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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Celebrate the Successes!

As the school year comes to an end, I find myself filled with emotion: stress about the last book report when the book is lost, anxiety about the letter from the library about HOW MANY books are lost, relief that the children (and their parents) got through it, excitement about the beach and summer vacations, [...]

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Encouraging Friendships for Kids with Hearing Loss

Some kids seem to make friends with ease. They always seem to have someone to play with, and they have no trouble navigating the social world of their classroom or neighborhood. Other kids need more support and may need parents to play a more active role in their effort to make friends. All of the [...]

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“ I love you so much but you need to pick up your dirty clothes off the floor:” A challenge for 2011

This sentence is probably the parenting message that goes through my mind the most often! I am not sure why my children do not ever seem to pick up their dirty clothes without me nagging and I am not sure why it drives me so absolutely crazy. But they don’t and it does. While preparing [...]

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Questions and Suggestions from Family and Friends about Your Baby with Hearing Loss

“We found out three months ago that our baby is deaf. We are still taking her to follow-up appointments and trying to sort out exactly what she needs. We are also slowly getting over the shock of it all – it was a perfectly normal pregnancy and no one in our family has a hearing [...]

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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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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 [...]

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