Isaac’s keeping the beat with his drums

Isaac's huge passion is music and dance. We have explored other hobbies such as football and martial arts, but they just don’t cut it like music does for him. When Isaac was a baby, we attended many toddler and music groups, so his love for music became clear quite quickly. I often got a lot of comments about his rhythmic ability and how well he could pick up a beat from an extremely young age.

Isaac could sing and dance before he could walk and talk. Music was the main way we encouraged his speech and language to develop when he showed some delays, and it was a great way to engage him. He has carried this on and now loves to explore different elements of music and dance.

He’s a big fan of music in general and enjoys lots of different types of music, from classical to rap to 1980's classics. Isaac has danced since he was three years old with street dance schools and regularly performs – it's when he truly comes alive!

He has taught himself to beatbox using YouTube videos, but his major passion now is drums. He has been in drum lessons for approximately 18 months in school. We haven't been brave enough to get a full drum set at home, but he has some electric drums we can pop away in a cupboard. He loves the drums, and I’m not sure whether it's the noise or the vibration feedback, but it's a skill he’s building on which we love to see!

We fully support his love of music and instruments and think it's an important skill to learn. We did swerve the request for bagpipes at Christmas though!

It's always been a niggle in my mind in regards to Isaac's deafness and his love of music, as his hearing levels tend to change a lot but remain in the severe area at the moment. After a little research, I’m confident whatever happens in the future, we can still embrace his love of music in other ways if needs be.