Educational Implications

Because all communication disorders carry the potential to isolate individuals from their social and educational surroundings, it is essential to find appropriate timely intervention. Speech-language pathologists assist children who have communication disorders in various ways. They provide individual therapy for the child; consult with the child’s teacher about the most effective ways to facilitate the child’s communication in the class setting; and work closely with the family to develop goals and techniques for effective therapy in class and at home. The speech-language pathologist may assist vocational teachers and counselors in establishing communication goals related to the work experiences of students and suggest strategies that are effective for the important transition from school to employment and adult life.

Vocabulary and concept growth continues during the years children are in school. Reading and writing are taught and, as students get older, the understanding and use of language becomes more complex. Communication skills are at the heart of the education experience. Speech and/or language therapy may continue throughout a student’s school years either in the form of direct therapy or on a consultant basis.

A

Modern medical and pedagogical methods make it possible to determine if a child is unable to study at an ordinary school. Forms of mental diseases resulting in deficiency are varied. Some cases are so obvious, that a psychoneurologist who kept the child under observation from infancy can easily recommend parents to place him in an auxiliary school to avoid unnecessary traumas. Sometimes when a child in unable to cope with the syllabus and has to stay in the l^st or 2^ndform for several years he may come to hate the school and his studies. To bring errors down to a minimum each child, before being removed to an auxiliary school, carefully examined by a commission consisting of the headmaster, an inspector from a district or city public education department, a number of psychiatrists, and his teacher.

If, during his stay at an auxiliary school, his teacher there finds that he could return to an ordinary school, the headmaster must inform the local public education authorities at once, no matter what time of the year the decision is made.

B

Most people in Bahrain overlook the existence of disabled people in the country. The public tends to ignore reality and work their way around providing services only for the able people, since they represent the majority. Although one can see that the government has provided the disabled with a few services such as special schools and services, these schools are exclusive to the disabled; therefore they seem segregated from the public. Other than education, special schools and a few programs for entertainment the government has also tried to provide laws from the implementation of ramps and bathrooms for the disabled in all public and some private buildings. A few of the concerned public have founded organizations to assist and raise money for the disabled. The transportation in Bahrain, however, is not disabled-friendly. Nevertheless, public transport is not widely used in Bahrain. Although there a few laws to protect the rights of the disabled in Bahrain, I think the government should take the matter into more consideration and provide them with more laws to protect their rights to try to make them feel part of the community rather than having their own. The new laws and guidelines should represent the community as whole, including the able and disabled people rather than each having separate laws.

A

How does a normal child learn the language of his culture?

First the child learns to understand language because the people in his environment talk about objects, events. The language learning process begins at birth. The infant begins to associate sounds with objects, events. From the age of 6 months he develops understanding of the meaning of words and word combinations as they are used by others in his environment. Hearing is the sensory avenue for this learning process. At the age of eleven to fifteen months the normal child may begin to express what he sees, feels or wants by the use of a single word. Later he will combine two words in expression and still later he will progress from simple sentences to a wider variety of sentence forms. At the age of six the normal child can communicate verbally with anyone in his culture. Because hearing impairment is not usually detected at birth, the child with serious auditory impairment cannot begin acquiring language until the impairment is discovered and special education is initiated.

A