Matthew's Story

 Debbie Hofmeister, Regional Advisor

 I found out that my son had a hearing impairment when he was about 18 months old. I had suspected that he could not hear for a while but I could not get his doctors to believe me. I think they thought I was a paranoid mother looking for problems. They probably thought that there was no way that two parents who taught people who are visually impaired could have a son that was hearing impaired.

I still remember the audiologist telling us that Matthew has a profound hearing loss. I was shocked. I figured it was a "little" hearing loss that hearing aids would fix and he would be fine. I don't remember a lot of what she told us that day but I do remember words like sign language and cochlear implant. The next statement that ran across my mind was "I don't know sign language and what in the world was a cochlear implant ?" This was not supposed to happen.

Matthew started speech therapy and he tried several types of hearing aids. Matthew did not get much benefit at all from the hearing aids but was picking up sign language very quickly. Our speech teacher and Ga.PINES parent advisor taught us some basic sign language and we could finally communicate with our son. It was hard though because Matthew had so much to say but not enough language to express it. He got frustrated a lot and so did we.

It was at this point we learned about all the controversy among the professionals who work with children who have hearing impairments. It was extremely overwhelming to hear so many conflicting opinions. We thing like " A cochlear implant is the way your son will be successful."  " Matthew will think that you could not accept him being deaf if you get a cochlear implant."  " He needs American Sign Language-the language of the Deaf." "No, he needs Signed English if you want him to be successful in school." " If you want your son to be successful with a cochlear implant, you have to stop signing".

We thought about what would be best for Matthew. He got his cochlear implant when he was two and a half years old. We decided to use total communication. We wanted to give Matthew every opportunity to communicate that is available. Although we were told that children with cochlear implants do better and learn to speak without sign language, we did not think that this was best for Matthew to take away his only means of communication. Instead, we continued to sign and speak. Matthew learned to put the spoken words to sign that he already knew. He simultaneously signed and spoke as his oral vocabulary increased.

Matthew is now four years old and talks constantly. He wants to know about and talk about everything that happens in his world. He has gradually faded out using sign language as he has become a more confident speaker. We still use sign language when the implant is off (swimming, bath time, etc). We work hard every day, reinforcing concepts and vocabulary. Matthew attends a speech class four days a week which has been extremely beneficial. He will participate in a preschool class at a local church in the fall.

I think of Matthew as a child who is deaf who is extremely fortunate to benefit from a cochlear implant. But he is much more than that. He is the most enthusiastic person I know. He loves everything about life and everyone in it. He sees every activity ( grocery store trip, making dinner, cleaning the houlse) as an opportunity to learn and try new things. I learned so much from him in four years. It is a pleasure to be Matthew's mom.