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Watch this beautiful mom and child video – where a child with hearing loss demonstrates the meaning of love at first sound!
By Anne John
Love at first sound is adorable, especially when the loved one is just a wee 8-month old! It is indeed beautiful to watch Jonathan’s reaction to hearing his mom’s voice for the first time.
Jonathan, a child with a hearing loss, has been fitted with a cochlear implant, a digital hearing aid otherwise known as the bionic ear. According to The Cochlear Implant Group of India (CIGI), a cochlear implant is a computerized device that provides hearing to people with ‘nerve deafness’ by stimulating the hearing nerve with coded electrical signals.
There has been many box office hits in India which deal with differently-abled individuals – Anjali, Taare Zameen Par, My Name Is Khan to name a few. Such movies, to a large extent romanticize the problem into a story of winner-against-all-odds. Reality however, is painfully different. Science and medicine have progressed immensely and come a long way in terms of available treatments and medications. Yet this does not help mitigate the suffering involved as much as the support of friends and families can. We hear several stories about children being dumped because of their ‘differences’. While we may argue that it is the duty of a parent to take care of her children, no matter what, it is difficult to fully enter these circumstances unless one has been through them.
Apart from the child having to overcome his/her shortcomings, the family of such a child faces extreme pressures from almost all sides. Learning to cope with their child’s special needs, handling the cost involved for treatment and care-giving, dealing with the inevitable feelings of guilt and irrational fears, not to mention society’s reaction to their beloved child, their whole life is turned upside-down. Priorities change drastically – sleep, ‘me’ time or even a worry-free, peaceful evening becomes luxuries. Here is a touching blog of a mother’s experiences in bringing up her severely disabled child.
Truly speaking, I cannot even begin to understand the angst of such parents – at the most I can only imagine their pain. Stories like Jonathan’s bring a small smile to all of us in a world where sadness is only all too common.
Anne John plays with words for a living and would probably do the same even
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