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Today's News-Herald - Havasunews.com - Serving Lake Havasu City & The Lower Colorado River Area - News - News
Stephanie Sconce never let being deaf slow her down. In fact, she considered it an important part of who she was.
"I'm very proud of it," she said.
With the help of an interpreter, Stephanie attended mainstream schools and graduated from Lake Havasu High School. She learned to speak and read lips. She was a cheerleader and competed in pageants. She learned to dance by feeling the beat of the music in her body.
Nevertheless, the day she was fitted for a state-of-the-art SeboTek hearing device changed her life. That was the day she heard her own voice for the first time.
"The first time I heard my voice, I was, 'Oh my gosh, that's horrible speech,' and then I heard my laugh and I didn't like it," Sconce said.
Sconce's mom, Barbara Hunt, knew her daughter was deaf when she was three-months old. When Stephanie was officially diagnosed as being deaf, Hunt immediately began to learn sign language so she would have a way to communicate with her daughter.
Hunt was insistent the little girl learn not only sign language but speech as well.
"She couldn't open the refrigerator unless she said 'refrigerator' or signed it," Hunt said.
It turned out Hunt's relentlessness helped lay the groundwork for the dramatic success Sconce experienced with the SeboTek hearing device.
According to Colleen Pryor, director of Pur Tone Hearing Center in Lake Havasu City, the SeboTek device is successful in restoring hearing for about 90 percent of patients with profound hearing loss who are considered "unaidable." But because the majority of them never learned spoken language, being able to hear their voice isn't that beneficial.
"(Stephanie's) a special story because she had been (using) speech all her life, so when she got the device she knew what she was hearing. Most people don't. She went from not hearing to really hearing," Pryor said.
Sconce had worn hearing aids since she was two years old, but the bulky devices were noisy and "windy" and didn't help that much. Hunt would have to tape the old-style hearing aids to Sconce's head when she danced, and she still couldn't hear the beat.
The SeboTek, which has been on the market for six years, is tiny and inconspicuous. A nearly invisible filament connects the microphone on the back of the ear with a speaker inside the ear canal. With other hearing devices, the microphone and the speaker are next to each other, resulting in feedback and distortion, Pryor said. The arrangement directs more power to the speaker without increasing distortion, she said.
After years of wearing bulky hearing aids, Sconce was skeptical about the SeboTek when she first saw it at Pur Tone Hearing Center five months ago.
"The first thing I thought to myself (was), that hearing aid is really small. I don't know if it will work for me," she said.
But it did work, and now not only can Sconce hear her own voice, she can hear the beat of the music when she dances. She no longer needs to rely on lip reading.
"It helped me a lot. It helped my dream come true," Sconce said.
While maintaining pride in her identity as a deaf person, Sconce is claiming a place in a hearing world. She works in the women's shoe department at Dillard's and acts as a spokeswoman for Pur Tone. She hopes someday to compete for the title of Miss Arizona.
Being able to hear herself also has allowed her to improve the voice that once sounded so "terrible" to her.
"I'm working on my speech. I do the best I can," she said.
Never heard of it.
Stephanie Sconce never let being deaf slow her down. In fact, she considered it an important part of who she was.
"I'm very proud of it," she said.
With the help of an interpreter, Stephanie attended mainstream schools and graduated from Lake Havasu High School. She learned to speak and read lips. She was a cheerleader and competed in pageants. She learned to dance by feeling the beat of the music in her body.
Nevertheless, the day she was fitted for a state-of-the-art SeboTek hearing device changed her life. That was the day she heard her own voice for the first time.
"The first time I heard my voice, I was, 'Oh my gosh, that's horrible speech,' and then I heard my laugh and I didn't like it," Sconce said.
Sconce's mom, Barbara Hunt, knew her daughter was deaf when she was three-months old. When Stephanie was officially diagnosed as being deaf, Hunt immediately began to learn sign language so she would have a way to communicate with her daughter.
Hunt was insistent the little girl learn not only sign language but speech as well.
"She couldn't open the refrigerator unless she said 'refrigerator' or signed it," Hunt said.
It turned out Hunt's relentlessness helped lay the groundwork for the dramatic success Sconce experienced with the SeboTek hearing device.
According to Colleen Pryor, director of Pur Tone Hearing Center in Lake Havasu City, the SeboTek device is successful in restoring hearing for about 90 percent of patients with profound hearing loss who are considered "unaidable." But because the majority of them never learned spoken language, being able to hear their voice isn't that beneficial.
"(Stephanie's) a special story because she had been (using) speech all her life, so when she got the device she knew what she was hearing. Most people don't. She went from not hearing to really hearing," Pryor said.
Sconce had worn hearing aids since she was two years old, but the bulky devices were noisy and "windy" and didn't help that much. Hunt would have to tape the old-style hearing aids to Sconce's head when she danced, and she still couldn't hear the beat.
The SeboTek, which has been on the market for six years, is tiny and inconspicuous. A nearly invisible filament connects the microphone on the back of the ear with a speaker inside the ear canal. With other hearing devices, the microphone and the speaker are next to each other, resulting in feedback and distortion, Pryor said. The arrangement directs more power to the speaker without increasing distortion, she said.
After years of wearing bulky hearing aids, Sconce was skeptical about the SeboTek when she first saw it at Pur Tone Hearing Center five months ago.
"The first thing I thought to myself (was), that hearing aid is really small. I don't know if it will work for me," she said.
But it did work, and now not only can Sconce hear her own voice, she can hear the beat of the music when she dances. She no longer needs to rely on lip reading.
"It helped me a lot. It helped my dream come true," Sconce said.
While maintaining pride in her identity as a deaf person, Sconce is claiming a place in a hearing world. She works in the women's shoe department at Dillard's and acts as a spokeswoman for Pur Tone. She hopes someday to compete for the title of Miss Arizona.
Being able to hear herself also has allowed her to improve the voice that once sounded so "terrible" to her.
"I'm working on my speech. I do the best I can," she said.
Never heard of it.
