Helping kids have balanced lives: Many ways to be successful

School never came easily for Zach. He was only 4 when the teachers started calling Zach’s parents to discuss his difficulty staying tuned in to the activity at circle time. He started having problems with reading in first grade and since then schoolwork has always been challenging for him. Zach’s parents realized that school would [...]

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The First Day of School Without Fear

Gina was starting Pre-K at the local elementary school in a week and suddenly started crying for no obvious reason. When her parents reminded her about her new “promotion” to the school for big kids, after 2 years in a small home day-care, she said that she didn’t want to go. She HAD been so [...]

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Helping TOO much isn’t really helpful

Robbie was almost 15 years old and was much bigger than his mother. She sat and read the paper while Robbie took part in a research program on children with cochlear implants. Robbie was the oldest child to participate – it was hard to call him a child, since he looked and acted so very [...]

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Starting Middle School or High School: Tips for Smooth Transitions

I realized it was a brave new world when my son, who is entering high school this September, told me that he’d like to put together a power point presentation for his new classmates to educate them about hearing loss! After 14 years, he has put me out of business! It used to be me, [...]

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Back to School Already?! Preparing for Success at School in the Summertime

For many children with hearing loss, academic and social success in school is a goal that does not come easily. Often, parents, teachers, and speech therapists have to work very hard to help the child with hearing loss do well in school. There is a lot of pressure on teachers in the last week of [...]

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Supporting Siblings of Children with Hearing Loss

Sibling relationships are both incredibly enriching and important connections for children (and adults!) and can cause complicated, very emotionally-draining conflicts in families. They are so complex and individual that it is very hard to talk about them in general terms. But I will try to talk about them in general terms because parents are searching [...]

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Staying Safe on the Roads

The summer, when kids are out of school and sometimes off on their own, is a time to think again about safety. We call after our kids to “be careful” as they go out the door, but our kids with hearing loss need more specific instructions and training to stay safe in the big and [...]

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Summertime Celebrations – Keeping them Happy

Eva Marks, 4 years old, was asked to be the flower girl in her uncle’s upcoming wedding. It was a very exciting time for the whole Marks family and Eva, who liked to dress up as a bride in pretend play time, was caught up with the excitement too. Her parents were really touched that [...]

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Learning to Swim: How do we make sure our kids get wet while their implants and aids stay dry?

I received a question from a mom about how to handle swimming for children with hearing loss. Her children are still very young but she would like to introduce them to swimming and her kids cannot go in the water with hearing aids. She said that she was concerned about how they would understand what was [...]

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Ok, it is still frustrating….

Ok, it is still frustrating…
Even if the glass is half full.
I posted what I hoped was an optimistic and balanced perspective on how having a child with a hearing loss is not the end of the world last week. I felt good about it – spreading the message about riding the waves of life and [...]

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