One of the most important things that parents learn through the parent-infant program is that, although their child has a hearing impairment, he still needs to be talked to, read to, cuddled, and loved just like any other child. Chinchuba recognizes that parents are the primary educators of their infant. Within a clinic setting, parents learn from a certified auditory-verbal therapist how to use their home as a learning environment for stimulating language development. They learn about hearing tests and hearing aids, the importance of continual and optimal amplification of residual hearing and their role in enabling their child to speak and reach their full potential. During individual sessions, our therapists provide consultation and instruction.
Sessions focus on developing listening skills, as well as expressive and receptive language.
As parents gain better understanding of their child's hearing loss, new issues for counseling and support continue to emerge. Through Chinchuba's Parent Association, families are given the opportunity to share experiences, learn from one another, and develop life-long friendships. Here is where children, ages two through five, gain skills and confidence as they experience the world around them. Using a curriculum that centers around speech, auditory development, language development and vocabulary acquisition, instructors use the child's own experiences to introduce language and vocabulary. As the children move among several activity centers, they work on fine motor skills, pre-writing, math readiness, and vocabulary.