It was in June 2017 that we had learned our three-and-a-half-year-old daughter was suffering from a moderate to severe hearing loss. After the initial wave of sadness and questioning as to why our kid, we began to research how, as parents, we could provide the best future for our daughter. Our initial worry was first her special educational needs, then the financial implications associated with it.
At that time, we were clueless about the education system in Singapore and more importantly or specifically that of a child with special needs. Then, one day, on our audiologist’s suggestion, we googled ‘Canossian School’ and found out about this. We were quite happy about the school and its dual system in particular.
But, unfortunately around the year 2019, our daughter’s hearing loss had progressed/worsened, and she required cochlear implant surgery as a result. During that time, I attended a meeting organized by Cochlear where I met Mrs Doris from Canossian School. From her, we were able to get a clear picture of the school’s structure and the fees which we found reasonable too.
By this time, we were very eager to send our daughter to Canossian School. During an initial visit to school guided by Mrs Doris, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of care our daughter would be receiving at the school especially in the acoustically-treated classroom environment. We were also pleased to note the school was genuinely interested in the holistic upbringing of the child with special needs and our daughter was not just another student on their enrolment list.
So, we decided to send our daughter to Canossian School in January 2020 and we have no doubt now that it was one of the best decisions that we have made for our daughter. Because, since then, we have been observing among other things huge improvements in her etiquette as well. Her vocabulary is expanding day by day and she is now using newly learned words in her everyday life. She has gained a lot of confidence, easily mixes with other children and converses well with her teachers.
During the home-based learning system, we also observed that teachers are using various resources to teach concepts. Our daughter feels comfortable at school and her need is attended by teachers along with the team of audiologists present at school. We thank God for guiding us to select this amazing school for our daughter to start her education during the hardest time of our lives.