What is the Butterfly Appeal? Brighten your day with beautiful butterflies and help change a child's life forever! Wear a butterfly between the 31st March and 30th April 2008 and show your support of young Queensland children who are deaf or hearing impaired. You can purchase your butterfly or butterfly item online or at any Suncorp branch or KFC outlet during the appeal. http://www.butterflyappeal.com
The Hear and Say Centre is a charity that teaches young children who are deaf or hearing impaired to listen and speak, giving them the opportunity to live their lives in the hearing world and to achieve their potential. It involves an intensive program with specialised therapy which is expensive for the Centre to provide. Parents contribute a minimal clinical levy if they are able to help, otherwise the program is free of charge to ensure all families are able to access this vital service for their hearing impaired child.
The Centre needs the help of the community to ensure its program is able to continue. All children should have the right to learn to communicate orally if they are able.
Funds raised by you or your organisation through the Butterfly Appeal will benefit Centre children in your area.
Why Butterflies?
The butterfly is the symbol of the Hear and Say Centre because butterflies can't hear and because, once our children can listen and speak, they emerge from the cocoon of their silent world and fly off into the world of sound.
"Come out, little butterfly"
Deaf children remind me of butterflies:
At first encased within a cocoon of deep silence not of their making,
and then when sound and cadences of love reach them,
they emerge in all their individual colours of soft or brilliant hue!
by Ciwa Giffiths
Order Merchandise to Sell
You can order merchandise online or contact the Centre by phone or email if you would like to sell merchandise to help Queensland's deaf and hearing impaired children.
Thank you for supporting the Butterfly Appeal. Every box you sell will provide one therapy lesson for a deaf child -- one more step on their journey from the silent world into the world of sound.
Although the official Butterfly Appeal runs from 31 March to 30 April you can start selling merchandise as soon as it is delivered to you and you can keep selling until you run out even if the appeal is over.
When you have finished selling deposit your funds into our Suncorp account using your unique numbered deposit form or send a cheque and any unsold items to the Centre.
About hearing loss
2.5 children in every thousand are born with hearing loss in Australia.
Hearing impairment is the most common disability in children.
Significant hearing loss has a potentially devastating impact on a child's speech, language, cognitive, educational, social and emotional development.
If hearing loss is detected before 6 months of age and appropriate intervention provided, babies with hearing loss have the potential to achieve speech and language similar to their hearing peers within 1-5 years (Yoshinago-Itano et al.,1998).
Potential for a child identified at birth is normal growth of auditory brain areas, age appropriate spoken language, full educational integration, age appropriate reading ability and extensive career choices.
The Hear and Say Centre
is a Queensland-wide charity teaching young children and babies, who are hearing impaired or deaf, to listen and speak to communicate with the hearing world using clear, natural speech.
The Centre achieves this by using the modern technology of the cochlear implant or digital hearing aids combined with Auditory-Verbal Therapy (learning to listen and speak).
Receiving a cochlear implant does not give a deaf child instant speech! A child must be taught to understand the sound they hear in order to develop language.
Our therapists work to build a child's listening and speaking skills from infancy sound by sound, syllable by syllable, word by word, achieving remarkable speech and communication skills. The first 5 years of a child's life are critical for language development.
The Centre provides services which enable families to gain the knowledge, understanding and confidence needed as the primary decision-makers, caregivers and teachers of their own children. Assistance and knowledge are offered so that parents may make appropriate decisions and choices about amplification and hearing devices for their children.
Children attend from diagnosis until school entry age, when 93% of the Centre's children enter mainstream education with their hearing peers. The remaining 7% have multiple disabilities.
Presented by Alessandro Sorbello Productions http://www.alessandrosorbello.com
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Allow bilingualism. Language and cognition will flourish. Using your analogy of deaf children as butterflies, accept and encourage that a child experience different stages, languages, and communication preferences. Instead, parents of deaf children are often discouraged to sign.
Early reciprocal communication with an infant is beneficial. By using sign language, which is easier to use for an infant, his or her frustrations will be reduced while cognition greatly develops. Encourage signing.
sponsellerfd 3 years ago
Throw in sign language to give them support in developing language because listening is all about accessory or a skill. If this Hear and Say Centre also teach the kids and their families sign language, the language development will skyrocket. Believe me, I was that child.
avbria 3 years ago