Dafydd has Waardenburg Syndrome. He was born profoundly deaf – that is absolutely no hearing at all, which in turn, had the added issue of impacting on his speech. Age four and a half he had his first cochlear implant which allowed him to ‘hear’ for the first time in his life. From this point he attended a Hearing Impaired Unit and worked with a speech therapist and the cochlear implant team. His speech improved and he was integrated into mainstream. At this point his hearing was ‘mono’. In 2012 he had his second implant and now has more of a ‘stereo’ hearing ability – he is now bi-laterally cochlear implanted. His first language was British Sign Language, backed up by lip-reading. His second language is English and he does a little ‘conversational Welsh’ in school. Having recently sat the Welsh Government Literary and Numeracy assessments at 9 years 5 months he achieved 9 years 7 months on both – a huge achievement considering he started out at minus four and a half years. Daf has no balance organs but his other senses compensate for this as well as for his lack of hearing. He is very visual with an almost photographic memory. He loves music. He danced to reggae before he could hear – barefoot to feel the vibrations through the floor. He plays the ukulele. He plays touch rugby and cricket. He has a determined spirit. He is brave and resourceful and faces head on whatever challenges he is given. He has a great sense of humour. He wants most of all to be a soldier and a rugby player – maybe he will one day, who knows? Dafydd began Ninjutsu training around two years ago – the initial aim was to have just a few lessons through the school holidays. Despite worries that he wouldn’t be able to participate fully due to his implants this hasn’t raised any issues at all. He removes his processors when doing rolls but this is the same as he would do in school or at home. He is more confident and his focuses better on his balance. He gets on well with the other members in class and the instructors are both patient and encouraging. He struggled with some of the Japanese words at first but, like any other new words, learned them through repetition. Like any ten year old, there was always the possibility he would get bored but not so - he looks forward to Ninjutsu every week and is dressed and ready at least half an hour before we need to leave home. He even says he wants to become a sensei (teacher of martial arts) when he grows up! " 

 Dafydd is now a very credible 1st Kyu Brown Belt and an Assistant Instructor, as of June 2018