JEDDAH — The Jeddah Institute for Speech and Hearing (JISH) started 15 years ago in 1993 after its owner and establisher went through several personal experiences in which she mothered three children with hearing impairments.
Sultana Alireza-Zahid is a mother of four children. Three of them have hearing and speech difficulties ranging from average to profound.
At the age of 11, Alireza-Zahid developed experience in how to deal with children who have hearing and speech problems by interacting with her nephew, who was born prematurely and as a result suffered hearing loss at birth.
Her extended family was living at the same house and she was close to her nephew. She used to baby sit for his mother who taught the family members how to speak with her baby. The mother would also ensure he could read their lips and that he articulates sounds correctly.
He was able to continue his education and become the successful businessman that he is now.
The experience was repeated again with her own children. Alireza-Zahid’s elder son, who was born in 1976, was the only child she had that could hear and speak correctly. Her second son, born in 1980 had hearing impairment.
He was not going to be accepted at kindergarten because of his hearing impairment. They eventually let him in because of a family friend who was the second owner of the school.
Her third son, who was born in 1983, and youngest daughter, born in 1986, also have hearing impairments. “My son was very intelligent when he was two years old and could speak a little. As he was getting older, I began noticing that there were some sounds he was unable to speak at all,” she said.
She then visited a doctor who told her not to worry because he was still young. She was worried and pursued the matter further. She insisted on seeing a specialist in London, who sent her son for a hearing test. It was then that the parents discovered that their son had a severe problem. “But my little son was able to hide it very well,” she said.
After her second son, Alireza-Zahid and her husband had a habit of regularly checking their younger children. It was then that they discovered that their third son and youngest daughter also suffered from hearing loss.
The family ended up visiting the US regularly for appropriate medical care. “We kept going to the states for years in the summer time when the children were young to get therapy for them. When we used to come back home. I used to do home therapy for them myself the way they taught me in the states,” she said. In effect the children had a speech therapist at home.
“The children were doing well and were able to go to normal schools and I was able to follow up with them,” she said.
Alireza-Zahid first started to work as a volunteer at Help Center for the mentally disabled when her children were in kindergarten. She trained in that center and after two and a half years of training, Maha Al-Juffali, owner of the Help Center noticed there was a lot of children who had communication problems including hearing impairments and cognitive problems. Some children were not beginning to speak at the age children usually speak. As a result such children ended up having problems at schools and developed language-based learning disabilities.
“I discussed those issues with my husband and relied on our knowledge from the American approach. We decided to hire staff from the US to train Arab speaking staff and offer scholarships for Saudis and Arabs,” she said.
She added that the number of hearing impairment cases in the Kingdom is higher than in the West because of intermarriages.
It was not easy for her to start the center without getting support from her husband’s company, Al-Zahid Tractors. “I cannot say that I stood up independently to do this institute. I had to depend a lot on my husband’s company,” she said.
“Things have changed tremendously and there is more awareness, but women in business need to still have connections and still have to depend on people to help them. The system does not help an average Saudi businesswoman who doesn’t have any connections and wants to start her business from scratch. It doesn’t work that way,” she added.
The nonprofit institute offers services to both Saudis and non-Saudis of all ages and both genders. Students who are unable to afford fees can pay as much as they are able. JISH has a special fund, which supports such children.
JISH is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. To maintain being a leader in that field, JISH has also adopted the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) standards of clinical practice. It has also conducted applied research in communication sciences and disorders for Saudi people and other Arabic speakers. Treatment material is developed in the Arabic medium, something which is unique in the Middle East.
The institute also offers scholarships to people to encourage people to attain high degrees and educate themselves in speech-language pathology and audiology. The services are also offered to adults that have communication problems following strokes and students at normal schools, who want to improve their communication skills at the center.
“Society today is much more aware of accepting people with disabilities. The hearing impaired today have more opportunities today than ever before,” said Alireza-Zahid.
JISH also helps students find jobs. The institute each month receives calls from businessmen wanting to hire hearing impaired young Saudi men. Thirty young men were employed at the Zahid Tractors company over the last 10 years. Reza Trade and Savola both employ former students from the institute.
The institute has also trained managers at companies on how to interact with hearing impaired people during training and how to make the environment safer for work. “They find these young men serious and hard working,” she said.