Here for my son :)

J

jaismom

New Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Hi! My name is Shy and I have 3 boys ... my youngest (2 months old) is HOH. I just want to learn as much as I can and get as familiar with the "deaf community" as possible. Any ideas? Live in Florida, if that matters. :)
 
Hi and welcome. What part of Florida? There are a couple people here from Florida; hope they will stop by.

What are you considering for your son? Are hearing aids or CIs an option?

Most people here will tell you to get started with ASL right away no matter what else you do.
 
I live in Ocala. I have been learning ASL (online) ... trying to teach it to my two oldest too. We want to go with hearing aides and speech therapy. CIs seems a bit extreme ... I don't if I'm totally comfortable with it. Either way, the doctor said that it wont even be an option until he's one. It would be great if I got to meet other deaf/HOH people because I've never interacted with them. Not by choice. My son is actually the first I've ever met.
 
:welcome: to AD! Born deaf here and an ASL user. Glad you are using ASL with your son. I was mainstreamed orally all of my life and life was more difficult for me than my life as a Deaf ASL user.
 
That's exactly what I want to do!! I want him to grow up knowing that he's extraordinary just the way he is and would like for him to have people that he can relate to him in ways that I obviously cant. Thank you so much for the links!!!!
 
Hi.

Dogmom has a few good links for you to look up into the deaf community. I know many who are deaf people lives in florida and most of them are ASL users. Hope the links help. I was born profoundly deaf and am an ASL user.

so welcome!
 
I have told my family and close friends that ASL will not be an "option" ... its going to expected! Especially because he might not be comfortable being verbal.
 
jaismom said:
I have told my family and close friends that ASL will not be an "option" ... its going to expected! Especially because he might not be comfortable being verbal.
Click to expand...

*grin* This is AWESOME that we have parents of HOH kids wanting their kids to learn ASL!!!!! Is he HOH with hearing aids? dogmom already gave you some great links (and Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is AWESOME)
In addition please check out American Society for Deaf Children: American Society for Deaf Children
 
Hello and hope you find some deaf or hoh ppl in Fla! :)
 
deafdyke said:
*grin* This is AWESOME that we have parents of HOH kids wanting their kids to learn ASL!!!!! Is he HOH with hearing aids? dogmom already gave you some great links (and Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is AWESOME)
In addition please check out American Society for Deaf Children: American Society for Deaf Children
Click to expand...

We're still waiting on his hearing aides. Hopefully he will get them in the next month or so. I think its very important for him (and all who surround him) to know ASL so that he can have a back up. There's so many what if's. I looked into that school ... it's two hours away from where we currently live. But it's still an open option for our family. I'm hoping though that if I get him enough help now, he may be able to go to a "regular" school with ease.
 
jaismom said:
We're still waiting on his hearing aides. Hopefully he will get them in the next month or so. I think its very important for him (and all who surround him) to know ASL so that he can have a back up. There's so many what if's. I looked into that school ... it's two hours away from where we currently live. But it's still an open option for our family. I'm hoping though that if I get him enough help now, he may be able to go to a "regular" school with ease.
Click to expand...

I know it's early but I would look into regional dhh programs first. I think very few mainstream/hometown schools can provide what a good dhh program can. I think very few of us think that little kids should go off to live in the dorms, but many of us acknowledge that the dorms can be a good option for say middle school and up. Keep an open mind as to educational placement...trust me, it can be a nightmare trying to deal with clueless teachers and admins who can usually only offer a minimal accomondations type of educational placement.
 
I understand what you're saying but I couldn't imagine putting him in a dorm room while having his brothers home with me. It can be passed as favoritism or like I'm trying to outcast him. Not to outsiders (could careless about what others think of us) but to my boys. They are all equal to me. I have 5 years to figure out what to do about school ... in the mean time, my main concern is finding camps and organizations that we can be involved in as a family and to learn as much as I can.
 
jaismom said:
I understand what you're saying but I couldn't imagine putting him in a dorm room while having his brothers home with me. It can be passed as favoritism or like I'm trying to outcast him. Not to outsiders (could careless about what others think of us) but to my boys. They are all equal to me. I have 5 years to figure out what to do about school ... in the mean time, my main concern is finding camps and organizations that we can be involved in as a family and to learn as much as I can.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah...... and none of us are saying to put him in a dorm room as a little kid. Just look into regional dhh programs. These are programs housed at hearing schools where dhh kids are also grouped. It's actually not too unusal for kids to attend formal dhh programs in elementary school and then either contiue at a dhh middle school or high school or sometimes attend a deaf school. It's also possible to move a bit closer......I'm sure that there are prolly a lot of regional dhh programs in your area. I think you may have misunderstood my post. Mainstreaming with a regional dhh program can be really good, and I would strongly reccomend that most parents look into that sort of placement. I think many if not most dhh kids should be served by a regional dhh program set up. What I'm trying to say is that try to avoid a mainstream SOLOTAIRE placement, where he's the ONLY dhh kid at his school. That will help you too, as you won't be fighting with teachers and admins who don't have a lot of experiance teaching dhh kids. (b/c unfortunatly most even sped teachers don't have a lot of training in how to teach/manage kids like us)
 
Nope not "shy" at all @poweron ... just the name on my birth certificate lol.

@deafdyke, I actually got a call today from the early steps program which will help with his speech therapy and things of that nature. she told me that the deaf school will assign a case worker to him to help me with pretty all of his special needs. and they do house visits!
 
Welcome to alldeaf! Seems you are on the right track :) Thank you for being so accepting of your son's deafness. He will thank you in the long run too!
 
Back
Top