Cooper was born deaf in both ears. He couldn’t hear the crying as he came into this world or the voices of his mom and dad whispering that they love him. “We were blindsided that Cooper was gonna be deaf,” Jennifer Briggs said. She still helps him get ready for school in the morning and helps him fix his hair. Growing up, Cooper was an invigorating character. He wore bowties everywhere he went. His treat for being good at his cochlear implant appointments was to go to the car wash. He listened to siren noises loudly on his iPad. He was loud and proud of himself at being able to use all his senses to take in the world around him. Now, as a middle schooler, he is experiencing changes in how he takes in the world around him. “For the most part, he does really well with his hearing. Right now, we go through a lot of the preteen ignoring us,” Jennifer said. “More than the hearing is the Asperger’s and the social issues that he has.”