I'm new... mom of deaf baby girl

Victorias mom

Victorias mom

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Hi all.. I found this site while searching for info. I found out about a month ago my baby has a profound hearing loss. She is 11 weeks old. Just figured I might be able to get info/tips/advice from you all. I just started going through the process of setting up early intervention and hearing aids for her. There is a lot of information to absorb!!

Andrea
 
Welcome you stay AD and let's breath away.....


Of course you glad found here! WHICH IT'S GOOD!

you'll meet them some members who alike you..
 
Hello. I'm a Hearie w/ 3 kids. 1 Deaf. It's really overwhelming, but you'll figure it all out. Lots of options. Do what feels right for you and your child. It doesn't matter what other people think. You will find strong opinions about this stuff. One person says never send her to Deaf school and someone else says never mainstream. Sometimes you will be confused but you have a long time to work it out before she hits school :welcome: . Little G is a boy 2.5. We are making great strides. The people here have been terrific. If you have any specific questions pm me.
 
Here is a good organization to join:http://www.deafchildren.org/asdc/
This is the American Society for Deaf Children, which supports Sign and Speech for communication options. I wish I could reccomend AG Bell, (so that you'll have adaquate oral support) but unfortunatly AG Bell can be rather extreme. If you choose to help your daughter develop oral skills, you can get sufficent support through speech therapists or oral schools. AG Bell has gotten a little more libral (eg it's not too unusual to see Sign being used at conferences, and people aren't "Sign is EVIL! We must make our dhh kids ASSIMULATE into the hearing world!") but trust me..... reading Volta Voices, sometimes you'd think that their posisiton on speech hasn't changed since Bell himself founded the organization.
What state are you in? Maybe we have some members near you!
We can give you a ton of resources. Contact your state's School for the Deaf....Oh, and definitly tell them that you are interested in services for both deaf and hoh kids. One of my friends asked for hoh support, and most of what shew as given was the rehabilative stuff and the mentality was kind of off putting. (she says that everyone was complaining about that they wanted their dhh kids to be "normal")
 
:) :welcome: to AD!

Btw, I was born deaf and was not found to be deaf til I was 14 months old. So you are not the only one!
 
G'day 2kids1hoh,
Welcome to AD. Hope you'll learn what you need to know. Deafdyke's got some good points.
Cheers! :wave:
 
Hi,


Welcome to Alldeaf and enjoy your stay here ;)...
 
Hi my name is Kelly come from Vancouver Island.

Hi all deaf,

My name is Kelly, I come from Nanaimo, BC Canada. I m hard of hearing. I can sign langauge little bit. I want learn more sign langauge. I want meet Duncan. He is cute. I hope he will talk me soon.

kelly
 
:wave: :welcome: to Alldeaf 2kids1hoh!!! I hope you will enjoy your stay here on this forum, and get all the information you need. Deafdyke's resources are very helpful!!! Good luck!! Have fun posting, and welcome aboard!!!
 
Thank you all for welcoming me. Thank you for the information, I will definetly look into the local organizations, I live on Long Island. I am sure there are a lot around here.
 
I will definetly look into the local organizations, I live on Long Island. I am sure there are a lot around here.
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Long Island? I think Sjsue is from Long Island if I'm not mistaken! Unfortunatly she's not totally fluent in Sign (if I recall correctly) and she only has a mild loss. I think there might be a School for the Deaf on Long Island, if I remember correctly.
Here is a listing of the Schools for the Deaf in your area:
http://www.lexnyc.com/
http://www.sfdesales.org/
http://www.sjsdny.org/


http://www.millneck.org/ourOrganizations.cfm
I know there's a support group on Long Island for dhh kids, but I wouldn't bother with it. It's a little too biased in terms of communication ideology.
Early on, it's best to start out with both speech and sign. That way if the kid doesn't have the flair for speech, they won't be behind in language, and if they have a flair for speech, then they'll have started early. Don't get entrenched in the ideology wars. The important thing is to get your child equiped with the abilty to choose which tools she wants to use in life.
 
on the other hand, Listen-Up is kind of biased towards oral and auditory-verbal. They have Sign stuff, but it's mostly an afterthought.
I wish there was some oral stuff out there that presented itself as more " Your child will have another useful tool in their communication box," rather then "your child can learn to hear and speak, and won't need ASL or any other special needs things."
If there was I'd reccomend it. I know one of the concerns that some hearing parents have, is that TC based programs may not concentrate enough on speech......that's definitly a legitimate concern. Just wish more parents understood that making Sign verboten isn't going to improve the spoken language or the clarity of their kids' speech.
 
I actually went to the Mill Neck school last week for an evaluation of her, and it was a great school. I really like the program a lot. The people seem to really care about the children. They are a total communication school, but I think I will look into a sign language class for myself too. This way if we decide to go that route, I will have a head start. I am sure my 4 year old will pick it up faster than me too!! Like you said, she might not do well with speech, so I should look into sign language. I will have to see how she does with her hearing aids. I think she will be getting them within a few weeks. I think before she is 1, its good to teach her basic words so she can communicate with us. I heard babies can sign as early and 8 or 9 months, even just basics like more, milk, mommy, daddy. etc.
 
2kids1hoh said:
I actually went to the Mill Neck school last week for an evaluation of her, and it was a great school. I really like the program a lot. The people seem to really care about the children. They are a total communication school, but I think I will look into a sign language class for myself too. This way if we decide to go that route, I will have a head start. I am sure my 4 year old will pick it up faster than me too!! Like you said, she might not do well with speech, so I should look into sign language. I will have to see how she does with her hearing aids. I think she will be getting them within a few weeks. I think before she is 1, its good to teach her basic words so she can communicate with us. I heard babies can sign as early and 8 or 9 months, even just basics like more, milk, mommy, daddy. etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, Fact TRUE.. Baby starting communcation babble as milk, mommy, daddy their index finger "point finger" sign languages and will build improve more more. Will come faster learn and easy communcation w/you.. You'll love your child everyday...
:)

As same my hearing children were learning sign langauges and taught them object things by words... and also watch t.v. Seamse Street too.

My 3 hearing children are great sign langauges and can communcation w/me or my husband. Went well so far..

You did right thing choice... best for your child placement Deaf School. I'm proud you did..
 
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