Albion Barker

Say it LOUD, Say it Proud

As many will know, our vibrant bundle of energy Albion was diagnosed with hearing loss at only days old. What came as a huge shock, given our absence of family history was soon counterbalanced by the overwhelming access to support, medical treatment and early intervention received from some of the most inspiring people we’ve ever met.

Today we are blessed with an outgoing, confident four-year old whose vocabulary astounds us every day. His confidence to regale stories and deliver punchlines with hurmour melts our hearts. His thirst for knowledge is insatiable. He’s kind, inclusive and endlessly entertaining.

He was one of the youngest babies to be fitted with bilateral hearing aids and although this technology is invaluable to us, his success is due to so much more. It’s about early diagnosis, early intervention (when organisations like The Shepherd Centre educate us as parents as well as provide therapies for our kids), it’s about Michelle (our amazing speech therapist), the NDIS programme, Hearing Australia’s ongoing help with hearing tests and technology and the Department of Education who support us in classrooms.

But this isn’t the case for everyone. Many children don't have access to the right diagnosis, early intervention and parents may lack that critical education to empower them to support these kids.

This year Team Barker want to raise awareness for the amazing children that overcome hearing loss each day, raise awareness for their resilience and awareness and support for organisations like the Shepherd Centre to drive equality of support to every child that needs it.

With kids as loud as ours and a Husband who chooses to wear outlandish shirts regardless of the occasion, this feels like a good fit for us (pun intended) :-)

Please join us in wearing your loudest shirt on Friday 17 October in support of Loud Shirt Day for kids with hearing loss and/ or share a few pennies for this fab cause