Olive O’Hagan set for ‘big school’ after cochlear implants, therapy with Shepherd Centre pays off
Olive O’Hagan is completely deaf, but with cochlear implants, intense therapy and a lot of determination, she has better language skills than the average six-year-old. Now, she’s looking forward to putting it all into practise when she starts school.
Manly
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Starting ‘big school’ is a milestone in every child’s life — but it is especially true for Olive O’Hagan.
The six-year-old who was born with moderate hearing loss in one ear and mild loss in the other, was fitted with hearing aids at just three weeks old.
But when she was around 18 months her parents Rachel and Adrian began to notice she was no longer their loud, energetic little girl.
Worried, they took her for further tests that showed she was completely deaf.
Two weeks later she was fitted with cochlear implants, which bypasses the damaged sensory hair cells inside the inner ear sending sound straight to the hearing nerve.
Her parents were warned by experts that if she was to be accepted into mainstream school she would have to work extremely hard on her speech to catch up with her peers.
She did and her latest tests show she has language skills on a par with, and in some cases, ahead of, her hearing peers.
Mrs O’Hagan, 40, of North Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches, said she was so proud of her daughter.
“It’s emotional for any mum when their child starts primary school, but it is going to be particularly so knowing how hard Olive has worked to get there,” Mrs O’Hagan said.
“I decided to give up my job to help her with her speech, so she’s been like my right arm, a little mini-me.
“But she is ready.”
Mrs O’Hagan said Olive’s achievements were made possible because of the Shepherd Centre, a charity that provides world leading early intervention for children with hearing loss.
Olive, who her parents call their “warrior princess” because she is so determined, has been going to the centre every week since she was three weeks old.
“I don’t know where we would be without the Shepherd Centre,” Mrs O’Hagan said.
“They have held our hands throughout this whole process.”
The mum of two added that an audiologist from the centre was with them when Olive’s cochlear implants were switched on when she was 18 months.
“We think she had been in silence for a period of time, perhaps four or more weeks,” Mrs O’Hagan said. “She could have been steadily losing her hearing over some time.
“As she was 18 months sound was completely foreign to her.
“When her hearing was switched on she became very emotional.
“We sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to calm her and it did.
“In the car she heard the squeak of my coffee cup lid and smiled, and then she didn’t stop smiling.”
Olive will join her big brother Aengus, 8, and many of her kindy friends at St John the Baptist in Manly, on Monday for the first day of term.
The Shepherd Centre relies on donations to help fund children like Olive.
Go to shepherdcentre.org.au.