MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall today welcomed the news that, if re-elected, the NSW Government will provide an additional $250,000 for essential early intervention services for deaf children in NSW.
Mr Marshall said the funding was to provide further services for more children who need early intervention through The Shepherd Centre.
“I’m proud to announce that the NSW Government will ensure that more children with hearing loss can receive critical services which help them go on to achieve outstanding language and speech outcomes,” Mr Marshall said.
“Statistics show that the majority of The Shepherd Centre’s graduates go on to have speech and language the same as or, in many cases, better than their normal hearing peers.
“I’m a huge supporter of The Shepherd Centre, and I’m thrilled to hear a commitment to their ground-breaking early intervention program,” he said.
Mr Marshall said the highly successful Shepherd Centre program had received an increase of 10 per cent in the number of children requiring its services in the past year from across the state.
The Shepherd Centre’s CEO, Mr Jim Hungerford said intervention immediately upon diagnosis is crucial in achieving best outcomes for children with hearing impairment.
“We welcome this commitment from the government which will enable us to support more children with our world-leading program,” he said.