My son is severe-profoundly deaf and wears hearing aids in both ears. He attended The Elizabeth Foundation pre-school in Portsmouth once a week while he was a baby, toddler and pre-schooler. He is now in a mainstream school that has a Hearing Impaired Specialist Centre attached. He absolutely loves being at school with other deaf children, but equally immersed in a class with all of his hearing friends too.
I have been on the committee since April 2012 and love working with the younger children and babies, especially arranging soft play events and events where the children can play while the adults chat! Seeing all ages together at our larger events is one of my favourite things about SDCS.
As a family (both my husband and I are hearing) we always felt the kids should if possible, have both deaf and hearing friends and also wanted them to have deaf role models to look up to, so from pretty early on we joined ‘SDCS’. From that first family signing course we basically haven’t looked back!
We’ve all met life-long friends along the way and have stacks of happy memories from different events over the years. Having the support of friends with deaf children has been invaluable – for advice and support from friends who know exactly what you’re going through, without having to explain yourself is so refreshing (during tough times It’s been a life-line!)
Surrey Deaf has had such a positive effect on our family, I’m passionate about helping other families along the way like we were – I’m very proud to say I’m part of the SDCS committee – we’re a lovely bunch of mums dedicated to keeping children at the centre of everything we do.
Despite being under Audiology we battled for two and half years and eventually got referred to St Georges’ Audiology where our son was finally diagnosed with a profound hearing loss in both ears with ANSD (Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder). The ANSD was a significant factor in making his diagnosis difficult. He went straight into the cochlear implant assessment programme at St George’s hospital and a year later was successfully bi-laterally cochlear implanted.
As a result of this significant delay, we chose to follow an auditory aural approach, which would focus him on speaking and listening to the very best of his capabilities, bearing in mind such a significant delay. Auditory Verbal UK, gave us the education, support, opportunity and above all encouragement to begin our journey.
Today our son is doing well and has made huge progress helped along by his twin brother who has been a significant influence and occasionally allows him to get a word in edge ways. On reflection we have had many challenges and positive opportunities. I am privileged to be an SDCS committee member and feel fortunate as a fellow parent to have met so many families, who I have learnt from and been inspired by to get involved.
Rebecca crossed boroughs to attend a mainstream junior school with a hearing impairment unit in Surrey. She now boards weekly at Mary Hare School.
Rebecca is now fully oral as a result of intensive auditory verbal therapy as a toddler with AVUK, and then Nuffield’s Speech Program at RNTNE during holidays, which collaborated with 5 sessions a week of SALT at primary school, and has ongoing SALT at Mary Hare.
In the last 13 years, we have made life-long friends, had lots of fun, attended loads of fantastic and memorable events, received tremendous support from sharing invaluable information and experience about the local education and NHS provisions, especially in every academic key stage change.
Friends come and go, particularly true with school changes, but Rebecca’s childhood friends from SDCS stay. There is a special bond and identity among these teenagers.
We are ever grateful for the support from SDCS. Why not contact us and come along to one of our events?
Teddy was diagnosed at 5 weeks old and had his first hearing aids at 8 weeks old. We had no history of deafness in the family, nor experience with friends so this was a whole new world for us. We luckily heard about Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) and Teddy started fortnightly classes at 12 weeks old. AVUK were a lifeline to us in teaching Teddy to listen and hear and in turn teaching us how we could help him on his hearing journey. Teddy attends a mainstream school with a deaf unit and is thriving with his hearing and deaf peers.
Joining SDCS has been a hugely positive experience for us, talking to other families in similar situations and giving Teddy the chance to have deaf friends. I joined the committee, as I wanted to help organize events that could bring people together and help others as much as they’ve helped us.