Girl born deaf is a chatterbox after successful ear implant operation

Progress: Lauren Pearson with three-year-old daughter Ava. Mrs Pearson described the change in her daughter as "amazing"
12 April 2012

A girl who was born deaf is now speaking and has advanced language skills for her age after a life-changing operation.

Ava Pearson was nine months old when she became one of the youngest people in Britain to have cochlear implants.

Now aged three, she has language skills months ahead of other children her age and is doing well at nursery school.

Her mother, Lauren, 31, from north London, said: "It was amazing to see her reacting to noise. I was so excited and felt such a sense of relief. Her hearing is improving every day and she has become such a chatterbox."

Mrs Pearson, a book publisher, and her husband Chris, a 31-year-old finance manager, first realised Ava was deaf when she didn't react to routine hearing tests when she was three weeks old. After researching treatments on the internet, the Pearsons decided cochlear implants might give their daughter the chance of a normal life.

One week after the operation, she started dancing to music and four weeks later she said her first word, "mama". Mrs Pearson said: 'When she started babbling it was amazing - before that she only made guttural noises."

A cochlear implant is placed through surgery in the inner ear and activated by a device worn outside the ear. The implant functions like an artificial inner ear and takes over the job of the cochlear. Doctors at the Portland Hospital in the West End carried out the treatment and also put Ava through a course of speech therapy. Speech therapist Natalie Opitz, who works at the private hospital, said: "Ava is the youngest baby I have seen have the operation in this country. This is a remarkable case."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in