It's a little word, uttered softly. Angela Stokes, director of educational services at the clinic, predicts that, later this summer, words will burst forth from the 3-year-old.
Today, he is working on simple sounds. Ah. Ee. Oh. Meow, which comes out "eow," when he says it. ("M" is a hard sound to form.) His speech therapist, Charissa Powers, covers her mouth when she makes sounds so that Tyler will learn by listening, not lip reading. They practice making sounds of things he's interested in -- cars and animals.
Just like an infant who begins to babble at 6 months and says a few words around age 1, a child with a cochlear implant who is newly exposed to sound will first babble and later develop vocabulary.
Tyler and Powers rehearse a range of noises; then Powers rounds off the session with Tyler's favorite, the Slippery Fish song: "Slippery fish, slippery fish. Gulp, gulp, gulp!"
He hears, smiles and hums.
The words will come.
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shari.roan@latimes.com
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latimes.com/health
Audio slide show: Miracle of sound
For deaf children, the development of cochlear implants has turned a silent future of sign language or lip reading into the promise of hearing.
