Nixon making the most out of his new-found hearing

Since receiving a cochlear implant in each ear, Nixon Knight, 2, has learned to hear and speak. The Taupo community raised the money needed for Nixon's second implant. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

Eighteen months ago, the Taupo community pitched in to help one of their own - a little boy named Nixon, who couldn't hear.

Nixon, who has severe auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder and whose only spoken word was "da", needed cochlear implants, surgically-implanted devices that provide a sense of sound to people profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.

But, at that time, the health system would only pay for one cochlear implant per person. Nixon needed two, and the second device was going to cost at least $37,000.

His parents Brent and Elle Knight launched the 2 Ears 4 Nixon fundraising campaign and the local community swung in behind it, raising the money for the second implant, with $22,000 left over.

The surplus, and money raised at last year's King of the Ring event, went into a trust the Knights set up to help other Taupo families raising children with hearing loss.

Nixon had his first cochlear implant in June last year, and the second last October, and his family noticed a huge improvement. Since then, he's made rapid progress, learning to hear and speak at an astounding rate. When he had his last listening skills and speech test, he was only three months behind where a normal child would have been.

Now aged almost 3, Nixon is a busy, happy little boy who has been making "awesome" progress said his mother Elle. He can hear, and is speaking in four or five-word sentences.

"His enunciation is really good. A big part of the cochlear implant was sorting out his receptive language and now 80 per cent of the time he understands what we are telling him if we are telling him clearly."

While Nixon began acquiring speech after his first cochlear implant, Mrs Knight said the second implant allowed him to identify where sound is coming from more easily. Having a second implant also means that if there's a fault with the first one, he can still hear.

"If he only had one [implant] it would have been terrible if his processor was lost or hidden."

Mrs Knight said Nixon loved his implants and didn't like to be without them, even going to sleep with the processors still on. He behaves better because he's not as frustrated as when he couldn't hear, although he's not above a bit of manipulation.

"If I tell him something that he doesn't want to, he will take them off so that he can't hear."

Since Nixon had his implants, the Government has agreed to fund cochlear implants in both ears for children with hearing loss.

Mrs Knight said while the trust no longer had to pay for second implants, the money goes to help families with the additional costs that are not covered by the health system such as aqua accessories to allow the children to swim, extra tuition, and therapy for children with auditory processing disorder.