Adventures Await Baby Shreyas

Shreyas may have only just celebrated his first birthday, but he has already earned himself the title of “Adventurer”.

The bright-eyed little boy recently learnt to crawl, and his family has delighted in watching Shreyas using his newfound freedom to explore his surrounds – including picking up whatever toys he can lay his hands on.

Shreyas and his twin sister, Shananya were the second and third children for parents, Kanika and Kalesh. Through the universal newborn hearing screening at hospital, it was discovered that Shreyas had a mild hearing loss in both ears; he would soon go on to be fitted for hearing aids.

“We were told about Hear and Say at the initial hospital appointments, after Shreyas’ diagnosis was confirmed,” Kanika recalled.

“My husband had a colleague whose daughter had attended Hear and Say, which led us to look into the organisation more intensely and ultimately have Shreyas enrolled when he was four months old.”

Shreyas now attends fortnightly listening and spoken language therapy sessions through Hear and Say’s Early Intervention program, during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The ongoing amount of love and encouragement we have received from our Listening and Spoken Language Specialist, Katie, goes beyond words,” said Kanika.

“Through our sessions we get introduced to new techniques to try with Shreyas regarding his hearing, such as lots of singing and reading to expose Shreyas to language in a fun and engaging way. This helps him keep up-to-speed with his milestones and ensures that things are picked up very quickly if anything seems out of place.

Despite being of a medical background, finding out that Shreyas has a hearing impairment left us with uncertainty and emotional angst. We now have the peace of mind that Shreyas is being monitored closely for his hearing and development, and hopefully one day Shreyas will look back and be thankful for all this support.

We do not have that constant worry, questioning if he has heard a sound or if he’s understanding something or missing out on conversations. With assistance from Hear and Say, we can know that we have done the best we could to give Shreyas every opportunity to reach his full potential.”