How a mom started this foundation, with the thought of helping others, translated…
In order to provide more resources to children who are hearing impaired, the speech therapist, Li-Fang Hsien worked with a dozen parents with children who are hearing impaired, set up the Dandelion Hearing Help Associations. Hsieh said, that because her own daughter was hearing impaired too, she’d come to understand how advanced early intervention became, but, as her own daughter learns, she’d still needed the extra help, the resources and special assistance, and so, that, was her motivation behind setting up the foundation, hoping that she can help other hearing impaired children to tap into their potentials, and have a bigger set of sky to soar.
Hsieh, who originally worked in a law firm, sixteen years ago, when her eldest daughter, Jia-Shuan Liang was only a year old, she’d realized that her daughter didn’t respond to sound stimuli, and didn’t talk at all. After getting her checked, the diagnosis of congenital hearing impairment was given, without time to grief over it, Hsieh quickly found the resources for early intervention programs, and, in order to get her daughter trained in using language before the golden age of three, she’d quit her job, and focused on her daughter.
a photo of the chairwoman of the foundation, Hsieh with her daughter, Liang, photo from Hinet.net
Hsieh not only gone to school with her daughter, she’d even passed the test for certification in speech therapy too, at first, she’d worked in the rehabilitation centers, but in recent years, she’d toured around the school, and gotten involved in special ed, hoping to help more children.
Liang is currently a last year student of Zhongshan All Girls’ High School, as she talked about how she grew up, she said she’d been grateful toward her mother’s support. Liang said, that in her schools, she’d met wonderful teacher who would go the extra mile to help her learn, like setting her up to sit in the front rows, and had asked her fellow classmates to help her out. After she’d gotten her cochlear implant, she’d improved on her hearing, but, in classes like English, it was still, NOT easy for her, and she can only hear the recordings more times than the rest of her fellow classmates.
Hsieh said, that there are children who are excellent in all areas of study in the foundation, she’d hoped to help more children who are hearing impaired, to help them gain more resources for learning. Like for instant, in learning to swim, the hearing impaired children would have to take off their hearing aids, and so, they wouldn’t do well in the groups, and so, the foundation sets up one-on-one swim sessions; and for classes like English, they’d needed to hire special instructors to teach the children pronunciation too.
In the future, the foundation will keep on having the courses, and they’re working toward not charging the families, so there would be less economic burdens; and they’re planning to invite the excellent hearing impaired students to come back to teach those younger kids, to help pass along the legacies, and it would fit closely, with the needs of the hearing impaired children as well.
So, this, is amazing, isn’t it? How a mother, because of her own daughter’s hearing impairments, started this foundation, to offer assistance, give resources, to families with children who are hearing impaired too, and now, the foundation hoped to get the kids who are older and finished with the programs of learning that they offered back, to teach, passing that torch along…
Life, the Obstacle Course 