Marisa Vermeulen, who teaches sign language as a home language for grades 1 and 4, told OFM News that attaining an overall third position in the Excellence in Special Needs and Inclusive Teaching category is, by far, the most memorable moment that she will forever cherish. She says her involvement in the project was inspired by an emotional transition she went through after she discovered that her two children, 22-year-old Johan and 21-year-old Monique, were also deaf. 

Vermeulen further adds that when Johan was only nine months old they noticed that there was a difference in some of the sounds he reacted to, but they could only confirm it, when he was two years old, with a brain stem test done by an audiologist. She adds that with Monique they got a test when she was eight months old and it was confirmed that she was 80% deaf at that time.

Vermeulen also adds , as a mother, she could not bear the thought that her own children would have to deal with communication issues. Instead, she got involved with other parents who formed a group with the intention to help pupils with the disability. Vermeulen says this inspired her to achieve more, and this, in turn, won her the award. 

“I wanted my children to know that they were loved despite the fact that they were deaf and I wanted to tell it to them myself every day,” she concluded.

OFM News