With seven months now passed since his cochlear implant was first switched onto sound, two-year-old James has been living life loud.
“James loves waking up early every morning and running full pelt around the house, laughing and screaming at the top of his lungs,” said James’s mum, Bianca.
“He also loves to play with his toy cars and trucks, and is thrilled when he hears motorbikes or anything loud go by our house.”
It was the hospital-based hearing screening that flagged to Bianca and husband, Steven that there was a potential hearing issue in their son’s right ear. A long road of further tests followed, including a grommet surgery and ultimately a cochlear implant when James was 18 months old.
“Once the grommets went in and settled, James was a totally different child, and we’ve noticed he has changed again since he received his cochlear implant,” said Bianca.
“Every day is different for James – some days he loves wearing his cochlear implant, and others take a little encouragement for him to keep it on. I think he does understand that it makes a difference for him, and particularly when we’re somewhere noisy he wants to wear it to hear our voices fully and know where we are.”
James’s family have been visiting Hear and Say since James was eight months old, including attending listening and spoken language therapy – highly specialised speech therapy – and now audiology appointments for his cochlear implant.
“Honestly, Hear and Say has changed our lives… they have helped our family with everything we need to give James the best opportunity to be him, loud and proud.”
“They have helped us with everything from James’s speech therapy to supporting us through his cochlear implant surgery. Nothing at all has been too much trouble, and we have had so much support.”