Learning bridge is a group therapy clinic developed with an aim of providing intervention for children with Specific Learning Disorder. Specific learning disorder / Learning disability refers to significant learning problems in an academic area. It describes a group of disorders characterized by inadequate development of specific academic, language, and speech skills.Types of learning disabilities include reading disability (dyslexia), mathematics disability (dyscalculia) and writing disability (dysgraphia). Learning bridge was started on February 2013 as a trial basis with 7 students who were coming at NISH for regular speech and language therapy.  Before enrolling the children into the group initial assessments including IQ & Speech and language evaluation were done.

Mission: To provide evidence-based services that anticipate and respond to the needs of individuals who experience learning disabilities. Speech and language therapy works in partnership with these individuals and their families and with other professions to reduce the impact of these difficulties on people’s wellbeing.

Objective:
To improve the social, academic, and speech and language skills of the child with specific learning disability.

• To provide strategies and techniques to compensate their learning difficulties and thereby reducing the negative effect of it on the overall performance of the child.
• To increase the  independent function
• To improve participation in family, social, occupational and educational activities
• To reduce the risk of educational failure
• To reduce the risk of social isolation

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The Department of ASLP conducts camps and outreach programs to cater to the needs of the clients who are unable to attend the services at the Institute due to geographical or financial constraints. The programs are organized in collaboration with voluntary agencies like NGO's, Social Service Organizations, Special Schools and Regular Schools at various parts of the State.

ADIP scheme: NISH has functioned as the implementing agency for ADIP scheme and has distributed hearing aids and ear moulds by conducting camps across the 14 districts in Kerala.

National Institute of Speech and Hearing, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala is distributing hearing aids at subsidized rates or free of cost through Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase / Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP Scheme), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt of India, to people with hearing impairment. NISH has been implementing the ADIP scheme for the past decade and has distributed quality hearing aids to beneficiaries across the length of the state. This has been a boon too many people who could not afford hearing aids for financial constraints. For the present scheme, NISH has been granted an amount of Rs.50 Lakhs through which NISH aims at distributing digitally programmable body level or behind the ear hearing aids starting from 25/07/2017.

List of ADIP Beneficiaries 

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The ear mould laboratory under  Audiology Speech-Language Pathology Department at NISH is a dedicated wing for making customised earmoulds for hearing aid fitting. Ear moulds are coupling devices which couples hearing aid to the ear and are custom made for each individual's ear. Qualified ear mould technician is involved in ear mould making utilising specialised dedicated instruments and equipment. Soft as well as hard moulds of various style including full concha, skeleton, tip, skeleton ear moulds are made according to the patient's audiological profile and as well as user needs. 

Ear moulds are usually delivered a week after impression taking. For any queries regarding mould you are requested to contact: 

Mr. Dharmakumar, 

Phone: 0471 2944613

"Blindness separates us from things but deafness separates us from people"   Helen Keller

Children with hearing impairment have the right to live full and productive lives in the same way as other normal children, but their disability may raise a wall around them hindering their communication and socialization with the normal hearing population in the society. This lack of communication with the society leads to isolation which can reduce the potentials of the child to a great degree. Since auditory perception skill plays an inevitable role in the language learning process of a child, any difficulty with an auditory perception which in turn is reflected in the expressive and receptive language of the child. Even when fitted with amplification devices, lack of adequate and appropriate auditory training may make the child dependent on lip reading and other visual cues for communication. This will have serious consequences on the schooling and academic performance of the child.

Thus the hearing impaired children need support to jump over the hurdles of communication barrier and to rise to the mainstream. NISH had already taken an initial step for early detection and intervention for children with hearing impairment several years back. As a new venture, NISH has started a group therapy program “LISTENING UNIT” for school going children with hearing impairment. Running successfully for about a year, this group therapy focusses on two areas; auditory perception and speech production. Starting from simple phoneme level to complex sentence level, this group therapy is also designed to teach suprasegmental aspects and linguistic processing skills to the child.

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