In July 2009 my son was born at Mount Elizabeth hospital in Singapore. As part of Singapore's Universal New Born Hearing Screening program he underwent the hearing screening and failed.
We were given assurances by the nursing staff that this was common especially if the baby is 'sleepy and jaundiced'. We dismissed any concerns and took our baby boy home. Those first few weeks and months were busy but we did notice that our son would startle at loud noise (i.e., when the door banged, when there was thunder) and would stop feeding to 'listen in' when I was on the telephone. All was well.
It took me four months to return to the hospital to repeat the screening test. Our son failed this hearing test a second time. Panic set in.
That day in November was the beginning of a very anxious period. Can our son possibly have a hearing loss? How can we fix it? New and foreign to Singapore, we struggled to find answers to these questions and urgent treatment for our son.
In our desperation to have our son hear, we rushed to the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Centre of New York (part of North Shore LIJ Children;s Hospital)There we learned that our son had a moderate to severe, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Within three weeks of our arrival in New York, and at five month's of age, our son began his 'full-time' wearing of hearing aids. Since that time we have dedicated ourselves to helping him listen, learn and speak.
The world is a wonderful place and wonderful people came forward to help us help our son. We are indebted to Steve and Alexandra Cohen for their assistance in this journey.
In New York we were fortunate to meet other parents raising children with 'atypical' or 'supported' hearing. We learned from them, were greatly encouraged by them and were awed by the communication skills of their children. Our experiences abroad and our need to connect locally motivated us to start a parent support group here in Singapore.
Click on this link to find out more about the Singapore MeetUp and Singapore Little Hands Big Voices at
http://www.littlehandsbigvoices.sg
With the help of a steadily growing network of dedicated parents and professionals here in Singapore, it is our hope to create a web destination containing local, relevant information for parents of children with atypical hearing here in Singapore. Singapore has excellent resources and skilled professionals that are dedicated to making a difference and helping our kids listen, learn and talk. It is our desire that this information be accessible to those who need it, when they need it most.
With the help of the many people that engaged with our son during this time, we were able to achieve an optimism that I would not have thought possible in such a short period of time. We think of you all often.