As the proverb says "Strike the iron while it is hot", the most important thing for a hearing-impaired child is to have hearing assessment and to wear the best adjusted hearing-aids as early as possible. Early on, NRG perceived the importance of this and has been emphasizing it. NRG first intended to accept children under 3 years of age; however, the education of children under 3 yrs. was not recognized as a necessary part of education within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.
The school then appealed to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and in 1977, the Reischauer-Kramer Nursery was established on the site of NRG as the first facility for hearing-impaired infants under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. |
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The Reischauer-Kramer Nursery accepts any applicants for enrollment at any time throughout the year on the principle of early education. The youngest case to date was that of a 3-month-old baby, who immediately had binaural hearing-aids fitted and started on a guidance program.
Hearing-impaired infant guidance involves instructing not only infants but also parents. This fact can be proved through the practices NRG has been implementing for many years. As mentioned before, mothers often lose confidence in bringing up their hearing-impaired children. Teachers who have had training as specialists in education for the hearing-impaired provide counseling and support for those mothers. Teachers have the mothers observe demonstrations of the teachers speaking with the children to realize that any hearing-impaired child can develop his/her hearing through perseverance. As the mothers see their children hear and speak, they come to have confidence and hope for their children's future. In order to produce good results, close relationships must be built among infants, parents, and teachers. Parents and teachers are partners in providing good environments for infants' language development.
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