School check helped get James' life on track

By CATHERINE MASTERS

James Gerrard loves rugby but his chances of being an All Black are at most slim.

When the 10-year-old Wairoa boy plays he is constantly penalised by the referee because he cannot hear the whistle.

Nor can he risk wearing the thousands of dollars worth of hearing aid he has finally received on the field.

James was diagnosed with hereditary sensory neurological deafness less than two years ago after it was picked up during a Well Child hearing check at his school.

After living his first 7 1/2 years with serious hearing loss, he is unlikely to catch up to other children of his age, says his mother, Angela Gerrard.

When her firstborn was a baby he would get recurrent ear infections and as he grew he became aggressive and frustrated but the family did not know why.

"It seemed that every time he cut a tooth we'd be back to the doctor. I mean this went on for like seven years. It got to a point that the only time he noticed my husband or I was when we were screaming at him."

They asked various experts for advice but were told, "he's just being a boy."

"At that stage I didn't know what normal was. I just thought I was doomed to have a life with this real arrogant child. 'Cause that's what he was like, he'd totally switch off. Only it wasn't so much that he was switching off, it was just that he couldn't hear it."

Eventually, the hearing loss was picked up through a routine check at school.

She believes that if he had been picked up earlier he would still have problems but not to the extent he has. She fears life will be a struggle for him.

To parents she says take children for all their Well Child checks - and to the Government she says please finance more checks.

And even so, she says, parents should not take no for an answer if they suspect something is wrong.

"If you are told there is nothing wrong and you think there is, push on - and fight. Get somebody to listen to you. Because, at the end of the day, you're their parent, you're with them 24/7, you know when there's something wrong."