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Imagine not knowing what your name sounds like and the busy world around you is completely silent. That was life for five-year-old Matteo Van Beveren, until he was adopted at three-years-old.
The little boy has hearing aids, but a new clinic at East Tennessee State University is checking to see if he could be a candidate for cochlear implants. At five-years-old Matteo Van Beveren's world isn't so quiet anymore and it can be exciting to simply hear your name. But even with hearing aids the little boy's parents, Steve and Kristin Van Beveren, said there's still a 40 percent loss of hearing and Matteo didn't hear his first worlds until he was three-years-old. "For his first couple months in our home his name was basically a clap because any time we wanted to get his attention he didn't know his name," said Steve Van Beveren. At a new clinic at ETSU, audiologists hope to check the hearing impaired to see if they could be candidates for cochlear implants. Audiologist Saravanan Elangovan told News 5, "So for Matteo we tried to assess what degree his hearing loss is and we're trying to assess how much he's benefiting from his hearing aids." It's done through a series of tests, one as simple as checking his ear drums but other tests can be more fun. "Where he has to respond either by raising his hand or throwing a block down. Some play activity that he heard the sound," said Elangovan. For kids under 18, the surgery can be invasive and that's why audiologists check to see if there are other options. A cochlear implant is different from a hearing aid, since sound directly bypasses the damaged part of the ear. The Van Beverens said Matteo complains when his hearing aids aren't in, "So to me that is a sign he wants to hear he wants to be apart of the hearing world," said Kristin Van Beveren. While audiologists are still compiling Matteo's results, his parents say they want to simply help their son. "Even if he continues with hearing aids but we can improve that gain, we want to know that too," said Steve Van Beveren. News 5 also learned the new clinic at ETSU also offers both follow up services in audiology and speech language pathology for those already having cochlear implants. (by wcyb.com)
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