NextSense means Kara can have big dreams for her daughters, Amity and Saylor, who are Deaf.

“If we didn't have NextSense, my kids wouldn't have access to not only early intervention services, but Deaf adults, Deaf peers, Deaf community and their Deaf identity, which I think is probably the best thing for them,” Kara says.

Elder daughter, Amity, five, started Kindergarten at NextSense School in Sydney on 29 January. The school offers three distinct programs, including a dedicated Sign Bilingual program, which caters to children who use Auslan as their primary language, with additional learning in written and spoken English.

Next year, little sister Saylor, two, will attend NextSense Preschool, where Amity graduated at the end of 2025.

The preschool is a community preschool, where children with hearing and vision loss are taught and supported by highly trained staff, alongside their peers who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have low vision.

The sisters were born with LAMM syndrome, a rare genetic mutation affecting less than one in a million people. Their parents are not deaf.

The girls were born with no inner ear structures, which means they cannot be fitted with cochlear implants and use Auslan to communicate.

The pair has attended NextSense since they were each two-months old, going to early intervention sessions, being supported by a Auslan Language Model and participating in group play with other children. Amity is already fluent in Auslan.

Speaking ahead of Amity’s big day, Kara says she is most looking forward to Amity pursuing her education and learning through access to Auslan with deaf educators as community role models.

Amity is looking forward to making new friends.

“She gravitates toward people who use Auslan at preschool,” Kara says.

“Our goal for her has always been for her to have access to the same things as a hearing child would, but to be supported in her language.

“I just want to see her thrive, and I think she will, in the right environment, with Auslan all around her. She is a very clever kid.

“I have no doubt that we've made the right decision of where to put her for school.”

Longer term, Kara wants Amity and Saylor to be able to do whatever they want without any limitations.

“We try to build that in their resilience now, that they can do whatever they want to do,” she says.

Amity, Saylor and her parents

The girls’ family, including her mother and father and grandfather and grandmother, have learned Auslan, as have some close family friends, and they conduct monthly family sessions with a deaf mentor, Dana, at the children’s home.

NextSense Institute Professional Experience Coordinator, Sheridan Howell, has worked as a Teacher of the Deaf and headed up an early intervention program in Queensland.

Sheridan says for children like Amity, it was imperative that they are immersed in Auslan, be with specialist staff, who can communicate with them and be Auslan role models, and with peers who sign, which is what the NextSense School provides.

“Language underpins our ability to communicate and build relationships with others,” Sheridan explains.

“It underpins our learning, our cognitive development, our social emotional development and our wellbeing.

“So, if you have reduced access to your only accessible language, all those areas are impacted.

“NextSense School is an ideal opportunity for that.”

Sheridan says another important aspect of Amity and Saylor’s early intervention is its family centred focus and that their parents and grandparents could be part of the Deaf community and Deaf culture.

“A bilingual, bicultural environment where Auslan and Deaf culture is valued in the same way that we value spoken language and hearing culture.”

Kara says she wants Amity and Saylor to know “that they can do whatever they want to do, even though they're Deaf”.

NextSense Head of Education Strategy, Lisa Wahab, says it isn’t only imperative that children who are deaf “are immersed in Auslan; it’s their right to learn and access language through their first language, and their first language is Auslan”.

“In Australia, we're in a great place where education can be delivered through Auslan, we have many gifted Teachers of the Deaf and teachers who are deaf,” Lisa says