Prepped and ready to go

It’s been a year like never before, but prep student, Atticus has taken it all in his stride.

For his parents, Karyn and Hamish, it was a justly proud moment when they first walked their son through the school gates. Karyn shares her family’s story from their home in regional Queensland, and the journey they have been on to reach this emotion-filled milestone.

“Atticus was born with severe hearing loss in his left ear, and over time his hearing deteriorated until he eventually had profound hearing loss in both ears. When Atticus was seven months old, we came to Hear and Say. In the beginning he wore hearing aids and then at age two he received cochlear implants.

Our weekly speech therapy via telepractice not only taught Atticus to learn to listen and speak, but also taught us as parents how to best support our son and work on his speech and language skills at home. The bond Atticus has with his listening and spoken language specialist is very special and Anna will always be a treasured friend. I don’t know how we would have coped facing all those challenges without her and the support of Hear and Say.

This year Atticus started prep as a five-year-old and we couldn’t be prouder of him. He has made friendships, loves his teachers and is happy and excited to go off to school every morning.

According to his first report card, Atticus is demonstrating the ability to work above the standard expected for his cohort, in both Maths and English. His strengths include being able to independently write unfamiliar words phonetically and his solid sight-word vocabulary. His hearing loss hasn’t affected his ability to learn alongside his peers.

I remember our initial goals for Atticus when he was a baby were for him to be able to listen and speak like every other child, attend a school with his hearing peers, succeed in his learning, to be accepted and have friendships just like his older siblings. Atticus has achieved those goals because of the early intervention Hear and Say provided.

We are excited for his future and know he will accomplish great things.”