Katie McKenna graduated from our programme on the 11th November 2016.  Katie was born with a hearing loss and had bilateral hearing aids fitted when she was five weeks old.  She started Auditory Verbal therapy with us in October 2012 when she was just over a year old. The family is based in Northern Ireland, but flew to London once a month to have appointments at our London centre, until we launched the Belfast project, which provided a combination of online sessions and visits from one of our Auditory Verbal therapists.  Katie's cochlear implants were ‘switched on’ in June 2014 when she was two years and ten months.  Her final language assessment was on graduation, when she was four years and five months and it showed that Katie had a language age of a child aged six years and four months.

Katie's Auditory Verbal therapist, Louise, said:

Katie is a phenomenal listener, speaker and communicator, with a good Theory of Mind and a love for stories and books!

On the family’s request we visited a Northern Ireland based parent group, The Hearing Hub, in April 2013.  In May 2014, in collaboration of Katie's parents Abbie and Martin, we launched the Belfast Project.  Following this, we were put in touch with Dublin based parent group Our New Ears and began the Dublin Project.

Due to this family's dedication and determination, more families across the UK and Europe have been able to access our transformational Auditory Verbal therapy programme.