Non-Profit Group Helps Children Hear

By Melissa Maynarich, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With new technology, children who are born deaf are now learning how to hear.

A non-profit organization called "Hearts for Hearing" helps families get the right equipment for their baby's ears, at no cost.

Each week, on the same day and at the same time, the Hoover family travels to Oklahoma City from the Panhandle for a therapy session.

The family is being coached on how to teach their little daughter Lauran how to listen.

"You intentionally make noises trying to figure out, 'Did she hear it?'" Lauran's mother Monica Hoover said.

Doctors discovered Lauran was hard of hearing when she was born.

The child has severe to profound hearing loss in both ears.

"It used to be that we'd say, ‘Some kids are so deaf, that they're not ever going to learn to listen. With the technology that we have available today, degree of deafness really doesn't mean anything anymore because we can bypass the broken part with technology."

Therapists said Hearts for Hearing is the largest auditory/verbal clinic in the world, providing hearing instruments for Oklahoma families at no cost.

Lauran has been fitted with a hearing aid thanks to the non-profit.

The Hoover's will continue to bring Lauran in for therapy every week for this first year of her life.

They're preparing her for a cochlear implant, a device they're hoping she'll be a good candidate for, because although the hearing aid has already made a difference, they believe the implant will change her life.