When it comes to parenting, it is important for a mother or father to be able to understand their children.

For some, this means having a running knowledge of current pop culture and keeping up with the latest teen slang and phrases. For others, it means being able to understand what they are saying — literally.

For father-to-be Seth Alexander, whose first child is due to make her debut sometime this week, his potential struggles fall under the latter category.

At the age of about 12, it was discovered that the Redmond resident had minor to moderate hearing loss. His condition was degenerative and by the time he was 25, speaking on the phone was too difficult since he couldn’t see the other person’s face to read their lips. Alexander, now 34, said at that point, he had about 2 percent hearing comprehension in his left ear without the help of lip reading. Hearing comprehension in his right ear was at about 20 percent.

At work, he said he could do small meetings, but larger meetings were difficult as he was not always able to see others’ faces from further away to read their lips.

Alexander also struggled in social situations and was hesitant to attend gatherings with more than about five people. The effort and energy he exerted to read others’ faces during larger get-togethers would leave him exhausted at the end of the night.

A LIFE-CHANGER

This all changed in January 2011 when Alexander underwent a procedure to get a cochlear implant in his left ear. At the end of that same year, he underwent the same procedure to get an implant in his right ear.

A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which just amplify sound, implants do the work of the damaged parts to provide sound signals to the brain.

This was what made a difference to Alexander. As a result of his condition, he lost his ability to hear higher-pitched sounds first. So using hearing aids did not help much as they could not amplify sounds that were not there.

Within three months of the operation, Alexander said he was up to 98 percent speech comprehension. But he still remembers when he first started hearing things using the sound processor — the outer part of the cochlear implant system that takes the sound captured by its microphone and converts it into detailed digital information.

“Everything sounded like spaceships and wind chimes,” Alexander said with a laugh, referring to his then-new-found ability to hear higher-frequency noises.

Following the procedure, Alexander was given a CD to help retrain his ears and hearing. In addition, he began listening to audio books.

“I’d never been able to do that,” he said.

The first books Alexander listened to were read by a British actor, whose accent added an extra challenge.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

While the cochlear implants have helped Alexander overcome a number of challenges personally and professionally, he admits that he tried to ignore the fact that he was hard of hearing for a long time.

After they initially discovered his hearing loss, Alexander refused to wear hearing aids. His refusal — stemming from the fear of being made fun of — continued through his teen years. It wasn’t until he got to college that he began to notice the effect his hearing loss had on his life as he wasn’t always able to hear what his professors were saying and struggled in classes.

He felt his disability also affected his professional life.

Alexander — who has previously worked at Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com, Inc. — currently works at Dropbox, Inc. in Seattle as a quality assurance engineer. He said while companies and potential employers did not discriminate against him, it wasn’t always easy for people to accommodate some of his needs such as holding in-person interviews rather than phone interviews.

He recalled one instance in which he had traveled out of state for a job interview but had forgotten his traveling vibrating watch. Alexander, who is completely deaf when he does not wear the outer sound processors (which he doesn’t to sleep), said he called the company and explained his situation, asking if someone could come into his hotel room to physically shake him awake if he did not call to check in with them by a certain time. The potential employer agreed, but Alexander said they thought the request was a bit strange. Fortunately, he was able to wake up in time.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Being completely deaf also has its benefits at times.

Alexander said since he cannot hear when he takes off his sound processors, if he is traveling on a plane with a crying baby or other disruptive noises, he can just take off his sound processors and sleep undisturbed.

His hearing loss has also come in handy when he has gone mountain climbing. Alexander — who has been climbing seriously for about three years — said camping on a mountain can sometimes get pretty windy, but since he can’t hear without the sound processors, the noise doesn’t bother him at night like his fellow mountain climbers.

THE NEXT GENERATION

With the birth of his first child, Alexander said he would like to teach her sign language — something he did not learn until he met his wife, who encouraged him to take signing classes at Bellevue College.

Alexander said they are not sure if his condition is genetic as there is no history of hearing loss on his mother’s side of the family and he is not sure about his father’s side.

So Alexander and his wife do not know if their daughter will also be hearing impaired. If she is, Alexander said he wants to help her through it and help her not feel isolated as a result, something he experienced growing up.