Kamond's Story

On a day in April of 2009 during CID spring break, Erica woke from an afternoon nap to her insistent 7-year-old’s demand: 

"Mama, we gotta get out of the house."

She swooped up her younger son and stopped for a moment to collect some things, but Kamond wouldn’t let her.

"Come on, let’s go, Mama. We gotta get out right now!"

The fire had started in a bedroom and was spreading through the family’s home. Despite his hearing loss, Kamond was able to communicate calmly and clearly. When his two older brothers came home from school, their possessions were gone, but their beautiful mother and two younger brothers were there to greet them.

A few years ago, a St. Louis public school kindergarten teacher began to suspect Kamond could not hear. He was shy and he didn’t say a lot. The teacher spoke to Erica, and the realization set in: The tubes the doctor had placed in Kamond’s ears when he was 2 had not cured his moderate bilateral hearing loss.

Erica had visited CID when her son was first diagnosed. When she learned he was struggling in kindergarten, she enrolled him in the school. In the fall of 2007, as his fifth birthday approached, the CID audiologists fit his first hearing aids and the teachers began developing his speech, language and listening skills.

It was a big step to face the permanence of Kamond’s hearing loss and an extra effort to drive him to CID, but the improvement the family saw in his speech and confidence kept them going.

Kamond will start his fourth year at CID in fall of 2010. He has played the lead in two CID school plays. He loves to read almost as much as he loves sports. "He is happy, outspoken and very polite," his teacher said. "We expect he will do well when he goes back to his neighborhood school."

We already know he has what it takes to communicate what’s important.