Children from the Danny Williams School for the Deaf perform a poem during Thursday's launch of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf Hearing Awareness campaign, held at Pollyanna Restaurant, in the Corporate Area. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

More specialists are required to assist the Ministry of Education with the early detection of special needs in children at the early childhood level, according to a senior adviser to Education Minister Andrew Holness.

Rebecca Tortello, consultant on early childhood and parenting, is supporting the efforts of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf (JAD), which launched the Hearing Awareness campaign at Pollyanna Restaurant in the Corporate Area on Thursday.

"Research indicates helping children with special needs, particularly in their early developing stages from newborn to six years old, improves their outcomes and future life skills," she said. "The ministry has recently embarked on an islandwide vision and auditory screening programme designed to train approximately 800 teachers to identify students with visual and hearing difficulties."

Campaign efforts

Christopher Williams, JAD board chairman, placed emphasis on the efforts of the campaign, which is seeking to raise public awareness with regard to the support services for the deaf and the early detection of hearing loss in children.

"The fight we are embarking on is one where we want you, our constituency, to be significant contributors to this beautiful nation of Jamaica. We want a Jamaica where persons are empowered to participate in nation building."

Dispelling the myth that deaf children who learn sign language will not learn to talk, three deaf presenters shared their testimonies in the interactive session, which discussed the right of deaf children to grow up bilingual.

Williams stressed the importance of hearing for individuals, as well as society, as the world communicates more verbally.

"Early detection and awareness and the hearing contribution to educational and social development are critical and can have an impact on the success of the individual and their ability to participate and live a meaningful life," he said.