Jenny Froude was a journalist on Womanâ¿¿s Weekly before retiring to have a longed-for family. New communication skills were needed when the youngest was deafened by meningitis at 5 months. The years that followed were a steep but lovely learning curve! She studied Signed English and worked as an SSA in a Senior Hearing Impairment Unit for four years.

Introduction 
Acknowledgements
1 The Time of Crisis
2 Deafness may Result 
3 Take My Hands and Let Them Move
4 Channels of Communication 
5 Good Times - Bad Times
6 Coping and Caring
7 Growing Up 
8 Sound or Silence? 
9 Staying Strong 
10 The Big Adventure 
11 Language for Life 
12 Borneo and Beyond 
13 What is Deaf?
14 Paths to Understanding 
Appendix 1: A Letter to a Deaf Son 'Yellow is a Lovely Word to See' 
Appendix 2: A Second Letter to a Deaf Son
Appendix 3: Some Useful Addresses
Appendix 4: Glossary
References 
Index 

Language which develops 'against all the odds' is very precious. Words were not enough for Tom; it was signs that made sense of a world silenced by meningitis. Confidence came via joyful and positive steps to communication from babyhood; a brush with epilepsy, a cochlear implant in his teens and life as an independent young adult followed.