Cochlea Pune for Hearing and Speech was established in the year 1998. The organisation is working for the all-round development of young born deaf children through following programmes
1. Early Detection & Intervention
2. Parent Infant Programme
3. Preschool training
4. Workshops for Parents & Special Teachers.
The institution imparts Speech training on confirmation of amount of hearing loss through various Audiological assessments and introduces to sound on fitment appropriate hearing aid. The children are trained for integration to normal school on attaining fair amount of Speech thereby paving a way for a better future otherwise the child would have grown up as a handicapped child, a burden to the family, society and self as no good sources of enhancing the life style are available due to lack of Speech, Language and expression. For this purpose the institution runs 10 centers in Pune district.
Majority of the children who are on the rolls of the institution are from economically weaker section and they need financial as well as moral support for the fitment of a suitable hearing aid and other peripherals connected with the ear. The institution has plans to start such centers at every taluka place of Pune dist. and then to other parts of Maharashtra state.
The Institution has successfully integrated 200 students to the normal school till the date. 129 Mothers are trained through parent training programme. And some of them have completed DECSE course in special education and become special educators. Out of 36 teachers of Cochlea, 20 teachers are mothers of hearing-impaired children.
Organisation also runs the DECSE (Diploma in Early childhood Special Education) training programme, recognized by Rehabilitation Council of India (Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Govt. of India)
After detection and intervention children with this inability, children need to be groomed for integration to normal school for the formal education in line with normal children. For this the children are taught and made to learn the basics of elementary school like learning alphabets numbers to writing sentences, adding to division in simple mathematics. The children also learn to read and recite along with development of Speech which is the most important in life for better communication with the society members. Continuous rehabilitation education training is given to teachers for upgrading their skills on regular basis. Mothers training program is also conducted for capacity building of mothers to support their children.
Capacity building of the overall Cochlea organization is taking place under the project in terms of fund raising, and MIS software updation. The organization has received ISO certification last year with the help of Concern India Foundation.
Awareness program and detection camps are major in mobilizing and reaching out to the differently able (hearing impaired children).
Previous year the project was run online due to COVID 19 pandemic. Currently 150 children are getting speech therapies and preschool education from 10 different centers of Cochlea. Every year 10-15 children get integrated to mainstream education and 40-50 new students get admitted through various centers. In this academic year if situation of pandemic does not resolve the school classes will be online in terms of one to one online therapy sessions.
