<r>Hi. It is fantastic that you have been able to pick up that your son has a hearing problem so early. We were sure our son could not hear when he was 9 months old. He was only diagnosed profoundly deaf when he was 14 months old. He was not given a hearing test at birth.<br/>
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Our son received the cochlear implant when he was 3 and a half years old. He was the 10th child to receive the implant in Cape Town in 1992. <br/>
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We started a speech program (no signing), where he learnt all of his lip reading skills, from when he was 18 months old until he had the implant at 3 and a half.<br/>
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He is now 22 years old and can hold a normal conversation on a phone.<br/>
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If I could give you some advice, I would recommend that you always give eye contact when talking to your son. Never use the word it - always name everything. Talk in short sentences and encourage his lip reading skills, in case he ever has a problem with the implant.<br/>
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Our son once went 2 weeks without his equipment and relied on his lip reading skills.<br/>
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Your son will most probably develop normal speech as his hearing loss was detected so early which is fantastic. <br/>
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It is the little thing that we did every day that has enabled our son to achieve so much. <br/>
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We have all of his diaries and videos to look back on, which has enabled us to see what we did to help him and we’re currently publishing the entries 21 years on after they happened (starts Feb 26th 2011). <br/>
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I’m really excited, and want to share our journey with as many people as possible. His diary is on my blog<br/>
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Please feel free to contact me. I would love to know how things are going on for you.<br/>
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Wishing you all the best.<br/>
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Sue [/FONT][FONT=&quot]<E>
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