On national Loud Shirt Day, one mother Melissa Ryan is praising major steps forward in technology which have allowed her child, born with severe hearing loss, to lead a successful life.

When Ms Ryan of Vincentia, New South Wales, gave birth to her daughter Hayley, she did not realise her little girl had entered a very quiet world.

Hayley was taken away for senses testing, and it was here that nurses realised something was wrong.

"She didn't pass the first hearing test, but that's not uncommon because a lot of newborns have muck in their nose and ears and we hoped that was the problem," Ms Ryan said.

"The second test failed and our first trip outside the house was back to the hospital for another hearing test before we were referred to Randwick Children's Hospital.

"She was diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss and at seven weeks she was given hearing aids."

Relying on cochlear implants

The news came as a shock to first-time parents Melissa and Mitchell, but with the help of technology and medical support, Hayley has grown into a capable young girl getting ready for primary school.

Since her early days of using hearing aids, she has had cochlear implants fitted, replacing the function of her damaged inner ears.

Ms Ryan says Hayley is developing at a similar rate to her peers and will transition well into primary school. ( ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale )

Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder, cochlear implants do the work of the cochlear to provide sound signals to the brain.

The multichannel cochlear implant was developed by Australian Graeme Clark and first used in children in the 1980s.

Following surgery, Hayley is now profoundly deaf without her cochlear implants but Ms Ryan said the improvement the devices had made to her life has been "tremendous".

Friday is a particularly important one for the Ryan family because it is Loud Shirt Day, a national effort to raise money to provide technology, education and employment choices, and social integration to deaf children.

They said the assistance Hayley and the family has received from The Shepherd Centre charity had been extremely valuable.

"They are the easiest for us to access face-to-face and their services provide for the whole family," Ms Ryan said.

"There's a family councillor, audiologist, and verbal language therapist — everything you need in one organisation.

"If there's some part of our family's development that raises a question, we can be referred to a specialist."

The organisation also provides teleconferences so the family does not have to travel the 90-minute car trip to Wollongong as often.

Improving life with technology

Since having her cochlear implants fitted, and with ongoing medical support, Hayley is preparing to start school next year.

The four-year-old has developed so well that her transition to school should be no more difficult than any of her classmates.

"Her progress with speech and language has been amazing," Ms Ryan said.

"After surgery, kids generally experience a delay because they lose the natural hearing for a period of time, but she seems to have caught up really well.

"Every year she does an assessment around her birthday and she's done another assessment to get her ready for school.

"That assessment shows she's on par with her hearing peers."

Major change for family

Ms Ryan said adjusting to life caring for a child with a disability had been challenging.

"I was a first-time mum and I had no idea what parenthood would be like, let alone parenthood with a child with a disability," she said.

"How do you know what a child is meant to be doing, and make sure they are doing what they're meant to be doing, when they're struggling with an aspect of their life?"

However, Ms Ryan said she had found a conveniently positive angle that would resonate with parents.

"Bed times are so much easier [when] there are a lot of people hanging around," she said.

"You just take the implants off and without them, she's now profoundly deaf, so she's out like a light.

"There's always a silver lining."