How Kim Fought for Her Son’s Diagnosis and Helped Him Hear for the First Time

Afterwards. It’s always easy to talk afterwards. If Kim had it to do over again, she would have immediately consulted an ENT specialist. Or at least: the GP. And then she wouldn’t have let the clinic send her away three times.

Kim’s son, Noah, often screamed very loudly, louder than other children his age. He sometimes did not respond to what others said, slept through everything, even if the neighbor downstairs made a lot of noise, had a speech delay, could not be understood well, made a lot of sounds and was very good at isolating himself, being in his own world.

Discover the world

“I always thought: maybe there was something wrong with his hearing. He was a fast crawler, could stand up early, and I now think: yes, he taught himself that because he could discover the world that way. With his ears he got nothing.”

“It’ll be fine,” they said at the clinic, “he’s just a bit slower than others.” “They did three neonatal screenings, the first two tests showed his hearing was poor, but the third showed there was nothing wrong, so I wasn’t referred, ‘because the last test was positive.’ I didn’t believe that last test, hearing loss also runs in my family. I really had to fight to get the right diagnosis for Noah. I am a single mother by choice. Even though I have many people around me, I don’t have a partner with whom I can spar. Ventilate. I missed that last year.”

Cupboard, wall, cupboard, wall, ENT doctor and then Kim ended up with Noah at an audiological center in Breda, specialized in children with hearing problems. “Those tests there showed that he had 90 percent hearing loss on one side and 80 percent on the other. That was an emotional moment. There was also relief: you see. I was not crazy. Noah was not lazy, as some people sometimes thought. He is not a ‘late talker’. My child simply barely heard anything for the first 2.5 years of his life.”

At the same time, there was that nagging parental guilt. Shouldn’t I have sounded the alarm earlier? Haven’t I sometimes thought: just listen to mommy! “It could have been done faster, but now the important thing is that Noah is doing well and that we can take steps.”

Big eyes

Noah now has tubes because he had fluid behind his eardrums. This intervention has already made his hearing a lot better. And he has a hearing aid. “There are those videos that go viral, in which you can see that a deaf child suddenly hears things for the first time, and is very happy, or has to cry with joy. The doctor had said beforehand: ‘That rarely happens, A child often finds it scary: everything hits us hard, a bit like when we hear a loud bang.”

The doctor was right. Noah was shocked by everything: a passing car, a closing door. He stood there looking at it with wide eyes.

But now: especially wide eyes of amazement. “Ohhhh Mama! Listen!” And then – from quite a distance away – a fire truck sounds. “So beautiful to see how he is now discovering everything and catching up.”

Meanwhile, Kim is taking a sign language course so she can support her words with her hands, and Noah is going to speech therapy. “It’s new for all of us.” At first Noah found it annoying to have something in his ear, but now he increasingly finds it annoying to take off the device before going to sleep. “A good sign,” says Kim. “He’s getting used to it.”

Never doubt

Now society. Because, Kim says: “Hard hearing is less accepted and seen more as a handicap than poor vision – while it is actually the same kind of sense that does not work well. But there is something hip about glasses. I hope Noah, and all those other children who cannot hear very well, come to see their hearing aid as a strength. As something that allows them to experience and hear things that they would otherwise have to miss.”

That is also one of the reasons she tells her story. And also: never doubt yourself, as a parent. “That’s what I also learned last year. By listening to my intuition, ultimately, my son can now hear dogs barking and birds chirping. And he loves it.”

2023-12-27 06:01:22


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