About 70 children with hearing loss will be graduating from The Shepherd Centre’s early intervention program to attend ‘big school’ in 2025.
Seven kicked off the organisation’s graduation season by attending its graduation showcase event at NSW Parliament House on 16 October 2024. Other graduation events will occur across all the organisation’s centres in coming weeks.
“These children – some of whom we’ve known since they were a few weeks old – are kicking off graduation season at The Shepherd Centre,” said its CEO Dr Aleisha Davis.
“We’re privileged to support more than 900 deaf children and their families across 10 centres, and remotely, in NSW, the ACT and Tasmania. This year, we have around 70 children graduating from our early intervention program and embarking on their next step – school.”
Dr Davis said the start of graduation season at its centres was “always such a joy”.
“It’s a culmination of years of work put in by these children, their families and our staff to get ready for mainstream big school,” she added. “It’s truly such a privilege to see children flourish and have a world of choice.”
Ms Liesl Tesch MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Inclusion, Paralympian and gold medallist, handed out graduation medals to the initial seven.
The children are graduating from the early intervention program which is a mix of individual sessions with listening and spoken language specialists, family counsellors and audiologists, as well as group playgroup sessions. They attend these programs in their own local areas run by The Shepherd Centre.
Next year they will go into prep or kindergarten (for NSW) at mainstream schools.
The Shepherd Centre is a for-purpose organisation dedicated to supporting children and young people with all types of hearing loss.
The charity said it was the first to provide wraparound services in Australia including care from a multidisciplinary team of audiologists, family and child counsellors, and listening and spoken language specialists and therapists.
“We pride ourselves on our wraparound care – we created this standard within paediatric programs to provide children with the listening and spoken language skills needed for mainstream education, and importantly go on to have employment of choice and true inclusion in the hearing world,” Dr Davis said.
“Our evidence and research both show that the children we support can achieve listening and spoken language skills on par with their hearing peers.”
Dr Davis said graduation season was also an opportunity for its philanthropic community to reconnect with the children they had generously donated funds to.
“Our services are only partially covered by the NDIS so it’s generous philanthropic donations which enable children and their families to access care without paying fees,” she said.
“We’re hoping to secure State Government funding so that no child is left behind.”
Some children, and their families, will continue to receive support from the centre throughout their primary and high school years, which the charity welcomes and encourages when it’s needed.
It offers services to support children in their primary and high schooling years and a mentoring program for those who are 16. Families can request ongoing support or check ins when needed.
