Diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 13 days old Oscar received his cochlear implants at 10 months old.

The youngest of three children, his parents Hugo and Nicola – who are both hearing - knew they wanted their son to have all the opportunities his older sisters had and to have full access to speech and sound.

It was by word of mouth, through a family friend, they heard about Auditory Verbal therapy and joined the Auditory Verbal UK family programme during the lockdown periods of the Covid pandemic.

Hugo explained: “Cochlear implants are an absolutely amazing technology but without additional support like Auditory Verbal therapy it is like being given the car without any driving lessons.

“You always want to give your children every possible option to achieve the very best they can and for Oscar we knew that supporting him to learn to listen and speak was the right thing for him and for us as a family.”

The family’s Auditory Verbal therapy sessions were initially carried out via telepractice, online due to lockdown, supporting Oscar while focussing on parent coaching which is central to the family-centred programme.

Once face-to-face sessions were allowed again, Oscar’s family chose to visit AVUK’s London centre and his listening and language skills continued to develop.

Nicola explained: “The key to Auditory Verbal therapy is that it gives you the tools to help your own child. The sessions are fantastic but essentially it was us as a family continuing to support Oscar through our everyday lives and his daily activities.

“Oscar graduated from the Auditory Verbal therapy programme aged four with age-appropriate spoken language and he is continuing to flourish at mainstream primary school with an obsession for technology.

 “For us Auditory Verbal therapy changed everything. We went from a very negative view of what Oscar’s future could be soon after diagnosis to where we are now. Oscar is extremely articulate and chatty and doing brilliantly at school.

“But we only came across the family programme because of friends. This is not acceptable. All families with deaf babies and children should be given information about the different forms of support available for their child after diagnosis. It should not simply be down to who you know, or finding out by chance.”

Hugo and Nicola – Oscar’s parents