"Now that I see how happy they are, I worry a lot less."
Koen family
Emotions
"Your first thought is: the world is ending. But it's not ending, another world just opens itself up."
"We used an interpreter for Guus' birthday party. That was very useful."
"They have hearing friends now, down the street."
"You have to sign, or you'll make your child unhappy."
"You notice he doesn't quite get everything, but his friends keep that in mind."
"When Guus was three years old we were taught sign language at home."
"I think it's good, learning sign language from both a hearing and a deaf teacher."
"We run into all kinds of situations where we're forced to use sign language. That's quite exciting."
"We've never decided not to do something because they're deaf. The audiologist told us: you can grow up to be old and happy with it."
"At the deaf vacation, there's deaf parents with their children, and deaf children with their hearing parents."
"Now that I see how happy they are, I worry a lot less."
"Would he ever be able to hear music, or the rain beating against the window? That was quite important to me."
"If you can't hear, you're deaf. I think 'very severely hearing impaired' is very weird."
"The CI's only break if it's raining heavily. But you can just walk in the rain with them."
"If I don't know a certain sign, I ask my son."
"Guus is teaching his friends how to sign, and that makes him feel good."
"They can really babble together in sign language."
"Guus' first sign was MOMMY!"
"I had to sign in public for the first time -- that was quite a big step."
"Guus sometimes helps Sam if he doesn't sign something correctly."
"I learn all kinds of signs from Guus."
"Those Lotte & Max DVDs are amazing, for both parents and children. They help you learn really quickly."
"Signing has gotten better over the years."
"An interpreter is very useful, especially at the theater."
"When the implants are off they're deaf, so then they have to be able to sign."
"I want to offer them both the deaf and the hearing world. So they can decide for themselves when they grow up."
"When family counseling started, we were taking sign language classes."
"The sign language classes evolve alongside your child."
"I have felt like we were missing help from within the deaf community. You mostly see hearing professionals."
"It would be great, of course, if they could go to a regular school in the neighborhood. But they miss so much then."