Personal experiences shape Estelle’s career

When Estelle Gerrett tells the parent of a deaf child “there is a way for your child to listen and speak” and “you can do this”, she is speaking from experience.

Estelle is a certified auditory-verbal therapist and has worked at The Hearing House for 14 years.

She has taught hundreds of parents to teach their children to listen and speak.

This month she leaves the children’s charity and heads for London, where she will work at Auditory Verbal UK on a three year contract.

Estelle’s journey into a career in hearing impairment and speech development began in the UK under very personal circumstances.

Her middle child, Nathan, contracted meningitis when he was one-year-old and lost his hearing as a result.

“I was told there was no chance of him speaking. But I thought ‘there has to be a way’.”

So Estelle, who already had a career as a primary school teacher, went to University and gained a Masters in Hearing Impairment and Speech Development so she could teach her son to talk again.

“I needed to upskill myself to be the best I could be for my son. I taught him to speak using lip reading and feeling his throat.”

Nathan’s progress was slow until he became more confident to speak to others at the age of 6.

Estelle says following her teaching and the amazing support they received from therapists and his primary school, Nathan soon flourished.

He had a hearing aid in one ear, but in 2007, while living in New Zealand, he decided to get a cochlear implant – despite many specialists saying it wouldn’t work.

Estelle then worked tirelessly with Nathan, who was 20, teaching him to listen.

“It was hugely successful. He can use the telephone now. He is doing all sorts of things he couldn’t do before.”

Nathan is now studying audiology in the UK and eventually hopes to be an audiologist specialising in cochlear implants.

Estelle says it is this experience with Nathan that inspired her career.

When her three children were still young, and as a solo mum, she returned to the workforce opening up a special hearing impairment and speech development unit at Nathan’s school.

She later went on to do similar work with secondary school age children.

Needing a change, Estelle moved to New Zealand in 2002, when her children were aged 16, 15 and 9 and initially worked at the Kelston Deaf Education Centre.

After meeting highly respected ENT surgeon Ron Goodey (now retired), Estelle was introduced to The Hearing House. She joined the team as a therapist and later took on the role of clinical manager for just over nine years.

Estelle says “everything has changed” since her early days with the charity.

“We had less than 40 children, and there was a mix of hearing aid children and cochlear implant children. We were small, and we did long hours and our own admin. Everyone did everything.”

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Estelle says after her own experiences with Nathan, and all that she learnt at The Hearing House, working in the field of paediatric hearing loss has always been about the parent.

“My biggest thing is getting the parents to believe they can do it. All they need is someone who believes in them. I love working with the kids, but it’s always been about the parents for me.”

Estelle says her other jobs were always about changing the child.

“But The Hearing House has always been about the family – how can we help the family to change the child?”

Estelle says she will be taking plenty of special memories with her when she heads to the UK next month.

Among them will be supporting families of children with multiple challenges and seeing “amazing outcomes” for many families.

“It has been hugely rewarding. One of the journeys that will always stick in my mind is my journey with Esther.”

Esther Pakura is a mum to four children, three of whom are deaf. She joined The Hearing House as a parent with Estelle providing therapy to two of the children.

Like Estelle, Esther’s personal involvement in hearing loss developed into a career – she is now one of the auditory-verbal therapists at The Hearing House.

Estelle’s decision to move to the UK didn’t come lightly, but after more than one request from Auditory Verbal UK to join their team, she finally accepted.

Her role will see her with a small case load, running parent workshops, two residential programmes for families and training new staff.

“I’m really excited about it. But I’m quite nervous too. I’ve learnt a lot at The Hearing House that I can take with me.”

Habilitation team leader Alexandra Crosbie says Estelle has offered support and guidance to many families on The Hearing House programme over the past 14 years.

“Estelle brought a great deal of commitment, skill, ideas and energy to the team,” Alexandra says.

“She was especially passionate about running the residential programme, where families could connect with each other and intensively with the programme over a weekend.

“We wish her every success in her future endeavours.”

Watch the journey about life-changing "bionic ears" in slide show - Curtis Robinson

When children at Curtis Robinson’s school didn’t understand his hearing loss or why he had cochlear implants, he took matters into his own hands.

“I decided to make a slide show to present to people about my cochlear implant journey so far, to help give people a better understanding about cochlear implants and what it involves,” he says.

The 13-year-old has now presented his slide show to five different audiences – including his school where 600 Whangarei Intermediate School pupils listened, a group of high school students and a number of teachers – some of whom teach pupils with hearing impairments.

“Every presentation I have done, people have asked me lots of questions and congratulated me and said that they learnt a lot and it was good to hear about it from a child’s point of view.”

Curtis’ hearing loss was picked up in 2004.

“Mum and Dad just thought I was a good sleeper. When I was four months old I had a hearing test – that’s when we found out that my hearing loss was moderate to severe in one ear, and severe to profound in the other, so I was fitted with bilateral hearing aids.”

Curtis was able to speak and hear, but over the years his hearing deteriorated and he was having to rely on lip reading a lot more.

“Even the strongest hearing aids were not benefitting me.”

His audiologist suggested he consider cochlear implants. Scans, and speech and hearing tests carried out by The Hearing House proved he qualified for them and his surgery was done in November 2014 when Curtis was 10 years old.

“I was nervous on the day of the switch on. But once they turned it on I just started laughing because Mum and Dad’s voices sounded like Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

“After a couple of days I started to hear noises and sounds I had never heard before, like Moreporks, the reverse beep in the car and the cows down in the far paddock and heaps more.”

CURTIS, WHO DREAMS OF BEING A PARAMEDIC, FIREFIGHTER OR SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER, HAS HAD HIS COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS NOW.

“It was a big life-changing experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I didn’t realise how much I was missing out on.”

The Whangarei resident says having cochlear implants can sometimes work to his advantage.

“If people are nagging at me I just flick my implants off and then I can’t hear anything,” he says.

Curtis says he has had “heaps” of support from his family, friends and staff from the Kelston Deaf Education Centre (KDEC).

“School has its challenges as a lot of kids don’t understand, and that’s why I decided to make my slide show to help others understand more about my disability.”

He also hopes his presentations will benefit upcoming patients and their families and says his “future plans” involve writing a book about his experiences.

“It can be very overwhelming and scary..…when you don’t know much about [cochlear implants].”

Curtis says other kids with cochlear implants need to remember that even though they “might look different…..we can still excel and achieve our goals and live a normal life”.

“And how many kids can say that they have got bionic ears?”

Cochlear implant habilitationist Jayne Simpson Allen, from KDEC, says Curtis’ talkative and inquisitive nature have worked to his advantage when it comes to speeding up his rehabilitation.

“Curtis is an excellent listener. He is able to have complex conversations without relying on lip-reading if the background is quiet.”

Jayne says Curtis “is an excellent advocate for students with hearing loss”.

Helen Gatman, also from KDEC, has known Curtis since he was three years old and is his Resource Teacher of the Deaf and ASSIST (Assessment Involving Specialist Teacher).

She has worked with Curtis to develop language and literacy and supported Curtis, his family and teachers by providing information about his hearing loss and monitoring his educational and audiological needs.

Helen says Curtis has been great to work with. “He has always had above average language, is motivated and keen to learn.

“Having his cochlear implants made a huge difference – prior to that, conversation had become very difficult for him, having to sit close and focus intently on mouth patterns to make sense of what was being said to him.”

She says Curtis made the transition from hearing aids to cochlear implants “extremely quickly”.

“He is an awesome role model for other students and their families who are considering cochlear implants,” Helen says.

Curtis’ parents, Carmen Truman and Grant Robinson, say it was “quite a shock” to learn that their son had a hearing loss.

“There were no family members born hearing impaired or deaf. It was just one of those unfortunate things. Because it was picked up at an early age it hasn’t affected his speech at all and boy does he like to talk – he is a real chatterbox.”

The couple says their “caring and loveable” son hasn’t let being deaf hold him back from doing the things he loves to do.

“We are so proud of all the challenges that he has overcome and how he excels in everything he does.

“He has coped extremely well with his deafness as it was picked up at an early age and it has just been part of his life.”

They say Curtis coped very well with the transition from hearing aids to cochlear implants.

“He just got on with it because he knew that he would be able to hear better and wouldn’t miss out on as much.

“It was a total success and the benefits that Curtis has received from having the surgery means it was the right decision for him. We have no regrets at all.”

Carmen and Grant also have an 11-year-old daughter Alice. She was born with a bi-lateral clef lip and palate and will have surgeries until she is about 16.

The pair say having a deaf child can be “challenging” at times, but support from family members and professionals makes it a lot easier.

“We have never treated Curtis as being any different than any other child and have always told him from a young age that there are many children out there worse off than he is,” they say. “Everybody is unique in their own way.”

My Cochlear Implant Journey – slideshow by Curtis

Music to my ears - Jamie Chen

Jamie Chen isn’t letting deafness hold him back.

The 17-year-old attended boarding school, plays the piano and the guitar, enjoys rock climbing and swimming and he speaks English and Mandarin.

“In the end, not much has kept me back.”

Jamie was diagnosed with a severe-to-profound hearing loss in his left ear and a profound hearing loss in his right ear when he was six months old. He was almost two years old when he received a cochlear implant in his right ear.

His older sister, a university student, has a profound hearing loss and also listens through a cochlear implant. Jamie says because of his sister’s deafness his parents were “more alert to hearing loss” when he was a baby.

Jamie attended auditory-verbal therapy at The Hearing House from the time he received his cochlear implant until he graduated from our programme and started school.

He started mainstream school when he turned 5, initially attending St Leonards Road Primary School in West Auckland and then becoming a student at Dilworth School in Epsom, Auckland from Year 6. Here, he attended boarding school during the week, returning to his family home in West Auckland on the weekends.

Jamie has completed his education with no Resource Teacher of the Deaf support but says he has learnt to cope with the few difficulties he faced in the classroom.

“In terms of learning, I’ve had to position myself towards the front for most of my classes.”

Jamie started playing the piano when he was 7 years old. He reached grade 6, achieving a high Merit pass, but took a break from exams in 2016 to concentrate on his last year of secondary school.

Dilworth staff member Sue Templeton has known Jamie since 2009. She was his piano teacher for eight years and his academic dean for three years.

She says he is a “gifted musician”.

“Over the years, in no way has Jamie allowed his profound hearing loss and cochlear implant to affect his learning to play the piano.

“He has given many solo performances over the years, displaying a real sense of style and attention to detail that has astounded and delighted Dilworth audiences,” Sue says.

Last year Jamie was part of a piano quartet.

“TO PLAY IN A QUARTET REQUIRES REAL MUSICIANSHIP SKILLS,” SUE SAYS. “ALL FOUR MEMBERS OF THE QUARTET NEED TO PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO CAREFUL COUNTING AND THE CUES FROM THE OTHER PIANISTS. A CHALLENGE FOR SOMEONE WITH A PROFOUND HEARING LOSS AND A COCHLEAR IMPLANT, HOWEVER JAMIE MORE THAN EXCELLED IN HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE QUARTET AND ADDED HIS SPECIAL SENSE OF HUMOUR TO PRACTICES AND PERFORMANCES.”

Sue says it was “a real joy” to teach Jamie and watch him “grow in to a fine young man with a good sense of humour and a positive attitude”.

“He always persevered in his efforts to achieve consistently at a very high level despite the challenges associated with his hearing disability.”

Jamie has also been a fantastic student and he has the academic results to prove it.

In 2016 at Dilworth he placed first in economics, maths with calculus and physics.

He achieved NCEA Level 1 and 2 with excellence and was on track to do the same with Level 3 in 2016.

Jamie borrowed 1090 books from the school library over his last four years at school and in 2016 he became the school’s Head Student Librarian – the first time the position had been filled in the last four years.

Jamie is grateful his parents decided to get him a cochlear implant and has advice for other deaf teenagers.

“Be a normal teenager. There is so much you can do with, or without a CI on. It doesn’t stop you from taking advantage of all the things you want to do.”

As he starts university this year, studying a Bachelor of Engineering, Jamie wants to put his experiences to good use and work towards a career that will see him helping other people.

“I want to try and help others. I like teaching younger people. I want to be able to see someone getting better, doing better.”

Jamie is also grateful to our team at The Hearing House.

“It’s a three way effort – The Hearing House, the parent and the child. I do think, that without one of them you wouldn’t succeed. The Hearing House has helped a lot.”