JAMMU & KASHMIR : Amilitary doctor by profession, Captain (Dr) Saurabh Salunkhe, despite his demanding military schedule and official responsibilities, made it a mission to help an eight-year-old boy belonging to a poor family in a remote village of J&K’s Kathua district find his voice. Literally.
Akshay Sharma, a Class III student, was born with a cleft lip and palate. He had been unable to speak since he was born. According to his father Kulwant Sharma, a labourer, the doctors had assured them at the time that he would gain the ability to speak as time passed. But much to the concern of his family, that did not happen. Akshay’s condition remained a cause for concern for his family and loved ones. The boy’s parents—unable to afford his treatment—had lost all hope of hearing their son’s voice.
But as fate may have it, in mid-June, an Army medical camp was arranged for locals in the Duggan village. That is how Akshay, who was taken to the camp for a check-up, met Capt Saurabh. The young Army doctor, there to attend to the patients and prescribe medicines to them, was deeply moved by the plight of Akshay’s family.
“He had a cleft lip and palate, a developmental anomaly which was operated on when he was three and a half years old at the Pathankot Civil Hospital, which repaired the anatomical defect but not the physiological defect,” Capt Saurabh recalled.
So, what did he do? He carried out a detailed medical examination of the boy to identify the underlying cause of his inability to speak and find and explore possible treatment options.
“After a detailed medical examination of the boy, I found that his condition was reversible and he could speak with proper speech therapy,” he said. But there lay a challenge. Akshay had never uttered a word, making it hard to teach him how to produce a specific sound or which oral cavity part is required to produce that sound.
And in the remote Duggan area of Kathua, specialised facilities like speech therapy clinics were few and far between. Besides, there was no access to trained professionals.
Taking a serious view of it, Capt Saurabh took it upon himself to help Akshay speak. He decided to study and learn speech therapy techniques so he could help the boy. “I was orientated towards speech therapy during internship, but I didn’t practise or study it,” Capt Saurabh said. But that did not deter him.
He researched speech therapy methods on YouTube and other social media platforms to equip himself with the skills needed to help Akshay take his first steps toward finding his voice and bring him out of a “world of total silence”.
After studying speech therapy techniques, he started spending three hours every day teaching Akshay how to speak. “I started with the absolute basics. Initially, we practised simple gargling exercises to stimulate his vocal tract and build oral awareness.
From there, we moved on to controlled tongue and jaw movements,” he explained, adding, “In the first week, I made Akshay use his tongue and jaw palate properly. In the second week, I made him gargle daily and shout from the throat. In the third week, I made him speak labial sounds, and in the fourth week, palatal sounds. In the fifth week, I made him learn the alphabets, and we kept progressing like that.”
Every sound, word and sentence uttered by Akshay was a moment of triumph for them. As time passed, Akshay found his voice, thanks to Capt Saurabh’s efforts. Within eight weeks, the boy—who earlier couldn’t utter a word—started speaking with growing confidence. “As his family and friends talk to Akshay, he will keep improving,” Capt Saurabh signed off.