Cochlear Kids

Meet brother and sister team Gage and Brooklyn Blakely. Gage is now eight years old but was born deaf. He has Goldenhar Syndrome and wore hearing aids for over three years until he received his first cochlear implant. At age seven he became bilateral and will be in third grade this Fall at his mainstream public school. His sister Brook was born hearing but began her progressive hearing loss as an infant. She too wore hearing aids until she was almost three when she received her first cochlear implant and a year later became bilateral. She will be in Kindergarten this Fall at the same school her brother already attends. Both have limited support services at school. These two are very active and love being outside. Gage is all about trucks, he even makes and customizes his own toy vehicles. Although he's rarely caught sitting still having ADHD, he can sit for the longest if he just has some type of truck to work on or a big box of Legos. Brooklyn just wants to be a mom and takes very good care of her two favorite baby dolls. She can be found pushing them in grocery carts or in a baby stroller everywhere we go. She's even been spotted feeding them in a local restaurant as any good mother would do. Both used Auditory Verbal Therapy to learn to hear and speak. We are thankful to live in an area where we have access to great audiological and therapy services. We have always had a large support team to guide us through the difficult process from finding out our children were deaf to treatment for their hearing loss. We thank our doctors, therapists, family and friends for lending their much needed support over the last few years.

You can keep up with the Cochlear Kids at our family blog http://www.deafkidscanhear.blogspot.com/

Written by mom Val Blakely