My name is Abdullah Kursun and I am the father of Erdal who is hearing impaired.

Erdal was not yet two years old when the nurse at the child welfare centre suspected that he suffered from impaired hearing. Our first reaction was of disbelief: It cannot be true, because he listens and looks at us when we speak to him and there is contact between us since he speaks to us!

But of course we wanted to find out if this was true, and if so, how serious his condition was. Through the child welfare centre we got an appointment at the hospital where they did several tests to find out to what extent Erdal was hearing impaired.

The reactions from friends and relatives to the news were neither strong nor negative since we all still thought his hearing was rather good. The ear specialist at the hospital believed that in order for Erdal to develop like any other child he needed a hearing aid.

Every day life works really well now that Erdal attends a special day-care centre for children with impaired hearing and will go on to a school with the same direction, but in the beginning it was sometimes difficult because Erdal needed extra time and attention.

Erdal is now ten years old and as developed as any other ten-year-old is. In the beginning we thought the most difficult thing with having a child with impaired hearing in the family was the extra time he needed. But our faith in us as a family and seeing him develop made us so happy and pleased. It only remains to say that WE LOVE ERDAL.

Abdullah Kursun - Sweden