Children, parents, and professionals in partnership |
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Family Stories: Poppy's Story
Poppy was diagnosed as having a moderate to severe hearing loss in her left ear and profound loss in her right ear at three years of age. Being able to hear the higher frequencies better than the lower she managed to mask her hearing loss very well. She could hum the tunes to nursery rhymes perfectly from an early age, but with no words. We found this puzzling and mentioned it to various health professionals but to no avail. It was Poppy's lack of understanding that really fuelled our concerns. It took a whole year of inconclusive hearing tests until finally a brain stem test under general anaesthetic confirmed our suspicions. At the same time of feeling relief as we finally had an answer to our concerns, we also felt a sense of loss and pain, realising the enormous struggle Poppy would have ahead. We met Jacqueline at The Royal Berks Hospital (Reading) where she was the Early Language Adviser. When she left to work as an independent Auditory Verbal Therapist we continued to see her weekly in Oxford. We have now been seeing Jacqueline on a regular basis for over two years. Poppy's first hurdle was to learn to listen. She is fiercely independent. If she wanted a drink she would get it herself. She would never ask for anything, it was easier and quicker for her to do it, as she did not have the appropriate language.
Poppy loves her sessions with Jacqueline and sees them as great fun. These sessions involve the use of play, ordinary daily routines and song to encourage Poppy's listening and communication skills. This continues after the session where we get our “homework”. Jacqueline always anticipates the next stage of Poppy's language development so we are always moving forward with achievable targets. We are so pleased with Poppy's progress, her language is still not yet age appropriate, but we are getting there! She has recently started in the reception class of a mainstream primary school, which has a hearing-impaired unit attached to it. She is fully integrated into the mainstream setting, but also has full support from the unit and the expertise of all the teaching staff. She is communicating well with her peers, has made friends and at the time of writing is keeping up well with the rest of the class. Fran and Andy
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We are lucky to have four daughters Eliza (9), Bella (7), Poppy (5) and Tilly (19 months).
Through Jacqueline's support and guidance we are working hard to help Poppy learn to attend to what is being said, process it and respond accordingly. Poppy needs to continue developing her listening skills as the route to acquiring understanding and use of spoken language.