Three year-old Ava is now a chatterbox thanks to cochlear implant
Ava Pearson was nine months old when she became one of the youngest people in Britain to have cochlear implants.
Now aged three, she has language skills months ahead of other children her age and is doing well at nursery school.
Her mother, Lauren, from London, said: 'It was amazing to see her reacting to noise. I was so excited and felt such a sense of relief. Her hearing is improving every day and she has become such a chatterbox.'
Mrs Pearson, a book publisher, and her husband Chris, a finance manager, first realised Ava was deaf when she didn’t react to routine hearing tests when she was three weeks old.
After researching treatments on the internet, the Pearsons decided cochlear implants might give their daughter the chance of a normal life.
One week after the operation, she started dancing to music and four weeks later she said her first word, “mama”.
Mrs Pearson said: 'When she started babbling it was amazing - before that she only made guttural noises.'
Doctors at the Portland Hospital in the West End carried out the treatment and also put Ava through a course of speech therapy.
Speech therapist Natalie Opitz, who works at the private hospital, said: 'Ava is the youngest baby I have seen have the operation in this country. This is a remarkable case.'
Read our earlier story about Ava, here.
Source: Mail Online.
Comments
This sounds like a happy ending story! Great discovery for others!
Posted by: anadrol | April 12, 2010 07:00 PM
It's great what technology can do. And this is another story how it can change someone. Lovely. There's nothing stopping her now.
Posted by: Liz | April 16, 2010 10:17 PM
This is wonderful! I spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about hearing aids and the fact that insurance does not help with them. This, however, is the real story! To see technology helping a child is simply wonderful. Thank you for posting!
Posted by: Paul Uhlir | April 17, 2010 06:14 AM