Equip deafblind children with skills for life!

This boy is called Rajesh. He is 16 years old and an only child, living with his father and his mother in Shah Alam. He, as so many children in St Nicholas’ Home, is suffering from Rubella Syndrome, leaving him with low vision and poor hearing condition. In addition to that, Rajesh is also afflicted by Global Delay Development and Nil-Disease, which makes an independent live very difficult for him.

Rajesh joined us eight years ago. At this time, he was yet fully dependent on his parents to assist him in every part of his life. Everything from walking to bathing to eating seemed difficult for him. Moreover, Rajesh also had a sleeping problem, as he would prefer to sleep all day and stay up all night. Furthermore, due to the Global Delay Development, this boy has a problem concentrating on a task, which leads to frustration he shows in aggression to others, but also to himself.

Nonetheless, Rajesh’s behavior and abilities improved immensely over the time in St. Nicholas’ Home. One of our first priorities were making sure that he stayed up all day, so he would be able to sleep at night with the other children. We also familiarized him with the outlay of our home, nowadays he is now able to walk short distances by himself. Furthermore, we are trying to advance his concentration by giving him small tasks of short duration on which he can concentrate completely. We noticed that whenever someone sits close to him during these tasks, Rajesh might get distracted more easily, but he also seems more prone on doing his tasks, showing us that he is also in need of comfort and support. As well as that, we are doing some motor skills to get him accustomed to using both his hands and walking carefully automatically.

Apart from these skills, we still hope to improve Rajesh’s way of communication with us. In comparison to eight years ago, it has already enhanced quite a lot. He is now able to show teachers and caretakers that he is hungry and is getting restless once he is uncomfortable in a place. However, we are still working on making him sign small things, for example ‘T’ for when he has to use the toilet, but his adaption to that has not been totally consistent until now.

All in all, although Rajesh’s progress takes longer than the progress of some other children in St Nicholas’ home, it is still very noticeable that he became in some parts of his life slightly more independent. We hope very much to be able to improve his lifestyle further in the coming two years he is with us at St. Nicholas Home.