MIAMI TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Mia Heaton is just like any other toddler. She loves to sing, dance and play. The only difference is that without her cochlear implants, Mia can't hear.
Her parents, Chris and Jessica Heaton, told me that the 2-year-old was born deaf, which was a first for her family.
"We don't have anybody in our family or close to us that are deaf or significant hard of hearing, so it was definitely a new experience for us," Jessica Heaton said.
At just 7 months old, Mia received cochlear implants.
"Having her get the cochlear implants as soon as possible gave her just this potential she would have never had before," Chris Heaton said.
Fast forward more than two years, and Mia is a student at Ohio Valley Voices, a nonprofit center with programs to help kids as young as infants and their families, who are either deaf or severely hard of hearing.
Watch: How Ohio Valley Voices helps kids born with significant hearing loss or deafness learn to communicate
"It's not your ears that hear, it's your brain," said Maria Sentelik, executive director of Ohio Valley Voices. "What we do at Ohio Valley Voices is train that brain of that very small child how to interpret that sound they're receiving."
I sat down with Sentelik to talk about the program, which has been helping Tri-State families for around 25 years.
"Everything we do is intentional. So, when it looks like they're playing, they are playing, but it's for the intentional play," Sentelik said.
We have previously featured the work at Ohio Valley Voices, including how they adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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"We say here, if I give you a list of words and teach you those words, that's great, but unless you practice saying them, you're not going to be able to say them," Sentelik told me.
Sentelik said her staff includes speech pathologists and other specialists who help the kids understand sounds and repetition.
"It's not just oh, cochlear implants and then everything's set in place. It's been the staff and the school that have really given Mia the voice that she has today," Chris Heaton said.
The nonprofit has an upcoming gala on March 7, and provided me with links to other ways the public can support their work.
