Through Poppy's eyes

27/03/2026

Poppy does not get her love of all things adrenaline and height based from me - that is for sure.

17/10/2025

In the midst of making lolly cake a recipe Poppy had recently made at school, we chatted about today being Loud Shirt Day.

Poppy picked up one of the super wine biscuit’s and said i remember getting these at the Hearing House- i used to love getting these.

Sure enough from 14mths old until she was 5 after all the work had been done she would be rewarded with what is now a core memory.

It was actually so cool that she remembered.

On a different note:

I came across the below from talking deaf kid and it really does shine a light on what Mainstream school challenges are everyday.
“
“Inclusion has a cost nobody talks about."

This is what “included in mainstream school” looks like from the outside.

But inclusion has an invisible cost nobody talks about.

Same desks. Same lesson.
Same laughter when the class gets a joke.

But some deaf children are doing a kind of work nobody sees.

While others listen easily, she is lip-reading, scanning faces, tracking who is speaking, filtering noise… stitching meaning together like pieces of a puzzle.

It looks like she’s just sitting there.
But inside her head, there is constant translating, guessing, masking.

By break time, most children rest their bodies.
She is resting her brain... from listening.

Because listening, for her, is not passive.
It is effort.
It is focus.
A full-body kind of attention.

The world sees “mainstream inclusion.”
What they don’t see is the invisible work it takes to stay included.

To every child smiling on the outside while decoding every moment on the inside, you are doing far more than the world realizes.

And it shows.

©Talking Deaf Kid, 2025
゚gyiieemg

23/08/2025

Legend ❤️😇

28/07/2025

Listening fatigue is very real and something we need to make allowances for.

26/02/2025

Poppy had her annual audiology appointment today- she was amazing adjusting her own map via the iPad, confidently speaking up when she realised it was too loud and really spent the time to make sure the map was perfect for her.

Today she did the CNC word test - a test they use for adults. It’s word perception- a male voice will say a word at conversation level and Poppy needs to repeat it back as accurately as she can.

She scored 88% in both left and right ears!! Last year she scored 50%!

We are super proud of her and also so impressed with the way she advocated for herself today, it’s not easy when you’re eleven.

Also I must say Latasi our audiologist was awesome, her approach was warm and friendly making Poppy feel at ease.

24/02/2025

28/01/2025

And here we are Poppy’s first day of intermediate 🤯
You’ve got this kiddo 💪

17/12/2024

And just like that the primary school chapter has finished.

Before Poppy started we were prepared to go into battle, to have to advocate at every hurdle. I had heard horror stories of trouble that other deaf children had experienced in other regions in NZ.

Our experience couldn’t be further from that, in fact Poppy was well supported from the get go. For the first four years we attended one day a week in Auckland for speech therapy. This was never a problem, every goal we had our school team was in, backing us 100%.

It is because of this amazing team that Poppy is where she is today up with her peers in reading and writing.

Incredible when we think back to her first day - when she had a vocabulary of only a handful of words.

Thank you so much to our people, ( you know who you are) we will be forever grateful. 😊

28/11/2024

Every term Poppy gets a day out of the classroom to join other kids just like her. Some have cochlear implants, some hearing aids some are bilingual and some communicate by NZSL.

It is always a day she looks forward to and it has become apparent over the years just how important it is to be able to connect with other kids that get it.

13/10/2024

Typically the night before the start of term 4, Poppy’s right ear decided it wasn’t going to work- flashing a solid orange light.

After troubleshooting online we tried multiple
Batteries as this typically means flat battery or the processor isn’t getting a charge.

This morning before school I tried a new cable and it worked!! Oh the relief 😮‍💨

Hard to believe this is the last term of primary school and the safety net of a school that’s been just the best support from day one.