Author Archives: Alice's Daddy

A Little Bit of History Repeating…

June 29, 2014 By in ANSD, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, Auditory Verbal Therapy, Cochlear Implant, deafness, hearing loss Tags: , , 4 Comments

How many of you out there remember this blast from the past?

I remember the countless hours I spent wandering around the house with Alice teaching her to ask where things were…it’s all part of the ‘AV thing’. It’s so important if your child is oral to give them useful language not just vocabulary. It’s all very well Ollie learning the name for everything he sees or interacts with, but unless he has useful language around those nouns; adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and the like then the nouns don’t help him get what he wants or ask for what he needs. More importantly, they won’t help him tell his big Brother and Sister to go away when they are annoying him…

Don’t get me wrong; we have taught Ollie plenty of nouns: Our own names, those of his siblings and the names for just about every form of motorised transport there is. Ollie has a wonderful habit of stopping in the middle of the street to point out cars, buses, helicopters and planes in a manner not dissimilar to a famous Harry Enfield sketch (the one with the aliens) from the 1990s.

Anyway, Ollie is doing fantastically well. He has had a real language explosion of late and he is so enthusiastic with his new-found voice. He is certainly ahead of where Alice was at the same age which, given how well things have turned out for her, can only be a good sign.

Here we go again…

 

 

It’s Funny What It Takes…

March 28, 2014 By in ANSD, Auditory Neuropathy, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, Cochlear Implant 2 Comments

…to make people learn about hearing disability and Cochlear Implants.

In some ways, it still amazes me the number of times folk ‘share’ the latest viral video of an emotional CI switch on with me through social media. I don’t say this because they shouldn’t; I don’t say this because every one of these very personal videos is not a small miracle; I say it because 31 years after the first ‘official’ CI switch on, people are still only just recognising that CIs are here to stay; that they change lives every day and that they are part of everyday life; much like glasses to those of us with failing eyesight….

I have no interest in entering into a debate about the cultural issues surrounding hearing disability. Parents make decisions for their children every day; some big, some small. For my babies they have been life changing decisions and ones I will never regret. Nobody could ever tell me they were the wrong decisions.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here is the video of Joanne Milne – the same age as me – being ‘switched on’ for the first time. It has ‘gone viral’ simply because it shows that joyous instant of intense human emotion – one that most people will never experience or understand – when a life changes forever. Having seen two of my children go through the same thing, albeit deprived of the adult understanding that adds significance to the moment, I can share and understand every tear. I cannot watch the videos of Alice and Ollie being switched-on without crying like a baby. I am so glad Alice’s mummy had the chance to say her bit on the BBC World Service this evening about the wonder of CIs and the wonder they have brought to our family.

Every day in my house is a small miracle and we are so very thankful for the fact our children now have choices: There is nothing, now, they can’t have because of our choices. They can achieve anything they like, they can attend whichever identity they please and they, most of all, can make these decisions for themselves.

I, for one, will always thank Graeme Clark for what he has done for my family…