Two Sisters with Progressive Hearing Loss Enjoy the Gift of Hearing Again 

9/24/2024

Read the full story by mother, Jessica Salzberg, about her two children being born with progressive hearing loss and how cochlear implants helped them to hear again. She says, "It has been the biggest honor and blessing to watch our little girls become who they are today, and we are forever thankful for this life changing technology and the medical experts who have taken care of our family. We know that this is only the beginning for Leah and Sophie, and that together they will change the world." 

This story was published in our e-magazine, Calling, September 2024 edition. 

A Deaf Child from China to the Voice of Apple TV’s El Deafo: The Power of Families

8/23/2022

2022 was special for our family in a few ways.  It marked the ten-year anniversary of my daughter Lexi receiving her cochlear implants. By today’s standards, she is considered a late-implantee, receiving her first cochlear implant at 27 months of age, and her second implant a month after her third birthday.  My hope is that by sharing her story it gives hope to other families, especially those that feel they might be getting off to a late start. 

Rosie Finigan is a parent member of ACI Alliance and serves on the CI CAN network. Her family is a model for parent ingenuity, resourcefulness, and the power of the human spirit when we allow a child to learn and excel in ways that best meet their unique needs.

Click here to read her families story.

EI DEAFO PREMIERS ON APPLE TV+ WITH CI RECIPIENT LEXI FINIGAN AS THE VOICE OF THE LEAD CHARACTER

4/16/2022

El Deafo is a new animated series streaming on Apple TV+ about a young girl who loses her hearing and learns to embrace how that makes her special. El Deafo is based the 2014 best-selling graphic novel authored by Cece Bell about her own childhood hearing loss caused by meningitis. In the animated series, the main character is voiced by 12-year-old Lexi Finigan, a 7th grader from South Florida who loves math, golf, cooking and listening to Taylor Swift through the Bluetooth on her cochlear implants. Lexi graciously answered ACI Alliance’s questions about her experience with the show and her experience as a cochlear implant recipient voicing Cece.

Click here to read the interview.

Ashleigh Grubb’s middle daughter is the only child in their family with hearing loss. She received her cochlear implant when she was 15 months old and has been in mainstream classes since kindergarten, excelling at both academics and sports. Despite that, she has struggled at points with being “different” than the rest of her family. Her cochlear implants helped her hear like her peers, but like many children and young adolescents, she also experienced ups and downs with self-acceptance. Her self-portrait represents a turning point in her hearing journey. By choosing to highlight her cochlear implants in her self-portrait, she is demonstrating that not only is she the recipient of the gift of hearing, but she is ready to celebrate and highlight how her cochlear implants make her different as well.

A Child that had been exposed to cmv and then was deafened

A Cochlear Implant for Zayd’s Unilateral Hearing Loss

Before his second birthday, Zayd’s mother, Saba Ashfaq of West Virginia, realized that her son was not responding to her voice as he had in the past. Knowing that he experienced a head injury at 19 months, she knew there was the potential for hearing loss. It took over a year to confirm that her son now had profound deafness in his right ear. Thus began an eight month journey to the surgery and the challenge of obtaining Medicaid coverage for Zayd’s unilateral hearing loss.

Read Zayd's complete story here

EARLY DETECTION OF HEARING LOSS

Jake Noyd knows his cochlear implants give him super power—the power to hear! The six-year-old kindergartner is “on fire” thanks to the support of his family and an intensive early education program. Identified with a profound hearing loss at birth, Jake's family wasted no time in pursuing cochlear implants and enrolling in a spoken language education program.

Jake Noyd's Portrait

Early Intervention Success Story

Early identification and intervention for kids with hearing loss can make a huge impact in helping a child reach their full speech, language and social development potential. That is why we were excited to see what happens when the early intervention process is carried out the way it should be as it did with Neil Maes, an eleven year old boy with cochlear implants who competed in the Scripps National Bee in May 2016. Please view the portrait to read about the Maes family’s hearing journey and the importance of early intervention. Their story is a wonderful example of how early intervention and detection leads to success.

Maes Family Portrait

SPELLING BEE WONDER

Neil Maes, featured above in our early intervention success story, keeps amazing us with his spelling skills.  After competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the second time, Neil spoke to us about what it takes to reach the national level and his goal to return one more time.  

Neil Maes Interview