Naturally, we sought the advice of doctors, hoping against hope that our fears were unfounded, but after several confirmations we settled down to the reality that Jenny was deaf.
We turned to friends and acquaintances for advice. I sought the counsel of a member of the golf club where I played as he held a senior position in the Special Education Branch in the Education Department.
The unacceptable advice that I received fired within me a desire, a determination, to find something else – there must be other, perhaps better, ways. Was Australia behind in these matters? What about overseas? USA? England? Their doctors must be way ahead of those in Perth.
I was looking at the possibility of a medical solution. But Jenny’s deafness was more than that and I realised that with deafness comes a ‘speaking’ problem. Would she ever learn to talk? Was it possible?
Long investigation followed and our personal search for answers became a shared one. Other parents, grandparents and friends were drawn together and began to express their hopes and aspirations. They also felt there must be another way of teaching deaf children to talk.
So commences, what is today, Telethon Speech & Hearing.