Today is Fakhri's 2nd Birthday, and his first year anniversary of hearing via cochlear implant device.
If we look back, precisely this time one year ago we were not sure whether we have make the right decision to implant Fakhri. And it proves out it was the best decision we ever made about Fakhri's future as we want him to become part of 'hearing & talking community'. We can understand if other parents are reluctant to do the implant, recognising the risks it carries and the fact that about 5% of recipients do not show any hearing improvements. However, we do encourage some of our friends who came to us and asks our opinions about cochlear implant to find out more about cochlear implant and that the benefit (of the implant) outweigh the risks, especially for those with children that are diagnosed with profound hearing loss.
But then implant without a persistent AV Therapy at home is nothing. I am so grateful that God smoothes the path for us, my company has been very supportive in giving me more time with Fakhri and to work flexibly from home, and we have hired the best nanny for Fakhri. Her name is Reni and he started directly when Fakhri came from Singapore (after his implant). Reni is very talkative and very passionate about applying AVT to Fakhri's everyday activity. She also proves up to be smart and can learn the principle of AVT I taught her. She always come with us to Fakhri's AVT session, and she usually gets nervous whenever the Therapist did some tests to check Fakhri's progress. The picture here shows Fakhri and his nanny (the one with headscarf).
I promised to post Fakhri's talk, I have not had chance to record him. Fakhri now has started to sing, and say 2 or 3 words in a sentence, We are all very excited........
