Finding out that our newborn son, Teddy, was deaf after his newborn hearing screening, was like being hit hard in the stomach. Neither myself nor Teddy’s Dad, Egg, had any experience of deafness, we were just in shock.

Teddy received his first hearing aids at seven weeks old and I remember Egg asking if our son would ever speak. The moment he got the first hearing aids Teddy’s face changed and lit up and we realised how important they would be for him but like everything else it was tough. It was scary putting them in, I worried I would hurt him and we always seemed to be at the hospital for appointments. It was a really scary time.

We just wanted to do the best for him but had no idea how to help him best. It was just by chance we stumbled across Auditory Verbal UK on the internet. That first phone call was kind, empathetic and reassuring, everything we needed to hear. We made an appointment for an initial session at the charity’s centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire, despite living an hour and a half away, but we had to do whatever we could to give Teddy the best chance in life.

We went to the first appointment, full of fear and anticipation but learnt more in that hour than we had on the internet for the weeks before. We learnt how powerful sounds were that Teddy made and how we needed to encourage them. Watching Teddy’s reaction to him making a noise which made a paper windmill turn around was phenomenal. From the moment of that initial phone call to this first session we knew AVUK and Auditory Verbal therapy was vital to helping Teddy achieving his potential. Not a deaf child’s potential, but Teddy’s potential.

No exaggeration, Auditory Verbal therapy was lifechanging for our family, I cannot speak more postively of how much the therapy has support Teddy to be achieve his potential. We learnt so much about deafness and how we could best help Teddy then and now. AVUK also allowed his key worker from nursery to attend a session so they could also support Teddy listen and speak. Along with the recordings of the sessions we shared with Grandparents, allowing them to  learn how best tohelp Teddy.

Teddy graduated from the Auditory Verbal therapy programme after three years with age-appropriate spoken language. He has always attended mainstream school and now aged nine is absolutely thriving. He is very bright academically, consistently achieving greater depth in all his schoolwork. He loves school and is a very keen learner. Teddy is a confident social butterfly with lots of different friends, he loves football and every sport, is fantastic at drawing and is quite funny too!

I honestly don’t like to think about what life might have been like without AVUK, Teddy would certainly not be achieving his potential at school and not be the bright, funny, energetic boy we know.

Lucy and Egg, Teddy’s parents