Hearts for Hearing Blog

Photo of Josie sitting on a football field in a cheerleading uniform
Children

Josie’s Story

Josie was born at only 25 weeks and weighed one pound, eight ounces when she was delivered. Sadly, her twin brother passed away at 18-days-old. Thankfully, Josie was able to survive her tiny beginning, and she remained in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for 143 days.

Read More »
two girls stand in front of a fridge filled with soda. The girl on the left is leaning in to whisper a secret to the girl on the right.
Children

Ava and Lilly’s Story

Ava was two when she was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss, and Lilly was diagnosed with deafness following her newborn hearing screen. Both sets of parents were independently referred to Hearts for Hearing and their little girls received their technology, audiology, and listening and spoken language therapy services through Hearts for Hearing. It was a teacher at their preschool who first introduced them and pointed out that they had something special in common, they each wear hearing technology.

Read More »
Photo of a girl with glasses smiling at the camera. She has dark hair and a light colored top.
Children

Henrietta’s Story

When Elijah was born, he was “absolutely perfect” recalls his mom. “We didn’t think anything of it when he did not pass his newborn hearing screen, and we were told it was probably just fluid in his ear.” Elijah was referred for a routine follow-up which again he did not pass. “Even then, it wasn’t scary for me because we didn’t have any hearing loss in our family, so we didn’t think it was even a possibility.”

Read More »
black and white photo of a young boy with cochlear implants shaking a tambourine
Children

Elijah’s Story

When Elijah was born, he was “absolutely perfect” recalls his mom. “We didn’t think anything of it when he did not pass his newborn hearing screen, and we were told it was probably just fluid in his ear.” Elijah was referred for a routine follow-up which again he did not pass. “Even then, it wasn’t scary for me because we didn’t have any hearing loss in our family, so we didn’t think it was even a possibility.”

Read More »
a black and white photo of a girl with dark curly hair infront of a window
Stories

Lily’s Story

“I’m told I was a feisty one,” says Lily Hernandez, “a stubborn one,” she adds. “Tami Elder was my Listening and Spoken Language Specialist. I remember all the games we played with my family in therapy. She was very patient and fun.” That’s how Lily fondly recalls her early speech therapy sessions at Hearts for Hearing when she was a toddler.

Read More »
A black and white photo of Peter Hardt smiling with his arms crossed. He is wearing a plaid shirt.
Stories

Peter’s Story

Peter, 23 years old now, was the first baby in the state of Oklahoma identified with hearing loss through Oklahoma’s mandated newborn hearing screening program which required, beginning in 2000, that all newborns receive a hearing test before discharge from the hospital.

Read More »

Celebrating 20 Years

Hearts for Hearing was founded in 2003 with a mission of providing hearing technology and speech therapy services at no out-of-pocket costs to families with children who were born deaf. 20 years later, we are still teaching babies and children born deaf to listen and talk. Our services have expanded to include adult hearing care with offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Shawnee. Our team of professionals has grown from our original three people to 117 now. Hearts for Hearing continues to provide the first set of hearing technology and therapy to children at no out-of-pocket costs to families, and now includes Newborn Hearing Screen services, major research initiatives, Eyes Open Ears On programming, and its own 3D ear mold lab.

Newsletter Signup

Name