Ms Shefali Shah
Diploma in the Education of the Deaf (India)
M Ed Smith College, Mass (USA)
Special Educator and Director, MAITRI (till 2002) Special Educator and Director, NAAD (from 2002) M.E.D. LSLS Cert AVT^®

Mrs. Shah is particularly interested in the development of children below five years. She took additional courses in Infant Development during her Masters programme in the USA. After returning to India in 1986, she worked exclusively with pre-school children at The Central School for the Deaf, Mumbai.

In 2002 she set up Naad, an early intervention centre for hearing impaired infants and babies. She is currently Director of the programme and is actively involved in teaching the children who come to Naad.

Shefali is invited to present papers and to chair sessions on Pre-school Education for Deaf children by several professional organizations, including the Ali Yavar Jung Institute for the Hearing-Impaired, MUMBAI.

Mrs. Shah is involved with evaluating in-coming infants in coordination with the Audiologist and Counselor for eligibility into Naad’s programme. She then begins Auditory-Verbal Therapy on an individual basis in English and Marathi along with active parent participation and on-going guidance. She formulates an age-appropriate individualized curriculum for children under 3 years of age.

Mrs. Shah also conducts teacher training workshops for teachers of the deaf with special emphasis on early intervention. She also has regular workshops for parents of the children at Naad. These cover a wide variety of topics ranging from Talking to your Child to Parenting to Reading to your Child etc.

Mrs. Shah is invited to address seminars and conferences on early intervention and habilitation for the deaf in Mumbai and other parts of the country.

In November 2009, Shefali received her LSLS Cert AVT^® certification. She was mentored in this process by Mr Warren Estabrooks, the world’s foremost Auditory Verbal Therapist.

Ms Geeti Char
Diploma in the Education of the Deaf (India)
M.S., East Tennessee State University (USA)
Audiologist

Mrs. Char has the unusual qualification of being both an audiologist and teacher of the deaf, thereby integrating her knowledge of acoustics with the practice of classroom teaching. Her post-graduate work in the USA involved clinical experience with infants and pre-school children.

Mrs. Char has been an audiologist at Naad since its inception. She specializes in pediatric audiology working with both hearing aided and cochlear implanted children and their families. She has been instrumental in developing a booklet for guiding and informing parents and families about the implant procedure. This booklet is being used by various cochlear implant centres in India.

Mrs. Char is regularly invited to present at conferences and supervises trainees of Nair Hospital who come to Naad as part of their graduate programme.

In addition, she regularly participates in continuing education programmes.

Malashri Patel
Diploma in Education of the Physically Handicapped (University of Bombay)
Diploma in the Education of the Deaf (India)
Assistant Special Educator, MAITRI (till 2002) Administrator and Program Coordinator, NAAD (from 2002)

Malashri did her initial training in the education of the physically handicapped from the Spastic Society of India. After which she taught at the school run by the Society.

In 1985 she started her training in the Education of the Deaf at The Central Institute for Teachers of the Deaf (CITD), Mumbai. She has been at Naad since its inception. She has recently taken over as programme coordinator for I Hear Foundation’s various projects and programmes — teacher training workshops, infant hearing screening etc.