When I was born, I was deaf. However, my parents did not know until 13 months later. They were struggling a lot during that time and the news of my deafness made it even worse. They did not give up. Thanks to my parents’ persistence and speaking to the right people they were able to determine the best treatment for me. This is how to have an operation, which enabled me to hear for the first time using cochlear implants. Sixteen and one half years later, I am in my final year at Bermuda Institute getting on the honour roll, becoming Head Boy, and about to graduate. I feel all of this has happened because of that cochlear implant operation.

My younger brother also has a hearing impairment, not as bad as I do but does still wear hearing aids. Even though Gabriel can hear pretty good, my parents felt it would be better to have hearing aids so that he can hear and speak clearly.

There are currently three hundred and sixty million people in the world who have hearing loss. In Bermuda, we have at least 1,000 people who are partially deaf or fully deaf. It can be a struggle having your loved one not being able to fully hear what you are saying. It can be even worse especially when parents of a newborn find out that the child is deaf and they don’t know what to do.

Thanks to the brochures currently available at Bermuda Hearing Services and various Pediatricians, parents will be able to find out information on how to deal with their child’s deafness. In this brochure you will also get to read about my family’s story. If you wish to obtain one of these brochure you can email my Mom on Suzanne@tbinet.bm.

Thanks to Lisa Cano-Roland, the Audiologist at Bermuda Hearing Services for helping my Mom put this brochure together. I do hope that my Mom’s research and resources will help another family find out what would be best for their hearing impaired child.

Information box

What Can I do?

Communication with your child is very important and will help them to develop speech and language skills. Early intervention can help to avoid behaviour, learning, reading and communication problems.

How Can I do this?

Talk naturally with your child using varied vocabulary. Talk about your activities and what you can see.

Read to your child daily. Start straight away!

Listen and respond to your child, they need to know you are listening.

If you are a bilingual household, use both languages daily.

Accept speech mistakes will be made as your child is developing.

Take yourchild to the grocery store and other errands. Talk to them about what they are seeing and hearing. Let them touch, it’s all part of learning.

Sing to your child. Let them join in. It is a great way for them to hear different tones and great fun too!