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Most parents celebrate their baby\u2019s first \u201cMama\u201d or \u201cDada\u201d but rarely consider how much goes into this speech milestone. For a child with\u00a0<\/span>hearing loss<\/span>, those utterances may not be a given.<\/span><\/p>\n So when Tiffany Lim\u2019s first assigned case, a four-year-old with hearing loss who had spent most of his childhood in a world of silence, called out to his mother and grandparents for the first time, it meant everything to her.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUp until then, he was in his own bubble,\u201d she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n The 26-year-old is an\u00a0auditory-verbal habilitationist (AVH)\u00a0at KK Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s (KKH) Audiology\u00a0Service. She works in a niche field, helping\u00a0children and babies with hearing\u00a0loss\u00a0develop listening and language skills after they are fitted with hearing devices.<\/span><\/p>\n The work is deeply family-centred, with parents coached to support listening and language development both during sessions and at home.<\/span><\/p>\n In Singapore, around\u00a0one in 1,000 newborns has significant hearing loss, according to KKH.Auditory-verbal therapy is recommended to monitor the child\u2019s hearing device use and their spoken language development, said Lim.<\/span><\/p>\n On average, the KKH Audiology Service attends to 2,500 to 3,000 patients with hearing loss each year.The service sees children from around six months up to 18 years old. Some are born with hearing\u00a0loss; others lose their hearing later due to acquired infections or medical conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n Lim, who has a degree in psychology with a focus on child development, always wanted to be in a helping profession. She found herself drawn to the interactive, hands-on aspect of working with children during an internship at an early intervention centre.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nFINDING HER CALLING<\/span><\/h2>\n