“It was just the last couple of years that I started to lose my hearing. No one knows what the cause is, probably comes with age,” Jill shares with SBS Filipino.
But immediately, when she remembers the kids’ reactions, her face lights up. “The kids were so excited, they were not expecting that. So that was good, I had that in common with them,” Jill adds.
Jill Smith, 62, had been working as a speech pathologist in Brisbane for 40 years when she flew to Bacolod, Philippines, to volunteer and help deaf children.
“I love my work, I love working with kids with hearing impairment. It doesn’t even feel like work to me. So I didn’t have a problem being a volunteer because it was hard work, it’s just a joy for me to do that,” Jill shares.
Speech pathologist Jill Smith immersing with kids at Welcome Home Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in Bacolod, Philippines. Source: Supplied by Jill Smith
Jill also saw it as an opportunity to immerse herself in the culture.
“Every time I visit a country, I always felt like I wanted to be more connected to it. Arriving for a quick vacation, and then leaving again, you’re just skimming the surface.
"I always wanted to get to know the people better. So volunteering was an opportunity to be part of a community for a while, work alongside them, and I was lucky because my assignment in Bacolod couldn’t be a better match for me."
Finding their voice
Jill Smith with the teachers of Welcome Home. Source: Supplied by Jill Smith
Welcome Home Foundation is a 35-year-old non-profit based in Bacolod that’s serving the deaf through ministry, education and outreach.
It has its own school for deaf children, the Educational Resource Center, servicing at both pre-school and elementary levels.
On top of the curriculum, the teachers are qualified in teaching in English, Tagalog and the local dialect Hiligaynon, all through sign language. But Welcome Home always wanted to give the kids an opportunity to speak.
“Our speech program needed to be enhanced. We were relying on old computer software, and we didn’t have an in-house speech therapist. We requested the Australian Volunteers Program for somebody who’s equipped in speech therapy to teach the children one-on-one, and teach the teachers how to do speech therapy as well,” says Arleen Infantado, Deputy Director of Welcome Home Foundation, who was also Jill’s direct supervisor.
Teaching speech to deaf children is easy when they have access to sound. This means having cochlear implants, which cost around 1M pesos (A$28,000), or having a decent hearing aid, which ranges between 25,000- 40,000 pesos. In Australia, these are subsidised by the state. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the Philippines.
Jill used cued articulation or hand cues to signal the kids which sounds to produce. Source: Supplied by Jill Smith
Most of the children in Welcome Home did not have hearing aids, so Jill was faced with the herculean task of teaching non-hearing children how to speak.
The vibrations from mouths and throats
Jill teaching a child at Welcome Home Foundation Source: Supplied by Jill Smith
Jill’s years of experience gave her an advantage. She had been working with deaf children even before cochlear implants were invented. Her bag of tricks came in useful.
“Because the children don’t have very much coming through their ears to tell them what the speech sound is like, we had to find another way to explain it to them,” Jill shares.
Jill used a tactile method to enable the kids to speak.
“If you say the sound ffffff and put your hand on your lips, you can feel the air coming out. But if you say the word mmmmmm, you can feel the bottom lip vibrating, but you can’t feel any sound coming out,” Jill shares in the SBS Filipino podcast, as well as in this Australian Volunteers video.
“We let them feel our throat, the air coming out of our mouths. That’s how we taught the children.”
Jill sat the kids one-by-one, while the teachers observed and took down notes.
“Once we had established that sound, we didn’t want them to have their hands on their throats. That’s not efficient, so we taught them some cues.”
She used cued articulation or hand cues to signal the kids which sound to produce. They started with consonants, which were easier to teach via hand vibrations. The vowels, Jill said, are harder to teach.
Source: Supplied by Jill Smith
“With vowels, we can’t really see inside the mouths to see where the tongue is. So we had to show them what to do with their mouths. And then they imitate us.”
Jill was amazed by the eagerness and the strong work ethic of the children.
“What I was asking them to do was very difficult. But they would run breathless to my classes, always excited, never discouraged. These children were absolutely amazing, they were so keen,” Jill shares.
Hoping to return
Jill had originally intended to stay for nine months, from July 2019 to the end of March of 2020. But due to the pandemic and the lockdown, Jill had to cut her trip short and go back home.
She felt that she had accomplished her mission, with all the students learning to speak. Some of the parents were in tears after hearing their children utter their first words.
Despite this, she feels her work is not quite done.
“I actually had a return ticket booked July of this year, but obviously I couldn’t, but I’m definitely coming back,” Jill shares.
One project that she’s keen on returning for is an early intervention program that she started with Welcome Home.
“We talked about how important it is to have early intervention. We want to start with babies when they’re born. We laid the groundwork and formed a working collaborative group between EENTS, pediatricians, audiologists, some private speech pathologists, some people from education,” Jill shares.
This, she hopes, will address the pressing problem that among poor families in the Philippines, the children aren’t diagnosed early. The parents are either scared of the financial repercussions or are misinformed.
Through early intervention, Jill hopes that deaf babies can be taught sign language early so that when they start school, they’re ready to begin learning. Without early intervention, deaf children will find it hard to catch up.
With early intervention and access to hearing aids, Jill hopes that deaf children from underprivileged parts of the Philippines will be able to fulfill their dreams and break barriers.
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