Monday 05/03/90

Today I wrote a letter to Vanessa, at the Catel du Toit Centre in Cape Town, as we had returned home to Gaborone, in Botswana.

Dear Vanessa

Thanks for all your help and inspiration.

We had a pleasant trip home to Gaborone with the boys who are always very good in the car.

Hughan was very pleased to be home.

After having his morning tea he disappeared into the toy room, having lots of fun.

I called him from the door three times and he looked around and came to me.

After breakfast he found a boat and I put “the boat”(not it) in some water in the bath. We had great fun, after a while he wasn’t happy just watching the boat from the side of the bath, so I empty the water out and we watched the water going down the plughole. All very interesting.

Willem also called to him in the lounge. He stopped playing to listen. Willem called 4 times to him before he turned around.

We both feel he is responding to us quite well.

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Friday 02/03/90 – 1st Cape Town trip ends

( Going up Table Mountain)

Dear Willem and Sue

Goodness me but this week has gone quickly. I’m really sorry you can’t stay an extra week that I understand that Jamie must go back to school. What a pity about the passports.

Never the less I’ll be seeing you soon – April 17^th. In the meantime please concentrate on the following when working with Hughan.

1)      Auditory training

a)      You must teach Hughan to be aware of sounds: look excited, point to your ear and say “I can hear”, also imitate the sound with your voice – “Bang bang!”

b)      React to sound: open the door when you hear knocking.

Please do about 5 to 10 min daily of intensive auditory training – like we do with the 10 and Lego (sound versus – no sound) – happy versus sad expressions.

Remember to also teach him to locate the sound – to look in the direction where the sound is coming from. Start by making a noise in front of him and then take it behind him still making the noise and letting him follow with his eyes.

Bring auditory training into your daily program where ever possible – make him aware of sounds around him (the dog barking, tap with a spoon on a bowl when you are cooking).

2)      Eye contact

Have eye contact when speaking to Hughan. Remember to –

a)      Be on his eye level

b)      To get and maintain his attention and eye contact by holding objects next to your face.

3)      Repetition

This must be done by selecting a word and then using it in a short sentence – “Open. Open the tin”. “Up. Up mummy”.  “Ta. Ta the spoon”.

4)      Interpretation

Interpretation of his babbling and actions. Give him the direct language for what he is trying to say: “give me the dog mummy”.

5)      Name

Name everything. “It”is no longer part of your vocabulary – rather say ”the flour is in the bowl” instead of “it is in the bowl”.

6)      Imitation

Imitate his language and actions – Hughan bangs with a spoon on the cupboard and says “ga, ga” and the action with the spoon. This will encourage Hughan to respond again. Also interpret the “ga, ga” and “bang with the spoon”. This is also turn taking. Mummy’s turn to speak then Hughan’s turn to speak – also on non-verbal level – mummy’s turn to stir, Hughan’s turn to stir.

7)      Be aware of voice. Don’t strain it. Remember to speak slowly, clearly and at a suitable volume.

Please keep in touch. Writing in the book once a week and then send the duplicates to me once a month. Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you have any queries or want to chat.

Have a safe journey home and once again please keep in contact. Send me a photo of Hughan please.

Sorry the time was short, but I thoroughly enjoyed working with you. See you in April.

Best wishes

Vanessa

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Thursday 01/03/90 3rd lesson, bath time

We arrived at the Carel du toit Centre for our next lesson with Vanessa.

Activity: Bath time

Aim:  1) interpretation of his babbling and actions

2) Turn taking.

Good! You’re giving him the language for his babbling and actions.

“Ta mummy, ta the duck” when he had his hand stretched out and wanted the duck.

Giving this direct language is good and should always be done, rather than say, ask the question –

What is it Hughan? Because he is not going to be able to answer that question.

Lovely turn taking: Hughan stroke mummy’s hand. Stroke Vanessa’s hand. Stroke Hughan’s hand. (This is also repetition and he is experiencing his body parts and learning their names).

His non-verbal imitation is lovely. He copied me squishing in the water, throwing the fish in the water, throwing the toys in the basin, patting the cat on the bath, stroking my arm, touching his toes 🙂

Remember not to strain your voice.

Sue you are really persevering with the eye contact. You got lovely eye contact when you took the boat and held it next to your face because that was the item he was interested in. Note how he did something (splashed in the water) and then looked up at me smiling and expecting a reaction. I was so happy – he is already learning that we make eye contact when we communicate and he was communicating with me. This is stimulated and encouraged by following his interest and imitating his actions. By doing so he is getting feedback and feeling there is importance to his vocalisation and actions and thus will do them again.

He really enjoyed the session and babbled quite a lot. Note how we brought auditory training in –

Woof, woof with the dog, squeaking the kangaroo, clapping, shuffling the toys in the basin etc. Each time you looked excited, pointed to your ear and said “I can hear” plus imitated the sound with your voice. He would laugh in response to your expressions. This is lovely – he is aware that this is fun.

I hope you can stay another week. Thanks for your hard work. See you 8.30am tomorrow.

Vanessa

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Wednesday 28/02/1990 2nd Lesson, Play Dough

We were looking forward to another lesson with Vanessa.

Wed: 28/02/1990

Activity: play dough

Aim: 1)  eye contact

          2)  auditory training 

          3)  repetition

Play dough recipe :

2 cups of flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon oil

Dash  of colouring.

Mix together and then gradually add water and tool the dough mixture has a correct texture. Keep in the fridge.

Good Sue your trying to name everything and your correcting your staff immediately if you use “it”.

You’re getting his eye contact. It’s not easy but you are using the correct methods. In other words – you are not touching him, you are clapping, using sound, taking things next to your face J keep this up.

“Give me the spoon”

“pour, pour the flour”

“pour, pour the oil”

That is Lovely repetition. First you used the main word on its own and then in a short full sentence.

Remember to interpret his babbling and actions – “Give me the cup mummy” if he stretches out his hand and wants the cup. Also when doing auditory training copy the sound with your voice ie: Bang! Bang! Knock! Knock! You’re using your face nicely and pointing to your ear. Good!

Thank you Sue and Willem – see you tomorrow.

Nessa

After the lesson we took the boys to the beach in Cape Town.

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Making Books with your Deaf child

MAKING BOOKS  –

This is a fantastic way of having fun with pictures that relate to your child’s everyday activities, places you visit, friends and family, pets etc.

Having the books available for your child to access and show you pictures from the book will help curb any frustration of not being able to express themselves.

Make the books as follows –

• one book for one theme
• stick one picture on a page
• you can write the word underneath.

Here are some themes to start with –

a)      Body book – face, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, hair, neck, arms, leg, feet, hands etc.

b)      Animal book – cat, dog, bird, cow, horse, sheep, chicken, duck etc – lovely for auditory training.

c)       Clothes – shoes, socks, hat, shirt, shorts, vest, jumper etc.

d)      Food –  banana, bread, biscuits, eggs, milk, juice, cake etc – all the things he eats.

Then you can take each room in the house:

e)      Rooms in the House –  Bathroom – Bath, tap, towel, soap. Kitchen –  stove, fridge, table, chair, plate, Knife, fork, spoon etc. Bedroom – bed, blanket, pillow, cupboard, teddy etc.

Another lovely idea is an Action book e.g. run, jump, sleep, eat, kick the ball, read, swim etc.

More tips :

• try find the biggest picture
• look for a picture that is coloured rather than black and white
• keep the books in a particular place so Hughan can become familiar with them so that he can have access to these books whenever he wants to read them
• always use full sentences
• don’t just name the picture e.g. “this is a dog” – discuss the picture i.e.” the dog is dirty”, “he has mud on his paws”, “where’s Hughan’s paws?” “ Hughan has got feet” etc.
• making the books should be great fun!

The First Lesson 27/02/1990

The Carel du toit Centre – 27/02/1990

When we arrived for our first lesson at the Center, Vanessa was there to greet us and we were taken into a room that looked exactly like a sitting room. She wanted to observe us as a family, to see how we were interacting with each other and at what level Hughan was understanding us, so we would be working together in this session.

On one wall was a big glass mirror. Vanessa explained to us that she would be sitting in the room next door, observing Willem, Jamie and I while we were playing with Hughan. She would be correcting us while we were playing with him and encouraging us to work with Hughan in such a way, that he would learn his lip reading skills and how to communicate.

“The first lesson” – 27/02/1990

Activity: Tin and blocks and dog

Aim: 1) To teach Hughan to be aware of sound and to react to sound.

2) Eye contact at all times.

Lovely Sue and Willem you both waited for eye contact with all you gave him the language.

He immediately pointed to his ear and his nose and his eyes when discussing the dog’s face. Lovely J.

Sue you used your face nicely and pointed to your ear. Vil did this well too. It’s great that you are  incorporating him. I know it feels silly to point to your ear in the beginning but with time you will not even think about it.

Remember to interpret his actions and babbling –

If he stretches out his hand – say “give me the bowl mummy”.

Name everything – as of now “IT” is no longer in your words.

“Put it in the tin” – rather say “put the blocks in the tin”.

Thank you – I am looking forward to working with you –

Vanessa

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

TOP TIPS – Working with your Deaf child

Welcome to Hughan’s Diary Top Tips.

These are the top tips that I was introduced to when we first started the program at the Carel du Toit Centre, in Cape Town, in February 1990.

Keeping a Diary –

A diary is a fantastic way of writing down the progress your child is making, activities you have done at home concerning your child’s development.

Take photos of the activities you do as well.

The diary should be fun and where you get your inspiration.

By doing this every day or at least once a week it enables you to look back at your diary notes and realise the improvements.

(I am able to look back 23 years to our diary to realise what we did to help our son)

Name Everything – Everything has a Name

Never use the word – “It”.

Everything has a name. By naming everything your child will learn the language. Repeat and repeat the same words and short sentences as often as possible. Keep it simple!

For example –     say “ball….give me the ball”

–          not “give ‘it’ to me”

A hearing impaired child needs to hear a word many times (I was told 20,000 times) before they will have the inclination to repeat that.

1) Always Face towards the light (window)

Your child must see your face clearly when you talk to them, because they can make use of the extra information to fill in “gaps” – your emotion (sad, happy, excited).

2) Eye contact –

Always make eye contact on eye level.

Kneel down when you talk to your child, or pick him up, or hold them on your lap.

3) Hold objects next to your face –

Hold objects which you are talking about next to your face.

e.g. “ball”, hold a ball next to your face when giving the word.

“This is a ball”, “this is David’s ball”, “catch the ball”, “give me the ball”.

4) Talk about things that interest your child –

Talk about the things he is doing, is looking at, is playing with, is eating.

Talk about his clothes and his body parts when dressing him, also at bedtime.

Talk for him e.g. your child points to a ball (maybe also making some “sounds”).

Ask yourself – what does he want to say? Then say the words for him –

“I want the ball”, “give me the ball”, “here is the ball”.

5) Auditory training –

This is also very important. Your child has residual hearing and we must help to make the most of it.

We must develop his listening skills

a)      we must make him aware of sound and no sound

b)      he must be able to localise sound (where it is coming from)

c)       he must react correctly to sound

d)      he must learn the meaning of sound

e)      we must refine sound

6) speak clearly and in full sentence –

Take one word out of the sentence and repeat it, if you want the child to repeat it. Use that word again in a sentence.

e.g. “cup”, “this is a cup”, “take the cup”.

7) Encourage the child to copy words –

Be happy if he says something even if it is just a sound or part of a word because this will encourage him to try again. Copy what he says because this will teach him what communication is:

e.g. mummy says something…….( I listen)

I say something…….. (mummy listens)

8) Remember – everything has a name –

Give the child the names for things and actions and so the number of words he knows will become more.

e.g. “car”, “this is a car”, “daddy drives a car”.

All babies hear a number of sounds. They become familiar with this sounds.

The sounds which have an important meaning for the child, will be the most easily learnt.

The most important sound is his mother and father’s voice.

On getting used to his mother’s voice (sound), he shows a response.

He discovers his own voice (sound), then later on he tries to imitate the sounds he hears. That is why meaningful talk and repetition is so important.

If his parents imitate his sound, he starts learning the meaning of communication:

e.g. – baby smiled at mummy……. mummy smiled back.

– baby makes babbling sounds…….. mummy imitates them – they are communicating!

REMEMBER :

1) always wear their hearing aids

2) keep the moulds clean

3) check that the batteries

4) when you put their hearing aids on, smile and say “I can hear”! Your face must show him that hearing is fun.

Also “educate” all the members of the family and friends who play with, or talk to your child – this is very important.

This is a team effort and your child will only benefit from it.

“I hope you find these top tips helpful while you are working with your child”.

Remember your child will copy your actions.

Never get angry or frustrated with your hearing impaired child – they will copy you!

By giving your child love and encouragement they can achieve everything you wish…..

I feel blessed to have had their hearing impaired child myself. He has taught us so much.

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Hughan’s Diary 30 Years Ago

This DIARY has enabled me to bring you our story.

We started the Carel du Toit program in Cape Town 30 years ago.

We believed our profoundly deaf son, Hughan, would benefit from the program and we put 100% effort into what we were being taught. This has proved life changing for him. We embraced a new way of communicating with him, which paid off.

These were the introductory notes that were put in the front of ‘Hughan’s Diary’ that we kept, to track Hughan’s progress between our return visits to the Centre every 3 months, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana.

Dear Parents

Welcome to our program. We hope, and believe, that you can benefit from it in guiding your child. The child is utterly dependent on the adults near him, most of all on his mother and father.

You are welcome to use this book to write down any change in progress, or activities done at home, concerning your child’s development. We will appreciate it if you will do that at least once a week because we do acquire insight in his progress as well as your observation of him. Remember to bring this book every time.

Remember to attend all appointments. If you cannot attend your appointments please contact us as soon as possible and cancel it. This gives us a chance to help another patient during that time.

Please read and reread all the information in this book from time to time!!

A few points to remember while you are working with your child:

1) Always face towards the light (window) : your child must see your face clearly when you talk to him because he can make use of extra information to fill in “gaps”, for example – emotions (sad, happy, excited).

2) Eye contact: always make eye contact on eye level. Kneel down when you talk to your child, or pick him up, or hold him on your lap.

3) Hold objects: which you are talking about next to your face: for example – Ball. This is a ball. It is David’s ball. Catch the ball. Give the ball.

4) Talk about things that interest your child: talk about the things he is doing, is looking at, is playing with, is eating. – Talk about his clothes and his body parts when dressing him also at bath time. – Talk for him, for example, your child points to a ball (maybe also makes “sounds”). Ask yourself: what does he want to say? Then say the words for him: I want the ball. Give me the ball. Give me the ball, mummy. Here is the ball. Thank you.

5) Auditory training: This is also very important. The child has residual hearing and we must help him to make the most of it. We must develop his listening skills.

a)      We must make him aware of sound and no sound.

b)      He must be able to localise sound.

c)       He must react correctly to sound.

d)      He must learn the meaning of sound.

e)      We must refine sound: – environmental sounds, animal sounds and speech sounds.

6) Speak clearly and in a full sentence: Take one word out of the sentence and repeat it, if you want the child to repeat it. Use that word again in a sentence, for example – Cup. This is a cup. Take the cup.

7) Encourage the child to copy words. Be happy if the child says something even if it’s just a sound or part of a word, because this will encourage him to try again. Copy what he says because this will teach him what communication is: mummy says something (I listen) – I say something (mummy listens)

NEVER USE THE WORD “IT” – Remember everything has a name. Give your child the names of things and actions and so the number of words he knows will become more, for example – Car. This is a car. Daddy drives a car.

All babies the number of sounds. They become familiar with the sounds. The sounds which have important meanings for the child, will be the most easily learnt. The most important sound is his mothers and fathers voice. I’m getting used to his mother’s voice (sound) he shows a response. He discovers his own voice (sound), then later tries to imitate the sounds he hears. That is why meaningful talk and repetition is so important. If his parents imitate the sounds, he start learning the meaning of communication:  Baby smiles at mummy – mummy smiles back. Baby makes babbling sounds – mummy imitates them. They are communicating.

REMEMBER:

1)      always wearing the hearing aids

2)      keep the ear moulds clean

3)      check the batteries

4)      when you put the hearing aids on, smile and say “I can hear!” – Your face mass show that hearing is fun.

Also educate all the other members of the family and friends who play with, or talk to your child – this is important, this is a team effort and your child will only benefit from it.

Thank you

Vanessa

(I started this website to help other patents with deaf children through our experience. Our son Hughan was born in 1988 and was diagnosed profoundly deaf at 14 months old. We kept a Diary, so his progress could be tracked between our lessons, as we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and traveled every 3 months to the Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town.)

Choosing a Program

On our return to Botswana from our holiday in England, life was back to normal. Willem was at work, Jamie was at play school and I was looking after Hughan at home.

I was spending most of my days getting information and deciding on how we were going to work with Hughan.

There were no home computers with internet and Google or places to go, to get information about deafness in Gaborone.

I had not taken Hughan back to Johannesburg yet, to the Deaf Centre where he was being taught sign language.

A friend of ours told us that there was a family living in Gaborone whose daughter was also profoundly deaf.

I was invited to go and have tea with her, where she met Hughan. It was fantastic to meet somebody else who was so like-minded and it was very reassuring when she told us that their daughter was now a teenager and she was doing very well with her lip reading skills and learning how to speak.

They had been travelling to a centre in Cape Town at Tygerberg Hospital, called the Carel du Toit Centre. Professor Carel du Toit had started the Centre. He had started testing new born babies for deafness as part of the procedure he carried out when he was checking new born babies. He wanted to diagnose deafness as early as possible, so babies could start wearing hearing aids.

Her daughter had never been taught sign language and it was a speech orientated program that they had followed.

I had explained to her that we had started taking Hughan to Johannesburg, where he was learning sign language and the challenges of it not being a universal language.

They had also gone through a similar experience to us, deciding on how they were going to work with their daughter. She encouraged us to contact the centre and travel to Cape Town to see if we were happy with the program they offered.

So the arrangements were made and we traveled by car as a family, to Cape Town to the Carel du Toit centre.

We were given such a warm welcome when we arrived at the centre and we were given accommodation on the grounds of Tygerberg Hospital.

On the first day, we were asked to watch a video about the Centre and the program. The video started in absolute silence and this gave Willem and I an idea of what it was like for Hughan to sit in front of the television.

We were introduced to Vanessa, who was going to be teaching us how to work with Hughan.

Vanessa was so excited to meet us and indicated she was looking forward to working with Hughan. Her enthusiasm was very uplifting and gave us great hope.

She also told us that deaf children were very special and as parents we would find it very rewarding working with Hughan.

At last we had come across the centre that we wanted to work with. The decisions that we made along the way were critical to the outcome of Hughan’s achievements today.

Hughan is now in his 30’s and can even hold a normal conversation on a phone.

We feel this is such a fantastic achievement Hughan has made, and my reasons for wanting to share our ‘Diary’ notes with you, which were kept to track his progress between our return visits to the Centre every 3 months.

It is 30 years since we started ‘Hughan’s Diary’.

It is the little things that we did every day that enabled him to learn to speak. Please keep a diary of your child and you will be able to do the same as us.

You need to have the belief and the desire to help your child and anything is possible.

This is our experience and you can make your own decisions along the way as to how you would like to work with your child.

You can see our posts send messages on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/speechfordeafchildren

Wishing you all the best, working with your child 🙂 

Sue

 

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