When will she just grow up?! Putting emotional development in perspective

Parents often feel frustrated and even exasperated when their child with hearing loss behaves in an immature or inappropriate way. Most children easily figure out how to press their parents’ buttons and can just set us off sometimes. Parents have called me at such a point of stress that they are frantic, even hysterical about [...]

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S-P-E-L-L it out for me: A Letter to Mom and Dad from Your Child with Hearing Loss

Dear Mom and Dad, Hi, its me your child with hearing loss. There is something really important about me that you need to know. I realize how hard you try to help me learn language and succeed, so I know that you would want to know about this so you can help me. I try [...]

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Getting Kids with Hearing Loss Ready for the First Day of School

The first day of school is both exciting and stressful for many kids. There is so much anticipation and anxiety and everyone wants the first day to go well. Here are a few tips to make sure that the first day goes smoothly: Put brand new batteries in cochlear implants or hearing aids. Nobody needs [...]

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Are Hearing Aids Best Not Seen and Just Used to Hear?

A friend called me from the middle of an appointment with his preschool-aged child to find out what type of hearing aid he should get for his newly-diagnosed child. I told him a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid. He asked “But the little ones they have here are so small, you can barely see them?” I [...]

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Volunteering: A Win for Everyone

Gabriel’s teacher called his parents in for a meeting. Mr. Michaels was concerned that Gabriel was starting to view himself as a victim. He explained to Gabriel’s parents that recently, when challenges came up in class, Gabriel would sigh and mutter that “its too hard for a kid with hearing loss anyway, what is the [...]

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All preschool programs are not created equal

Susan Nittrouer and Lisa Burton set out to study the speech perception and language processing of children the hearing loss. The collected a group of 8-to-10 year old children with hearing loss who were all in mainstream elementary schools and had always used oral language. When they compared the outcomes to a comparison group of [...]

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No child can afford to have fluid in the ears

Half of the children in special education preschools in Israel failed the hearing screening! The audience was shocked and more than a little confused. The study was conducted by the Audiology Department of the Ministry of Education and it sounded like it was done properly. Experienced professionals went into dozens of special education preschool classrooms [...]

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Children with Hearing Loss and ADHD: Interview with Dr Susan Wiley, Developmental Pediatrician

Dr Wiley, please tell HearingFamilies readers a bit about yourself and your background. I am a developmental pediatrician in Cincinnati Ohio, USA.  I have been in practice in developmental pediatrics since 2001. I became interested in children who are deaf/hard of hearing as my hearing aunt and uncle taught at a residential school for the deaf. [...]

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High Expectations and Realistic Situations: A New Motto

There is a very tender, delicate balancing act that parents of children with hearing loss find themselves in. It is really a fundamental issue that lies beneath the surface of so many of the other issues that come up parenting children with hearing loss – so lets address it head on: On the one hand [...]

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How am I supposed to know what is “normal” and when my child needs help?

The parents of a 11-year old boy realized that their son was having so much trouble with the other children at school. He was getting help from an itinerant teacher three times a week. She was making a big difference in his academic life, his grades were good and he was following what was going [...]

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