After a plate was set down before him, Luis, who does not know how to speak properly, picked it up and put it down to hear the sound, Gallagher said. He clinked his silverware together. And the sound of the garbage disposal was something to be investigated.

“He jumped off the stool and came over to see what it was because it was so big,” Gallagher said last Friday as Luis ate breakfast.

The morning was a landmark in Luis’s development, but it will take time, discipline and money for Luis, born deaf, to adapt to his new ability to hear.

Luis’s journey to Florida began with the efforts of Jeanne Teter and Light of the World Charities, a Palm City-based, Christian nonprofit that provides surgical aid to Honduras and Africa.

Teter, a nurse and volunteer with the charity, spent about a year raising money and procuring donations before bringing Luis, who is also unable to speak beyond a few words, to Florida.

Teter and Luis left Luis’s family in Comayagua, Honduras and arrived in Florida in early March. Luis received the implant April 3 in a surgery performed at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in the University of Miami Health System for free by Dr. Fred Telischi, director of the college’s Ear Institute. The implant and programming, donated by Advanced Bionics, total $35,000 to $45,000, estimated Teter. She estimated the donated surgery and current run of therapy totaled $70,000. After the surgery, Luis moved in with the Gallaghers so he can adjust to his newfound ability.

Learning to adapt to the new sense at times has been taxing and uncomfortable.

Luis turned down the volume on his donated implant after it was activated late last month, setting back his progress by two weeks.

Luis, who currently communicates in a unique form of sign language, screeches and a few words, just finished speech therapy in Miami. Money is now being raised for him to continue speech therapy with Lima Therapies Group in Port St. Lucie. Teter also is attempting to bring his mother to Florida to help him learn to speak Spanish.

Luis lives wih his mother in Comayagua and has two older sisters, one of whom is an adult and the other, younger.

“When it all clicks, I really do think the world’s at his feet,” Gallagher said.

In the meantime, the Gallaghers are trying to make Luis feel at home until he returns to Honduras, tentatively in August.

Luis’ return to Honduras will be bittersweet, said Melanie Gallagher. Luis will continue receiving therapy in Honduras and will go to Tegucicalpa, the nation’s capital, for programming. “It will be wonderful to see the progress that he’s made, and it will be sad to see him” go, Gallagher said.

DONATIONS FOR LUIS

Money is now being raised for a once-deaf Honduran boy to continue speech therapy on the Treasure Coast.

• Make checks out to Light of the World Charities, PO Box 273, Palm City, FL 34991 Specify the money is intended for Luis.

• For more information, contact Light of the World at (772) 221-4688.