When Matthew comes to his therapy appointments, he greets the front office staff with a smile and says “Hi.” His mother is always by his side. She has been his biggest supporter since he was born 8 years ago.

He eagerly takes his therapist’s hand and goes to speech therapy. When Matthew first came to the Center, he was completely non-verbal. Matthew’s mother had been turned away by other speech therapy providers who stated, “there is nothing they could do for Matthew.” Matthew’s only way of communicating was pointing, gesturing, and vocalizing sounds.

Matthew is home schooled by his mother, who feared that if he was in a school setting he would not be able to express his wants and needs. When Matthew was tested, it was unclear how much Matthew knew. The primary goal of therapy in the beginning was to provide Matthew a way to communicate. Matthew now uses sign and verbalizations to express his wants and needs.

His expressive vocabulary has increased to over 50 words. Matthew is now learning new words, practicing communicating with others, and practicing forming words verbally. Matthew’s mother has participated in each session, learning new signs, and taking home ways to help Matthew communicate.

When he leaves his appointments, he always says “bye” to the office manager, and blows her a kiss. Not only has Matthew benefited from therapy at the Center; but the staff has also been enriched by his presence!

I have been receiving services from this Center since about the year 2000, and I have been more than satisfied with the services I’ve received, specifically from Audiologist, Dr. Stephanie Sanchez., who has served me these past twelve years.   I’ve been particularly grateful for what I’ve considered to be thorough and objective evaluations in determining what I need in addressing my rather severe hearing impairment. The fact that I’ve been fitted with hearing aids that make it possible for me to hear in practically every setting speaks well of the staff’s expertise in this field. I firmly believe that a non-profit speech, language, and hearing center plays a vital role in Albuquerque where people like me could depend on services not driven by profit.  I thank the United Way for its past support of the agency, and I strongly recommend its continued support.

~Robert Carr

My daughter Marisol is 8 years old, she began wearing hearing aids when she was 4. I will never forget the day she received her hearing aids. On that day she also received a stuffed animal who wore hearing aids. It was wrapped up in cellophane wrapper paper, and Marisol was anxious to play with her new stuffed animal so she asked me to open it for her. I pulled on the ends of the paper as anyone would to open a package. As I started to removing the paper, she asked me “Mama, why is it making that noise?” I just thought, WOW! Had she never heard the sound of cellophane wrapper paper.

On our drive home, I was in a turning lane with my turn signal on and again, Marisol asked me “Mama, what’s that noise?” Tears just streamed down my cheeks as I realized how much of the world my daughter had missed out on. I could barely answer her as I myself was filled with so much emotion.

Marisol is shy by nature, but when she received her hearing aids it opened up a whole new world for her. She now has a connection to the world.

She attended pre-school for three years and in that time she never spoke to another peer or a teacher. She received her hearing aids just before she entered kindergarten and began reading in no time and began volunteering to answer or share information with the class. Something I am so pleased with as a parent. She now makes friends easily.

Thank you for sharing our story with the Community, Marisol and I are so excited .

~Yvette

Hearing loss leads to Isolation.

Isolation from loved ones and friends, Isolation on the job – which often leads to job loss. You just get sick and tired of hearing yourself say “What?”  ”Huh?”  ”I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that….”So you learn to cover.  You smile.  You laugh and nod your head when that seems an appropriate

response.  Sometimes you just pretend you didn’t hear and keep on walking.    At gatherings, you find a chair somewhere off in the corner and just stare off out a window or watch what’s going on in the rest of the room.  If you’re older, as I am now, the kids just think Grandpa isn’t quite with it any longer.

But my hearing loss began when I was in my early forties.  I found myself doing what I’ve described above and just hoping I wasn’t missing so much it would interfere with my ability to do my job.

One day I found myself in a conversation with someone who was driving me around an area, talking to me about what was going on.  At one point I said “Huh?” And then I figured out what she had said and I told her it was my listening skills. I sometimes missed what someone said but then figured it out.  She told me that was a symptom of hearing loss, not my listening skills.   So I went in for a hearing test and found that hearing aids could help me with my problem.

When I took an early retirement and moved to New Mexico I called the national headquarters of the company that makes the hearing aids I wear and asked where I could go to get my aids repaired and, in time, replaced.  They recommended that I contact Albuquerque Speech Language Hearing Center.  I went in and met Dr. Stephanie Sanchez who was then new to the Center.  Stephanie has been my audiologist every since, my wife’s also.  Despite the passing years, she has enabled us to keep up, most recently guiding us through the process of getting new hearing aids that even allow us to hear what’s going on in movies and to watch our television without blasting the whole neighborhood out of existence.

It also pleases us that ASLHC is a non-profit.  We know that what we pay is money well spent and that every cent goes to provide services not only to us but also to those in our community who aren’t as fortunate financially as we are.

We also appreciate the fact that ASLHC is not there to sell people hearing aids but rather to help them deal with their hearing and speech challenges.  Fully half the friends I have referred to the Center have been tested and told they don’t yet need to spend money for hearing aids.  Instead they are counseled on things they can do to enhance their hearing in their own life situations. The fact that the Center does not offer just one type of hearing aid, but handles products from a number of manufacturers, means that they work with patients to find the very best aids for each patient’s unique needs rather than just trying to get them to accept what one manufacturer has to offer.

After more than a decade of great service, we couldn’t be more pleased with ASLHC.  We give the Center our highest endorsement and recommendation.

Barry Abel

Corrales, New Mexico