10/28/2025
50 likes, 6 comments. “They said he would never learn to hear and speak. They said that he was autistic and severely developmentally delayed. They were all wrong.”
Cortez’s Journey
- Home
- United States
- Coushatta, LA
- Cortez’s Journey
DEAF KIDS CAN LEARN TO HEAR AND SPEAK AT THE ORAL ADVOCACY RESOURCE
CENTER FOR DEAF KIDS
Address
Coushatta, LA
Telephone
Website
Alerts
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cortez’s Journey posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Organization
Send a message to Cortez’s Journey:
Share
Category
When a hearing family has a deaf baby
CORTEZ’S JOURNEY·SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020·
Sad and confused because I just entered the world of the unknown, they told me my baby was born deaf in one ear. They said the other ear was perfectly normal. They said he was developmentally delayed.
When Cortez was just a few months old, while he was fast asleep I would get two cooking pots and bang them together. He wouldn't flinch. I would turn the television to a static channel with the volume on full blast. He wouldn't flinch. I told the Doctors, but they assured me he could hear and was simply developmentally delayed. I wanted to believe them so badly that I think I convinced myself, all along knowing the truth.
Cortez was 2 years and 5 months of age when we were told that he was profoundly deaf in both ears. At 2 year and 9 months of age, he received a cochlear implant in his right ear. Desperate for my son to learn spoken language, and with zero oral schools in Louisiana we left Dad behind to keep the finances and medical insurance active, me and the kids moved to Sacramento, CA to enroll Cortez into an Oral school called Children’s Choice for Hearing and Talking Center (CCHAT). After 6 months, the CCHAT Center recommended a different education setting called total communication, which combined oral with sign language education. CCHAT also expressed some concern about Autism and other developmental differences. I took Cortez to a specialist where their findings for Autism were negative. I went to Oakland’s children's hospital in Oakland, CA to seek a cochlear implant for his left ear, where I was denied and told to focus on sign language. I then returned to Louisiana to seek a second opinion regarding implantation of his left ear. Cortez was nearly 4 years old by the time he was approved, healed, and activated. Upon completion of this process, I traveled to several different states desperately seeking the appropriate education setting for him. In September, 2010 I returned to Concord, California and enrolled him in a public school setting that offered total communication. This school insisted Cortez had some cognitive issues and recommended that he be placed in a class with other children with the identical diagnoses and Autism. As a mom who spent many days and nights with Cortez, I knew that he did NOT have the aforementioned issues. I conducted some research and located a school called the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California. After being evaluated, Cortez was accepted into their program. This special program taught deaf children spoken language. Cortez was 5 years old with no language at all. This school did not teach sign, so at that point I decided to choose one language to remain dedicated to.
