The ways of communication may be by speaking, sigh language or writing depending on who you talk to. But whatever the method is, if you are not willing to communicate, you cannot communicate. The most important thing in the education at home is to bring up the willingness to communicate with others.
So far, I talked only about the children. But parents also need to grow up with the children. If we are not truly grown-ups, we canft educate our children. As the children grow, various problems come up. When you canft handle them by yourself, talk with the teacher or other parents who experienced the same difficulties. If you talk with many people, surely there will be a piece of advice among them. Each time you find the answer to your questions or the solution to your worries, you will grow up. In the past twenty-two years, Ifve had a lot of worries and difficulties. Each time, teachers or other parents who had experienced the same difficulties before me gave me advice. It was a sad thing that my son had a disability, but thanks to him, I have come to know a lot of wonderful people. I have learned to consider and thank others. I hope you make a lot of friends who can share the same hardship. They will be your assets for life.
Lastly, let me talk about my private affairs. My son will graduate from school and start working in spring. With the help around him, he was able to come this far. He will start living on his own. I am a little worried about it, but I hope he will be all right. There was one more big event for me. I have been a foster parent for four years and it was the first time I met my foster child, Mariechin. Since we donft have daughters, we feel Mariechin were our real daughter. We saw her only in the photos, so we wanted to see her in person. Ifm very glad that my dream has come true.
Thank you very much for listening to me. I hope my speech will be of any help to your childrenfs education at home.
I am very happy to have met you and talked to you like this. I hope our relationship will continue in the years to come. Thank you.