Home movies

It was going to be a Scotland the World Over moment but then Tom found some DVDs with his name on them and wanted to curl up with them this afternoon. Couldn't think of a good reason why not - he doesn't need to know about the emotions they stir in us.

They date back to 2006-8; the year he was deafened by meningitis and the subsequent period of rehabilitation. After he received his cochlear implants Tom was assigned a teacher of the deaf by the local authority who came to the house on a fortnightly basis for an hour. Tanya was excellent; we were very lucky to have someone as dedicated and capable as her. But she would be the first to admit that what she gave was only the bare essentials.

The sad truth is not many children in the same situation have even that level of support following cochlear implantation and it continues to decrease. The operation and the device is only part of the story; intensive speech and hearing therapy is necessary if deaf children are to have a fighting chance in mainstream educational settings. The amount of people of sufficient quality and training this needs is way beyond the means of local authorities and is dwindling even further in the current financial climate. The investment it would need to deliver properly makes the cost of the device and operation - eye-watering as that is - seem paltry.

We were lucky enough to have an extended family that dug deep; this assisted us with supporting Tom further. We took him to AVUK - a charity based in Bicester who deliver intensive Auditory Verbal therapy geared towards narrowing the speech and language gap between deaf children and their mainstream counterparts.

Tom's viewing this afternoon are recordings of the sessions there. Apart from reminding us how darned cute he was, it also shows us what progress he has made.

Maudlin moment over