A week later we had an appointment at the hearing clinic in Milton Keynes. Elle was fitted with a little ear piece and we were sat in another room while they ran some tests. They completed this twice and I will never forget the look of the consultant as he carried it out a third time. He went off with the bit of paper that was printed out and came back a few minutes later. He then sat down and gave us the news that she was deaf and that there were different levels of deafness. Elle was at the bottom of the list, being the worst. Numb from head to toe I didn’t hear much he said after that. I just sat looking at Elle in her car seat thinking she can’t hear my voice, she will never hear me say I love you and a whole lot more. I will never ever forget that feeling. Words just cannot describe it.

The hospital gave me a NDCS leaflet and told me to go home and enjoy her. I sat when I got home and did not much else in shock. I let the family know who were all so devastated by the news.

The next day I phoned everyman and his wife for help. What do I do? Who can help? How do I communicate with Elle? And many more questions. I felt I should know the answer as I was a fully trained Nursery Nurse. Well that went out the window, I had to learn a new language and fast. Who, what, where again came to mind.

I called the health visitor and they said there was no support in place for Elle until she was two and a half. Furious with this I searched the web. I got in touch with a group called the Elizabeth Foundation. They were brilliant, they told me all about the NDCS and that they met up every two weeks with other families that had children from all ages who were deaf.

They told me all about sign language and showed me a few to use with Elle even though she was only ten weeks old by now.

The NDCS told me to ask my GP for a speech and language therapist, which I did and I’m so thankful today that I did. Though Elle was too small to learn the signs I was taught, we read books to Elle in sign. By the time Elle was five months old she could sign ‘Light off Light on’ and the sign ‘duck’. This then grew to signs such as ‘more’ and ‘milk’.

At only six months she could ask for more milk and very quickly learnt the sign for biscuit! Amazingly we could communicate with each other and started to make up our own signs, i.e. ‘nanny cat’ rather than nanny so we could distinguish between the three nannies Elle has.

Elle was fitted with hearing aids when she was six months old which she was really good at wearing. After a lot of trips to the hearing clinic it was clear that Elle was not gaining anything from the hearing aids, so we decided to go for the cochlear implant in 2003 when she was 22 months old. This proved to be the most life changing experience for Elle. The day they switched it on was amazing, to see her little face turn to the sound of my voice for the first time and she looked so surprised at where the noise came from. I remember hugging her so hard saying ‘I love you’.

Elle loved the cochlear implant and responded really well to all the tuning appointment that we had. Every day we noticed a difference and she would alert us to new sounds she was hearing – so amazing.

Christmas 2003 was the best Christmas ever for me as her mummy as she started to say ‘mummy’ and was also responding to her name when called. When you ask our family what you do remember about Christmas ‘03 they say Elle talking. How great is that!

In the spring of 2004 with a sign support worker Elle started pre-school. Elle loved every aspect of preschool. She had a go at everything and was loved by all the staff and children. This was really lovely to see as back when she was diagnosed I remember thinking ‘God, she will never be able to make friends if she can’t talk’, etc. This didn’t happen; in fact the children would tell the staff what Elle meant if she couldn’t get her meaning across. The staff were so helpful and put pictures up everywhere of different signs for Elle to see where there were words for the other children. Lots of other parents commented in a positive way that their child was learning a new language and picking up the sign. It was so lovely to see her just being a little girl enjoying life like everyone else.

Due to Elle needing a statement for the Sign support worker it was also mentioned about schools for Elle and we were asked to think about the options for her. Would she go to a normal school and have help or a school with a deaf unit….

To be continued…