Early detection of hearing inability can save many children from being completely deaf

In Sri Lanka many new born babies do not undergo a hearing test at most of the national or private hospitals. Parents come across the issue of their children not being able to hear properly only after sometime when they mumble words to themselves without pronouncing clearly, according to Renuka Fonseka, Manager of the Ratmalana Audiology Centre (RAC).

She was speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of an event organised to mark 10 years of partnership between Dialog Axiata PLC and RAC at the Dialog Head Office in Colombo on Tuesday.

Ms. Fonseka said. "We have come across more than 60,000 children, students and adults who have hearing difficulties. RAC has supported them with hearing aids with the funding from Dialog over the past 10 years." It's always advisable for a new born baby to be detected early on whether they can hear. Earlier the detection can reduce further loss of hearing, she added.

She also mentioned that all hospitals in the country do not have the facility to have the equipment to detect hearing. The equipment is available and services are provided free- ofcharge at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital in Kalubowila and the Kethumathi Maternity Hospital in Panadura.

According to the media release issued at the event, RAC was initiated in May 1997 as a collaboration between Dialog Axiata PLC and the Ratmalana School for the Deaf (RSD) with the goal of creating a centre of excellence in hearing and speech therapy empowering, integrating and rehabilitating people of all ages with hearing and speech difficulties. The partnership laid the foundation in developing a vibrant, professional client- focused centre with a caring environment serving the wider community.

The centre provides free annual hearing tests and speech therapy services for the students of RSD. The centre also provides free workshops for parents, teachers and matrons of the school for the deaf and provides assistance to other schools for the deaf around the country. As a centre of excellence, RAC also provides placements for the clinical training programme for audiology offered at the University of Kelaniya.

At RAC, hearing tests can be obtained free of charge with due recommendation from a government Ear- Nose- Throat (ENT) doctor or Grama Niladari confirming low income status. The centre also provides hearing tests, high quality hearing aids, speech assessments and speech therapy services at affordable rates which support the centre’s social mission.