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Katie Petruzziello, mother of 4 year old Mila, is trying make an impact in the world of literature. When Mila was identified with sensorineural hearing loss at 15 months old, and got cochlear implants, Katie wanted her to have books that reflected her experience.

Ashley Machovec, Mila’s teacher of the Deaf, wrote and published a book about Mila’s CI journey, called Mila Gets Her Superears. But books about cochlear implants, and deaf/hard of hearing children need to include more than just their audiology journey. That’s what Katie and Ashley are doing with a whole series of books about “Mighty Mila,” featuring stories that promote the representation of deaf/hoh characters as part of various fun narratives.

2:15: Katie’s background 

Katie developed a passion for writing children’s literature following the publication of Mila Gets Her Superears. Katie hopes that kids without hearing loss will fall in love with characters that do have hearing loss. Books about deaf/hoh kids do not have to purely focus on disability or access needs. There are lots of other story narratives to tell with these types of characters portrayed.

7:55: Katie noticing signs that Mila’s hearing loss was changing

Mila started dropping the high frequency sounds from her speech, she had more slurred speech, and Katie had to crank up her hearing aids. Eventually, Mila became a cochlear implant candidate and got her CIs. Parents can feel empowered by surrounding themself around experts who will closely monitor their child’s case and should keep up on regular check ups and testing.

15:40: Attention to Mila and the balance with her siblings 

Mila gets a lot of attention due to her condition, but luckily her older brother Luca is very supportive of her. It is important to find things that the older siblings enjoy doing and it’s good to include them in the conversations around a sibling’s hearing loss as well.

19:00: Katie’s next book and upcoming projects

Mighty Mila is Katie’s newest book and is a follow up to Mila Gets Her Superears. The plot once again focuses on Mighty Mila. Katie hopes to write more books for this series going forward.

To support the All About Audiology podcast, visit our Patreon website here: https://www.patreon.com/allaboutaudiology

For more resources and research visit:

Mightymila.com

https://www.instagram.com/mightymilastories/?hl=en

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Episode Transcript:

“I want to make it a book that kids without hearing loss will pick up and fall in love ...