An old friend and two hearing-impaired sons

"Friends are like pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up and sometimes they lean on you." This is a quote from a girl named Sharon that caught my gaze while browsing the Internet a couple of years ago. When one is young, a constant playmate is what one calls a friend. When one is broken-hearted, a friend that you call at 4 a.m. to listen to your cry and repeated stories is a treasure. As we all mature and experience life, the meaning of friendship grows deeper.

A year ago, I was told that my first child I just delivered had only 15 percent chance of survival. There were friends that sympathized, but as they say, only a mother knows the feeling of another. I was fortunate to have the two rolled into one. Tin Villegas-Canon was an old friend and a mother.

How she held up with her two sons was one of the sources of our strength and courage. When she told me that her first son, Nathan, was hearing impaired, I listened to her and I knew her pain. So when she found out that her second son, Elij, was hearing impaired as well, I couldn’t feel anything for it was beyond me to know how to feel twice this pain. How she embraced this reality and continuously devotes her energy to helping her two sons become fully functional in this hearing world is a constant inspiration to many. Being a preschool owner and teacher, with full-time hands-on experience in communicating with toddlers, Tin continuously hones her skills in opening herself to learning opportunities for the benefit of her wards and, most especially, for her two sons.

Now, Tin Canon, together with other parents of deaf or hearing-impaired children, is currently receiving auditory-verbal therapy at CLASP, Manila. 

CLASP Manila is a non-stock, nonprofit organization committed to making auditory-verbal therapy accessible to families with hearing-impaired children. Auditory-verbal therapy is a teaching approach rooted in the knowledge that children can learn to use even minimal amounts of amplified residual hearing to listen and speak. 

Through auditory-verbal therapy, CLASP helps in bringing hearing-impaired children to acquire appropriate speech and language skills. 

The goal is full integration into the regular school system and mainstream life. I share in their belief that there are no limits for the hearing-impaired child.

CLASP and its members recently launched an advocacy program to promote awareness and acceptance of deaf and hearing-impaired children. Experts and top practitioners in the field of hearing habilitation from the Asia-Pacific region joined colleagues in the Philippines at the "International Conference on Hearing Habilitation: Beyond Limits" at the Pan Pacific Hotel.  

To learn more about the Center and its mission, call (632) 727-4864; e-mail clasp@ph.inter.net, or log onto its website at www.clasp.com.ph.