Keith’s Story…
First grader, Keith H., goes to a regular school, is onthe swim team, has many “normal” hearingfriends, and “talks non-stop”. What’s sounusual about this? Well, at age 11 months, Keith was diagnosedwith a severe to profound hearing impairment and his parents weretold that he would never speak the way other children can. Hisparents refused to accept this. Keith just couldn’t live in aworld of silence! There had to be another option. And, there was– the auditory-verbal approach which utilizes amplified residualhearing to teach children to listen and to develop spokenlanguage. Because of his auditory-verbal training, Keith’s worldnow includes the magical sounds of cheering team mates,barking puppies, his brother’s bad violin playing and, mostimportantly, his parents’ words of love and encouragement.Keith jokes that his favorite cereal is the one he can hear go Snap!Crackle! Pop!