China Daily
2nd January 2023
Teacher overcomes hardship to help deaf-mute children speak
By Liu Kun/Zhu Lixin
Over the past 13 years, 31-year-old Li Hongjia from Wuhan, Hubei province has helped nearly 500 deaf-mute children return to ordinary schools.
A teacher at the Little Sunflower Rehabilitation Center in Wuhan, Li has gained experience and developed her own techniques for training the children to speak.
For example, when teaching a child to pronounce "tu", which means rabbit, she puts a paper in front of the child's mouth. She said it's a great joy to see the paper moving from the child's breath.
"It gives me happiness to hear the children speaking, especially when they say 'mom' or 'dad' for the first time," Li said. "Sometimes, that first 'mom' make me feel like I was the mother."
Li, who was born in Jingmen of Hubei, entered Hubei University in Wuhan at age 18, majoring in architecture.
"My parents wanted me to follow their path to find a job in the architecture industry, but volunteer service experience changed my mind," she said.
As a freshman, she went to the Little Sunflower Rehabilitation Center as a volunteer and started working with deaf-mute children.