Owen Gaudin has higher than average listening skills for his age, is a great story teller, and loves dancing to music. He is also profoundly deaf. The Blenheim toddler had surgery for bilateral cochlear implants when he was just six months. Owen’s mum Kate White says the technology is a “modern miracle”.
“He now has age-appropriate speech and continues to come out with new words and sentences. It is phenomenal that modern technology has gifted him this,” says Kate.
“It has been the hardest and the most rewarding thing we have had to go through. When I found out that Owen was profoundly deaf I cried all the way home thinking he was never going to say mum or dad, or hear our voices. He can now say a lot more than that, and he continues to blow us away. “I still get emotional talking about it. The gift of sound is the best gift we could have given Owen. His progress is incredible, he comes back from preschool full of stories and we are so proud.”
Owen’s assessment and cochlear implant surgery was provided by the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme (SCIP). He continues to receive speech and language therapy from SCIP’s Christchurch team.