The Shepherd Centre provided the three children with intensive speech and language sessions that led to significant improvements in sound recognition and speech clarity.

“It was difficult for Rafael and Gabriel to initially sound out words and connect meanings to sounds,but now they do it as if it’s second nature,” Ms Reis Souza said.

Forty six children are graduating from The Shepherd Centre this year and entering mainstream primary schools.

The Reis Souzas second son Gabriel is among the graduates,and will join his brother at school this week. A major fan of ‘show and tell’ during preschool,he once spoke about his cochlear implant,confident and proud of his journey.

“Many people don’t realise the remarkable future possible for people with hearing loss,but our graduates are setting these misconceptions straight as they head off to start their bright futures,” Dr Jim Hungerford,CEO of The Shepherd Centre said.

According to a recent report,62 per cent of children with hearing impairments who received early intervention graduate from university,significantly higher than the general population at 43.3 per cent.

Lily Rabold,a primary school teacher in NSW,said educators tailor their strategies to help hearing-impaired students.

“Last year I had a student who was partially deaf. I always positioned him at the front,used closed captions on videos,wore a special microphone that distinctly transmitted sound into his hearing aids and had an itinerant teacher come in once a week for one on one communications skills,” she said.