This is the heartwarming moment a deaf toddler's eyes light up and her mouth drops opens as she hears her mother say 'I love you' for the first time.
A'Deja Rivers, 15 months, from Arcadia, Florida, has been deaf since birth.
Last month, she underwent surgery to receive cochlear implants at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida.
Video captured the moment on June 20 when the implants were turned on as A'Deja sat on the lap of her mother, Patricia Shaw.
Her eyes widen as she hears toys rattle, cymbals bang together and Shaw's voice for the first time saying: 'I love you.'
A'Deja Rivers, 15 months, from Arcadia, Florida, was diagnosed as deaf during her newborn screening. Pictured: A'Deja hearing sound for the first time
Both her father, Robert Rivers, and her older sister, Ja'Leen, are hearing impaired. Pictured: A'Deja on the lap of her mother, Patricia Shaw, with a Johns Hopkins staffer (in blue) and her father, Robert Rivers (in red)
'I was just thinking: "Thank you, God",' Shaw told DailyMail.com of the moment A'Deja heard for the first time.
'I know she feels I love her. I show it all the time. But the fact she can hear it now is beautiful.'
A'Deja's hearing loss was total and pre-lingual, meaning she was born with hearing loss or lost her hearing before she was able to speak.
Hearing loss can be inherited or caused by non-genetic factors, such as an infection.
Between two and three out of every 1,000 children in the US are born each year with hearing loss in one or both ears, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).
A'Deja was diagnosed as deaf during her newborn screening. Her father, Robert Rivers, and her older sister, five-year-old Ja'Lynn, are also hearing impaired.
Shaw said that Ja'Lynn received cochlear implants when she was 15 months old, after seeing her success with them, she and Rivers decided to try them with A'Deja.
Cochlear implants are small electronic devices that partially restore hearing.
They have two parts: a sound processor that sits behind the ear and a receiver
