Big school starts today and The Shephed Centre graduate Lekeisha Syer couldn't be happier.
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The five-year-old from Cordeaux Heights starts kindergarten at Unanderra Public School on Monday.
Lekeisha is part of a record 26,397 Illawarra primary school students enroled in 2020.
She is also one of 46 children in NSW and the ACT with hearing loss who will start big school with language skills on par with their hearing peers.
To say Lekeisha was looking forward to going to a mainstream school, would be an understatement.
"I can't wait for big school. I'm so excited," she told the Mercury.
Emily Syer was also ecstatic her daughter was starting kindy.
And Ms Syer was confident Lekeisha, who was born partially deaf in both ears, was ready to succeed.
"She's great. I'm positive she is ready for big school. She's probably more ready for it than me," she said.
Mrs Syer said Lekeisha was born with a fluid build-up in her ears, which meant she couldn't take the SWISH test until three weeks after her birth.
The test found she had hearing loss in both ears and would need to wear hearing aids.
This didn't come as a big shock to Lekeisha's parents as hearing loss has run in mother Emily's family in the past and has affected five out of six of their children.
While the family has had lots of experience in this area, they still have benefitted so much from early intervention care.
They have been taking their children to the Shepherd Centre for 14 years now, beginning with their first child Roni.
"The Shepherd Centre has been very beneficial to the entire family as a whole. Not just their hearing support services but providing general support for any other issues we may have such as trouble sleeping," Mrs Syer said.
"Their confident kids program has helped Lekeisha so much, she has always been very loud and chatty but now she has gained so much more self-confident."
She added Lekeisha did a speech at The Shepherd Centre graduation last year which she was very proud of.
Her speaking has improved to be at the same level as her hearing peers and her comprehension is slowly catching up as well.
"She is super excited to attend Unanderra Public School," Mrs Syer said.