Syria, Farah and the happiness of rediscovered words

Farah is a 10-year-old hearing-impaired girl who lives in Homs. In 2015 she underwent a cochlear implant (an electronic device that allows deaf people to hear sounds); after this surgery Farah was followed by a specialist for a language rehabilitation program. But the war, and the significant difficulties that Syria is experiencing today, have unfortunately caused the interruption of this program. The little girl’s mother then turned to one of the offices of the Seeds of Hope program in Syria and this has proved to be a fundamental step: the little girl began to be followed by the therapist Mays : “It was difficult for me at first, and I did a lot of research on how to deal with this situation, which is very different from the student cases we deal with at the center. I divided the treatment session into two parts: verbal rehabilitation and hearing rehabilitation.” Farah and the therapist gradually progressed. First the therapist worked on connecting shapes and colors with the outside world through sight, then she encouraged Farah to use only her sense of hearing , talking behind her back, so that the child could only rely on the sounds she perceived without observing the movement of the lips. Verbal rehabilitation is more complicated: “I’m working with Farah now on some letters to teach her how to pronounce them correctly. We’re also starting to read her some stories so she can learn how to form sentences correctly.” Farah’s mother is happy with her daughter’s progress: “ Farah has changed, and this change is very evident, especially in the pronunciation of sentences. For her, understanding others no longer depends only on the movement of the mouth of the person speaking to her, but also on hearing.” At school the girl is now more integrated, the woman says that Farah now loves spending time with her classmates, following the same lessons as the other students: “Before, my daughter was very sad and didn’t like going to school. Now she is more relaxed. In the midterm exams, Farah answered most of the questions. The improvement is evident.”