Waiting On The World To Change

My niece, Alivia, was born with moderate to severe hearing impairment. Fortunately with all of the testing they do in hospitals when babies are born these days, her condition was discovered before she even came home. At six months she got her first pair of hearing aids and with them in she can hear well enough to pick up on sounds around her and, most importantly, voices.

Although she is ahead in almost all areas of development, spending the first six months of her life with very limited hearing caused Alivia to fall behind in speech development. She has picked up some sign language and now a speech therapist comes to work with her three times a week. With a lot of work, she will have full use of spoken language.

Since we found out about Alivia's condition, I have felt that God blessed us in specially preparing us to welcome a hearing impaired child into the family. My mom studied sign language in college and my parents fostered a young deaf boy when Erin and I were kids, so we all have a bit of signing background and were familiar with the special challenges that come along with having a hearing impaired family member.

What we've learned over the past 13 months, and particularly since Alivia got her hearing aids, is how many people have or know somebody with similar conditions. Most people are curious and kind, however there are those occasions when one becomes shocked by the lingering ignorance in this day and age.

This week Erin took Alivia to the doctor and had to see somebody in the practice other than her regular pediatrician. When this doctor - not a specialist, but somebody you'd think would have some knowledge of hearing impairment - was done examining Alivia, he asked Erin if she would be able to speak in the future. She told him that yes, she could hear fairly well with her aids and receives speech therapy. His response? "At least she won't be deaf and stupid."

It breaks my heart to think that my sweet, beautiful little girl will have to deal with such ignorance her whole life. This one's for Alivia:

I got the video from my mom's blog.