Cherab Foundation

Imagine hearing for the first time. 🎧✨

Try to imagine knowing there’s something most people experience…
but you’ve never felt it. 🤍

You watch mouths move.
You see laughter, conversation, connection.
You’re told something invisible travels through the air and brings people together.
It almost feels like a superpower you can’t access.

So you adapt.
You learn to read lips.
You sign.
You find ways to communicate in a world built around a sense you’ve never known. 🫶

And then one day… you hear.
I can only imagine how overwhelming and emotional that moment must be.

My son Tanner was not hearing impaired, but he attended Summit Speech School preschool, an oral-based school for children who are deaf or hearing impaired. For a child with verbal apraxia, this was one of the most appropriate placements he could have had at that age.

What I loved about schools for the hearing impaired is that they are some of the only places where an inability to speak is never mistaken for an inability to think. 💛 Intelligence is assumed. Potential is expected. Communication is supported in whatever form it takes.

Many of Tanner’s classmates had cochlear implants, and watching those children gain access to sound was never just medical, it was deeply human.






Through my nonprofit outreach, most of the children we serve are not deaf or hearing impaired, but communication challenges come in many forms. Children with hearing loss also have communication impairments, and dignity, access, and connection matter for all of them.

Every child deserves a way to be heard.
And this doesn’t end with childhood.

Whether it’s a toddler finding their first words, a teenager learning new ways to communicate, or an adult experiencing sound for the very first time… connection matters at every age. 🫶

Being understood, being included, and being seen for who you are never stops being important. 💛