Deaf Girl Teaches Herself To Be A Ballroom Dancer Through Strictly Come Dancing

A deaf girl has shimmied to success as an award-winning ballroom dancer - after learning her moves from Strictly Come Dancing. Six-year-old Audrey Tyrrell took up dance lessons as a toddler but struggled to hear the teacher. Instead she found her feet while watching the hit BBC dance contest before perfecting her technique through lip reading and body language. The youngster has loved Strictly Come Dancing since the age of four and makes notes of the judges' comments while the show is on.

This girl took up dance lessons as a toddler but struggled to hear the teacher. Instead, she perfected her technique through the BBC dance contest through lip reading and body language. Audrey has loved the show since the age of four and makes notes of the judges' comments when the show is aired.

Her mum Tracey, 39, said: "I've always loved Strictly Come Dancing, I had it on the television when she was four and Audrey would watch with me. She then asked her dad to dance with her and asking him to lift her up and everything. And then from then she wanted to do dancing, particularly ballroom, and take classes. Strictly Come Dancing is definitely where her love for dancing has come from, she watches it as though she is going to be on there."

Audrey was diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) when she was a baby, before being fitted with a hearing aid at six-weeks-old. SNHL is a type of hearing loss, or deafness, in which the root cause lies in the inner ear or sensory organ making it difficult to hear a person near talking if there is background noise. People who suffer from this may hear muffled speech and find it difficult to understand words - while others are particularly sensitive to loud sounds.

Audrey has already triumphed in four competitions so far, and will now compete in the National Blackpool Grand Finals in November. Her mom says: "This is amazing as she'd only just turned six and was dancing against children up to two years older.

"She has won the under six's and received the highest grade which is an honors.I didn't know she would ever dance - I will never ever forget that moment when she was two weeks old and I discovered she had hearing difficulties. And it was when four weeks old where we learnt that she had bilateral sensorineural. I can't deny that I was devastated and I imagined the years ahead - I just thought she will never hear the birds and the waves of the sea next to us. I did always imagine if I had a daughter she would do ballet, I thought how was she going to speak - I didn't know how it would all work out.But now she is doing all of this - she proves that you can still achieve everything. What she has achieved is phenomenal - and her to qualify is huge. The fact she has an additional need it just makes it all the more special for us.