There is a Chinese proverb that says there is only one beautiful baby in the world, and every mother has it. I can understand why they say so.
There is something delicately beautiful about watching the interaction between a mother and her baby. The love that flows between them is tangible, and it definitively was the case with Denise and her mom, Liezl. But it wasn’t an easy road up until now.
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Liezl suspected very soon after Denise’s birth that something was wrong. She asked several people if they thought Denise could hear. Everybody tried to pacify Liezl’s fears and said that she had nothing to worry about. At times, it did look like Denise was hearing.
Once she sat on her mom’s lap and she looked up at her when she started talking. Surely this meant that she heard? Or was it something that caught her eye? Or could she feel her mom’s breath as she spoke so close to her?
There is something mysterious about a mother’s intuition. Over the years, I have learned to trust it, even if it looked a little over-anxious. A mom knows. It has nothing to do with age, intelligence or experience – every mother has a very strong sixth sense when it comes to her baby.
Devastating news
Liezl didn’t rest until she had a proper hearing test done on Denise. Luckily, technology is so advanced these days that we can get a very good idea about a baby’s hearing at the age of three days old already. Liezl went to a local audiologist, who did a few screening tests on Denise.
The results weren’t good. Denise was not responding the way a baby of her age should have. Her audiologist referred her for a proper, diagnostic test battery, which was done at the University of Pretoria. The results confirmed Liezl’s worst fears. Denise had severe hearing loss in both ears.
It was devastating news. Any mom dreams of her child leading a fulfilled life, of climbing the ladder of success. How would a hearing loss impact on those dreams? Would she have to give them up? How would it influence her role as a mom? Would the baby be able to have a normal childhood?
These are just a few of the hundreds of questions that still haunt the family.
Normal hearing for Denise
This is precisely why Widex, Liezl and her parents decided to tackle this project. There is so much that can be done about hearing loss these days that it doesn’t have to be an impairment anymore.
A child with a hearing loss CAN live a full life, just like any other kid. Especially if the hearing loss is detected at such an early age as Denise’s.
Research suggests that, if fitted with hearing aids before the age of six months, a child with hearing loss will learn to cope with sound and develop language and hearing skills exactly the same way as a normal hearing child.
This means that, by the age of six or seven, the child will most likely be able to attend a normal, mainstream school with all of his or her normal hearing friends.
Join the journey
Liezl’s family, together with Widex, would like to take you with us on this journey. You will see how the joy of sound, which we take for granted, is appreciated through the eyes of a child.
It will make you more aware of the consequences of sound and hearing in these early stages of development in a child, and how it plays a central role in all their learning experiences.
Without sound, language cannot be learned, without language, it is difficult to learn concepts. And without concepts, it is difficult to develop the skills that we would later refer to as intelligence.
We will fit Denise with hearing aids as soon as possible, and both Liezl and I will document her progress. I hope you will enjoy this journey with us!
There is a Chinese proverb that says there is only one beautiful baby in the world, and every mother has it. I can understand why they say so.
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