“I whispered to her and her eyes lit up. She looked at me and she whispered back. I had whispered to her plenty, but this was the first time she whispered back and it was huge.” - Laurie Jarvis

Name: Talia Jarvis
Indication: Unilateral microtia and atresia, and bilateral moderate-severe hearing loss

Watch the video

The Jarvis family adopted Talia in March of 2017 and took her to the ENT right away to get her hearing journey started. 

“I wasn’t familiar with all the different devices. Our audiologist said they were all pretty much the same. They didn’t provide the Ponto so we took home a different bone anchored hearing device to trial and it didn’t reach our expectations.” 

Talia was at the point where she didn’t want to wear the hearing device because of severe feedback issues which is when Laurie, Talia’s mother, began doing her own research. She spoke with other users online which helped her decide to halt her current BAHS order until her daughter could trial the Ponto 3 SuperPower. 

“I told my doctor that if they didn’t let us trial the Ponto device we would be switching to someone else.”

A night and day difference

Since receiving her Ponto 3 SuperPower (P3SP) Talia’s world has expanded. She is now learning language and her mother says she can hear the differences in sounds. With other devices, Laurie had struggled to keep the BAHS on Talia because of the feedback. But with little to no acoustical feedback from the P3SP, Talia is happy to wear her device all day.

“With the Ponto, she cried the first time I took it off at night. The next morning she pointed to it on the dresser and everyday since then it’s the very first thing she asks for in the morning. 

Before it was hard to get her to sit still to read a story. Now she will ask for book after book after book. She wants to learn new vocabulary and is constantly asking me what this and that is.  That interest was not there before.”

Discovering a love for music 

Among the new found sounds that are now possible because of her Ponto 3 SuperPower, Talia has discovered a love for music, which Laurie captured in the video above. At home, Talia now enjoys listening to her sister play the piano, a sound that until recently was something she had not heard. 

“My oldest daughter was playing the piano one morning and Talia was sitting in her highchair eating breakfast and she looked at me and she pointed to my daughter who was playing and she signed ‘piano;. It was obvious that she was hearing something different.”

To other parents looking to find the best hearing device for their child, Laurie’s advice is to insist on trialing all the options to ensure you are making the right choice for your family.