Ava received her first implant when she was 9 months old, in January 2008. She recieved her second implant in May 2008.

We felt it was common sense--human beings are given two ears to hear with, and two hearing aids, even if they don't do much... why would you only get one implant? It seemed to us that implants were a victim of their own success: Profoundly deaf children can hear well with one, and that's amazing. But the fact that they can hear better with two seems overlooked, and deaf children shouldn't have to just settle for one! We had read about better hearing in noise, and about how two implants help with directionality. We knew that children with unilateral hearing loss often need extra help, and if our daughter was making use of a cochlear implant in one ear and was deaf in the other, listening would require a tremendous amount of concentration.

We were extremely lucky in that our private insurance paid for the implants, even bilateral.

I'm afraid I can't be much help here since we were told about a long wait on the NHS, and bilaterals were never mentioned.

It's been about three months since Ava's second implant was switched on.

Her progress has been amazing. She hears at 20db in each ear separately, and probably even better with both on, we haven't yet tested them together. Because she was so young and had both ears done, her hearing and speech has developed naturally, she's age-appropriate for speech and says about 30 words. It is truly amazing to watch a profoundly deaf toddler master the beginning of 'itsy bitsy spider.'

Auditory Verbal therapy has been amazing for us and for Ava. Every child who receives implants should have access to their wonderful techniques.

Ava is too young to have been involved in the decision, but we know she loves her implants. If the coil comes off, she says 'Uh oh' and hands the processor to us to put back on. She loves music classes and nursery rhymes.