ZacharyPersistence Pays Off

For the past eight autumns, sixteen-year-old Zach’s Friday nights have looked similar. After school, he puts on his football uniform and hits the field with his teammates. He lives for the rush of running the line and tackling the quarterback. For a fan cheering him on in the stands, Zach looks just like every other teen on the field. But Zach isn’t like the others. What the fans can’t see are the hearing aids camouflaged under his helmet. Zach has worn them since he was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss as a baby, but they haven’t held him back from success.

“When we found out the news, we were petrified,” said Keith. “Did we need to go learn sign? What did we need to do to be the best parents for him? We loved going to the lake. We loved camping. We loved doing certain things and we didn’t know how his hearing loss would affect our family life.”

Even though the shock of his diagnosis still lingered, Tammie and Keith immediately began to evaluate Zach’s communication options. They considered their dreams for Zach and all the activities, professions, and relationships they hoped would be available to him in the future. They decided that Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) would give him the best chance of achieving them.

Getting hearing aids for their newborn was the first step, but it was a challenging one. The insurance company initially denied their claim. Tammie called the company day after day until she found a supervisor who would listen to her. “Persistence is key,” she said. “Try to tell your story and relate to the insurance company representative on a human level. Ask them if they have kids or grandkids. Tell them that you want your child to grow up to have every opportunity, to be self-sufficient, to be a successful adult, and in order to do that, they need early amplification as soon as possible to start getting all the rich vocabulary in their brain.” Tammie’s persistence paid off and Zach received hearing aids.

From that point on, Tammie and Keith threw themselves into giving Zach the language-rich environment he needed in order to build his listening and speaking skills. Tammie worked at a job with flexible hours, so that she could spend time reading to Zach and his two-year-old sister, Brittany. “What really helped with Zachary was just being a radio commentator,” said Tammie. “Speaking to him all the time even when we were eating or changing his diaper. Just the constant input of vocabulary, just continuing to talk and laugh and have fun together.” His parents’ early dedication to LSL helped build the strong foundation for Zach’s success as a teenager.