Deaf school making a difference
Pupils at an Observatory school for the deaf and hearing impaired made goods to sell for the school at its market day last month.
The Mary Kihn School offers schooling for pupils from ages 5 to 18, using spoken English for hearing-impaired pupils and sign language for deaf ones.
According to department head Emily van Heerden, the schooling caters to various learning needs but includes a skills curriculum with subjects such as agriculture, hairdressing, nails and beauty, arts and crafts, welding and hospitality.
“We offer these skills from 13 years old, with the hope that by the age of 18 the learner will be ready to be incorporated into the job market, or to become an entrepreneur,” she said.
School occupational therapist Elana Solomon has come full circle at the school, having started as a 7-year-old pupil in 1997 to being employed there in February last year.
Ms Solomon was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of 5 after many years of seeing various professionals. Due to the late diagnosis, she needed intensive speech therapy and specialised educational and rehabilitation support. She was referred to the Carel du Toit Centre, where deaf children are taught to speak, and later to the Mary Kihn School.
“I entered the school as a very shy 7-year-old girl and was wearing hearing aids at the time and had limited language skills. I had wonderful and supportive teachers that helped my learning skills and helped me develop my listening and language skills,” she said.
“During my time at Mary Kihn, my hearing deteriorated, and I was fitted with a cochlear implant to enable me to hear and communicate. My teachers and parents have been supportive throughout my cochlear implant journey.”
After completing primary school, she went to a mainstream school, Wynberg Girls’ High, for the first time in Grade 8, and she later matriculated there.
Having experienced the benefits of a supportive school environment, she decided to study occupational therapy at UCT. In March, she graduated with a Master’s degree in human-rehabilitation studies at Stellenbosch University.
Ms Solomon works with pupils aged 5 to 18.
“As an occupational therapist in a school system, my focus is on supporting students’ overall ability to participate in daily activities when their disability or barriers in their environment make it difficult to do so. I work on various skills, such as gross motor, fine motor, sensory processing, to work preparation through the use of activities as a therapeutic tool.”
The Mary Kihn School was named after Mary Kihn, a teacher of the deaf.
