20:16 EST, 2 December 2012
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20:19 EST, 2 December 2012
Soap star Rita Simons was horrifed when she was accused of child abuse for deciding her deaf daughter should undergo an operation to enable her to hear.
The EastEnders actress, 35, and her husband Theo Silveston have decided their six-year-old Maiya will have a cochlear implant fitted, to give her hearing in both ears.
However, their decision has been met with a negative reaction by some people, including one young woman who accused her of abuse.
Me and my girl: EastEnders actress Rita Simons and her six-year-old daughter Maiya
Rita, whose daughter Maiya has a twin sister Jaimee, told Hello! magazine: ‘It comes mainly from people who
firmly believe that deafness should be embraced rather than treated as a
physical deficiency that should be corrected.
‘I
totally respect their point of view. But when a 19-year-old girl told
me that I was an “abuser” to let my child have a cochlear implant, I was
horrified and deeply hurt.
Read the full interview in Hello! Magazine out now
‘I
would throw myself in front of a bus for my girls, and yet I was being
judged by someone who didn’t know me or understand my emotional stance
at all.
‘We know it’s not a miracle cure and her hearing won’t be perfect.
‘But, in time her brain will process what it is hearing and compensate, making sounds more familiar to her.’
While Maiya has been deaf since birth, her sibling Jaimee has perfect hearing.
Since Maiya’s birth, Rita has been heavily-involved in deaf charity work and also featured in a BBC documentary about life as a parent to a deaf child.
Rita explained: ‘We’ve brought Maiya up as a hearing child, and she attends the same mainstream school as her twin sister.
‘She was born with some hearing; when that goes completely it will leave a void in her life and she will miss it.
‘All
we want to do is give her back what she has lost and help to expand her
life. If you’ve got the opportunity to give your child the gift of
sound, why would you not do that?’
Read the full interview in Hello! Magazine out now.
Soap star: Rita as feisty Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders
View the original here:
EastEnders’ Rita Simons opens up on her decision for deaf daughter Maiya to have an ear implant