The prevailing narrative when a baby presents with hearing loss following their first audiogram is ‘unfortunately, your baby failed the test’, immediately framing the child as broken. This piece shows a utopian early intervention, where if a baby has hearing loss they are immediately congratulated, welcomed and embraced into the Deaf community; given language and identity. Having grown up with only oral intervention this is rewriting of my own childhood growing up without Auslan and a way to therapeutically sit with my inner child and heal it. There are many elements of this work which are very tactile such as the handshape mobile made with dry felting and the embroidery of handshapes onto cotton sheet.

@deaf_dyke