Diagnosed with severe hearing loss at birth, Eli began wearing hearing aids at five weeks. This allowed him to develop speech and language skills. By age six the hearing in his right ear had diminished to the extent that a cochlear implant became his best option. He received an implant in July (08) and continues to wear a hearing aid in his left ear. Eli now attends classes with both hearing impaired and normally hearing children and is making excellent progress in discriminating speech sounds with the help of his implant.

Eli’s younger brother Jack has a bilateral, profound hearing loss and was fitted with hearing aids within weeks of birth. More seriously impaired than Eli, it was clear quite early that Jack would not derive sufficient benefit from hearing aids long term. He received his first cochlear implant in his right ear shortly after his first birthday and the second in his left ear seven months later. Now five years old, Jack understands speech without visual cues and receives auditory verbal therapy to help develop spoken language skills.