Hearing loss is a challenge that certain children have to deal with since birth. It is well established that a child with hearing loss cannot develop speech and language abilities. This puts the child at a disadvantage in school, higher education and limits future professional opportunities. Hearing loss should be detected and treated at the earliest so that the child can take advantage of all the opportunities in life.
However, the journey from silence to sound is not easy and those who embark upon it are heroes in their own right.
One such hero is Isha Vartak, a budding writer with a flair for mathematics. But there was a moment in Isha’s life when these talents could have been lost forever!
Isha was born with a hearing loss in both ears. Realization of their daughter’s condition dawned on Isha’s parents when she was around 8 months old. Isha’s parents understood that they could not let their daughter’s innate abilities go waste and hence decided to opt for a cochlear implant. Isha was implanted with a Cochlear Nucleus implant at the age of 3.
The Cochlear implant has helped Isha excel academically. She was consistently among the top 5 students in her class. Not only did her classmates turn to her for help with mathematics but also became avid readers of her writing. Isha also participated in all the extra-curricular activities at school and became her class prefect! Isha scored 92.6% in her SSC examination and joined St. Xavier’s College for Arts.
Isha is now fluent in multiple languages and recently travelled to Italy as an exchange student with 30 other students. She even stayed with an Italian family for 7 days all by herself!
It is indeed inspirational to see Isha’s metamorphosis from a shy girl to a confident international traveller!
Source: Cochlear
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