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Born prematurely, Joey and his twin brother, Tony, were labeled as "high risk" for a hearing loss. Mandated testing led to Joey's diagnosis of a severe-profound hearing loss by the age of four months. Joey was aided at five months and we immersed ourselves in the search for the best way to teach our baby son language.

After visiting area schools with oral and total communication (TC) programs for kids who are hearing impaired, we decided to begin TC with Joey to provide him with the most options for language development. At the same time, we read all the literature we could find. One book, Learning to Listen, stood out from the rest as it presented promise of typical language development -- even for a child with a profound hearing loss. A complicated search for my own copy of this book eventually led me to speak to the author, Louise Crawford, who encouraged me to pursue the Auditory-Verbal approach with Joey. A follow-up phone call with Dr. Carol Flexer of the University of Akron filled me with the hope I needed to believe that Joey could learn to listen and speak. Among the encouraging words that I clung to that day, Dr. Flexer told me that "Joey can hear you through his hearing aids--you must believe that!" and "The only limitations that Joey has are the expectations placed on him." Now, sixteen years later, I still find inspiration in those words and I know that they are indeed true.

Formal Auditory-Verbal sessions began for Joey when he was six months old. We met with a professional Auditory-Verbal therapist twice per week and had an hour lesson at home (with Tony) on the other days. At first, lessons consisted of many repetitions of common early words (i.e., up, down, dog, cat, open, close). In just a few months, we began to see some understanding--Joey recognized his name and became excited when we referred to his favorite toy. We knew that the groundwork that we had hoped for was being laid; Joey's language skills were, in fact, developing age-appropriately.

Joey attended our local parochial school for grades K – 8 and is currently a sophomore at St. Ignatius High School, an all-boys Jesuit preparatory school.  He has been mainstreamed throughout his education, and his teachers have all supported his request to use his FM transmitter.  Joey’s performance in school has always been excellent, but it is his extracurricular activities that receive his extra energy.  He runs cross country and track and enjoys the company of his teammates as well as his many accomplishments.  In the winter, he loves to snowboard.  He is also very social, a trait that I believe was enhanced by his constant companions--his brother, Tony, and his sister, Gina (one year younger).  In fact, the primary directive that Joey receives now is to stop chatting with friends or listening to music while he works on homework, a problem we only wished for 16 years ago. 

Joey received Auditory-Verbal Therapy at least monthly until he was about 12 years old.  The last 6 years of that therapy was administered by Dr. Don Goldberg, Ph.D., CCC-SLP/A, FAAA.  In the later therapy sessions, the focus was on more difficult listening tasks (e.g., listening in noise, telephone), tougher speech sounds, and, as always, concepts and vocabulary.  Through all of the years of therapy, Joey always jumped in the car to head to Don’s.  He still looks forward to seeing Don annually for a round of listening exercises and just to chat.

Thanks to our early start, superior professional guidance, Joey's hard work, and most importantly, a lot of blessings, the possibilities for Joey are indeed limitless.