Gillian & Teddy's Story

When Teddy was born we landed in the NICU for feeding challenges where he did not "pass" his newborn hearing screen. At the time, I felt incredibly gaslit, as he would kick to the rhythm of music in utero and already was responding to voice and sound as a newborn. We chalked it up to likely being a fluke and began to navigate life as first time parents to a disabled baby.

Eventually we had our follow up ABR testing and after two rounds we learned that Teddy has sloping hearing loss to varying degrees in both ears. We began to understand about the spectrum of hearing loss at varying pitches and decibel levels, hearing does not always equal understanding. Teddy received hearing aids and we watched him respond to new sounds like the dog whining and rattles. We began learning ASL and enrolled in FSLP classes with our extended families. We joined a DHH playgroup at TLC and began building an amazing community of friends who truly understand our journey as parents to a DHH medically complex kiddo.

Fast forward a little more than two years and Teddy's receptive speech was strong, but due to his physical disabilities, designation as deafblind, and expressive language "delays" we began to pursue AAC. After less than 3 days of having an AAC, Teddy began to make requests independently for music or toys. He navigated his talker with impressive ease and memorization. Two months later we noticed him verbally repeating words or sentences from his AAC and using ASL to sign simultaneously. The biggest surprise was him signing "grass" as that is not a word we commonly signed at home - it was clear he had been absorbing language and it was finally pouring out of him.

After less than a year with his talker, Teddy's rapid progress in expressive speech meant that he was barely utilizing his AAC for functional communication. At 3.5 years old, he speaks in full sentences, sings songs, and tells jokes. He enjoys showing off his ASL vocab and will use ASL to clarify his speech if he isn't understood. He is greatly enjoying mainstream preschool in a newly-created integrated full-day program through our district.

We continue to honor Teddy's communication in whatever form he chooses and plan to support his ASL development so that he will always have options communication in the future. He is spunky toddler who bosses us around in multiple languages/modalities and we know he is destined to change the world around him for the better.

Gillian M.