21 years ago California passed a law that newborns needed to be screened for hearing loss. This was just a month before my daughter Erika was born.

The day after Erika was born in 1998, at Santa Monica Hospital we were told that she failed a newborn hearing screening. Because this screening was new, the nurses were unfamiliar with the test and the software, so they thought it was an error on their part.

Following the hospital, the next few months were complicated since there is no history of hearing loss in my family. This was all new information. Erika had additional testing, doctor appointments, insurance paperwork, and unknown next steps. We learned that newborn hearing screening was not a mistake, and Erika was diagnosed at 3 months with a bilateral profound hearing loss. The results of a cat scan showed that her three tiny inner ear bones were fused together.  It was then that the UCLA audiologist told us about John Tracy.

Erika was a newborn when we first brought her to JTC’s parent-infant program. Jill Muhs taught me the importance of talking and playing with her during all our home routines. We sang songs, turned on and off the vacuum, read books, cooked in the kitchen. What was really happening was I was gaining the knowledge and support to help Erika. 

Her hearing aids were not giving her enough access to sound so we took Erika to  see Dr. Slattery at House Ear Institute, and when she was 18 months old, she received her first cochlear implant. She got her 2^nd Cochlear Implant at 7 years old. Then, at 2, she was enrolled in JTC’s preschool where Bridgette was her teacher and Angie the Director. She had individual therapy sessions where the teacher and I worked on my listening, language and speech goals.

My parents were dedicated to learning what they needed to do to help Erika to listen and speak. They attended parent education classes and support groups that put them with other families of young deaf children where they could learn from each other.

She doesn’t remember much about her preschool days.  But we still has the experience books we made. Books that helped her learn the language from all the exciting activities we did like watching tadpoles grow into frogs, making thanksgiving meals and performing plays, going to a Christmas tree farm and having snow day with sledding (so us California kids could learn about snow).

Preschool helped enrich her language and listening skills, AND it also helped us coach Erika so she could go to a mainstream school. Which ended up happening shortly after leaving JTC’s preschool.

John Tracy Center is different from most places, because the parents, the whole family is educated and supported. JTC provided us the building blocks to help Erika become the person I she is today.  The intensive therapy sessions lessened as she learned to advocate for herself and acquired the skills to make her successful in school and with friends. 

Most people don’t even know Erika has a hearing loss when she meets them…they have no idea the early work and dedication that went into helping her learn to listen and talk. 

Life has come full circle. Our experience with JTC has driven her to pursue a career in audiology.  She is currently studying communication disorders at Cal State University of Northridge in hopes of becoming an audiologist to serve the deaf youth. So, she too can offer families hope, guidance and encouragement.

I wish we could thank Louis Treadwell Tracy for having the vision and determination for creating the movement of John Tracy.

I realize it was a long time ago that I was part of the JTC program.  But truth is, you never really leave JTC.  JTC becomes part of your family, it has become part of my story.

Thank you.