Toddler with hearing loss

AshJagla

AshJagla

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Hi everyone, my name is Ashley, I'm in my early 20's, I have 2 little girls that are 2 1/2 and 1 yr. They were both premature, with speech delays, but we've just recently realized that our 1yr old's delays are due to her hearing loss.

Not really sure what I'm doing, still waiting to go to my daughter's first audiologist apt this coming Thursday, where I know I'll just be told that she will need further testing by a better hospital. I'm just feeling lost and impatient, I want to know how severe it is, I want to know what her options are and I really need that dx so we can get early intervention over here to help teach us asl and wok with her on speech.

She's 13 months and has never passed a hearing test, but we were always told that those infant ones are so sensitive that if she's too loud or moving too much, they will come back failed, so we didn't worry about it until we noticed she still wasn't responding to her name and hasn't said any words yet... She does coo though, and it sounds as though she varies her pitch... so maybe there is something there still. We've done things like knocking on doors and dropping pans nearby with no interest from her, I hold her on my lap and call her name while she's facing the other direction, she has yet to turn around.

Anyway, I just wanted to come here and see if anyone has had a small child with hearing loss and wants to share their experience, or even an adult who just wants to chat about completely non related issues to pass the time. You can share your thoughts on HAs and CIs or any opinions that you have. I want to try and understand what the world is like to her... I know this isn't a tragedy, a tragedy would be something that would hold her back from living life to the fullest, I don't want to feel sorry for her, she deserves better than that, I just want to be the best mother to her that I can be.
 
I looked at title of the thread and thought it was a toddler with hearing loss typing here.
 
Ha! Well I guess if my toddler were smart enough to get on the pc, find this website, register and start a thread, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned with her hearing because she'd be a total genius. :giggle:
 
Welcome! There are a number of other parents here with very young children too.
 
AshJagla said:
Hi everyone, my name is Ashley, I'm in my early 20's, I have 2 little girls that are 2 1/2 and 1 yr. They were both premature, with speech delays, but we've just recently realized that our 1yr old's delays are due to her hearing loss.

Not really sure what I'm doing, still waiting to go to my daughter's first audiologist apt this coming Thursday, where I know I'll just be told that she will need further testing by a better hospital. I'm just feeling lost and impatient, I want to know how severe it is, I want to know what her options are and I really need that dx so we can get early intervention over here to help teach us asl and wok with her on speech.

She's 13 months and has never passed a hearing test, but we were always told that those infant ones are so sensitive that if she's too loud or moving too much, they will come back failed, so we didn't worry about it until we noticed she still wasn't responding to her name and hasn't said any words yet... She does coo though, and it sounds as though she varies her pitch... so maybe there is something there still. We've done things like knocking on doors and dropping pans nearby with no interest from her, I hold her on my lap and call her name while she's facing the other direction, she has yet to turn around.

Anyway, I just wanted to come here and see if anyone has had a small child with hearing loss and wants to share their experience, or even an adult who just wants to chat about completely non related issues to pass the time. You can share your thoughts on HAs and CIs or any opinions that you have. I want to try and understand what the world is like to her... I know this isn't a tragedy, a tragedy would be something that would hold her back from living life to the fullest, I don't want to feel sorry for her, she deserves better than that, I just want to be the best mother to her that I can be.
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My mother went through the same experience with me, particularly noticing the speech delays. Clearly I wasn't another Einstein...:) My loss, amazingly so, wasn't noticed until I was six years old. My mother worked as an RN for many years and she was pretty aggressive in making sure I had all the resources I needed growing up in public schools, namely speech therapy, and she wasn't shy about holding back if the felt the therapists weren't doing a good enough job. I would recommend not getting too far ahead of yourself until she's been tested. It could be a mild, moderate or severe loss, but all easily managed with hearing aids. You sound like you have a positive outlook so stay positive and take it one day at a time.

Laura
 
I'm just feeling lost and impatient, I want to know how severe it is, I want to know what her options are and I really need that dx so we can get early intervention over here to help teach us asl and wok with her on speech.
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It sounds like you have an awesome handle on things..... you're just impaitent for the offical dx right? Wt do you mean her options? I mean it sounds like you want to raise her bilingally with both speech and sign right? That is AWESOME. You can raise her bilingally even if she is HOH.....(ie with hearing aids or CIs) Welcome to an AMAZING community. What state are you in? I would contact your state's School for the Deaf. Also check out American Society fo Deaf Children: American Society for Deaf Children - Home
 
I think the best thing you can do is thorough research on any decision you make. The first and most important thing to consider is teaching your child to communicate. Even if you should choose to go the Hearing Aid or CI route it's important that children are exposed to language early. There is science that proves visual language helps promote language development in hearing children. Many Early Childhood Education programs use either ASL or another form of visual language to help hearing children's brains hard wire for the concept of language. The other thing I want to recommend is that you do thorough research. Learn exactly what the pros and cons are of the intervention you choose to go with. Don't let anyone tell you there aren't any risks. There are risks in everything. Take CIs for example. If your child has limited hearing and they receive a cochlear implant keep in mind that once the surgery is done whatever limited hearing they have had will be gone. Also with CIs come the mapping process. It's not like you just flip a switch after the surgery and it works. It's time consuming and a lengthy process. I dont recall the number of times it will need to be mapped but I believe it is about 5 times or so. Also if the external piece is removed from the person's head they're totally Deaf. This is why it's important to know which method you want to use. I can't highlight enough the importance of visual language either as basic or secondary form of communication. Research the audiologists. There are a lot of them that might try to pressure you in an intervention. There's a lot of strong emotion and political influence by certain groups that might make you feel criminalized if you don't feel it's exactly the method you want to use. You're the parent so ultimately the decision is yours. If you see an audiologist that doesn't seem to "Broker" in one intervention over another that's a good start. If they're informative also keep that in mind. There's no such thing as a perfect doctor but it's important to have a list of things to ask in advance. Things like CI still require a recovery time. Can you take time off work for that? Is your situation one that you know the child will be cared for in those circumstances? What exactly do you want to accomplish for your child? My own personal opinion is that I'd really only care more about my child being able to communicate. If that's with ASL I'm okay with that. Some might want something more for their child and that's perfectly okay but don't just jump in over your head without research because you could find yourself disappointed in your decision.
 
Do you have any specific questions? Your children will be fine. Just make sure you're always signing and talking with them.
 
Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes! And I just want to say that I'm really new to all of this so please don't be offended if I say something completely ignorant, I don't mean to step on any toes, it's just that I've never really come in contact with anyone who has significant hearing loss.

Lau2046 said:
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How crazy for it not to be noticed until you were 6! I can see how though, really, if it weren't for Zoe's recent evaluations I probably wouldn't have noticed it still. She looks back at us so much, so when you're talking to her it looks like she's responding, but really, it's just her amazing adaption to not being able to hear (well/at all).

deafdyke said:
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Yeah, I'm impatient for the official dx, until I have her hearing loss on paper, I can't get the therapist out here to help us learn how to communicate. I do plan to do both ASL and speech if all goes well, the speech is more for her than for our family, we don't mind learning ASL for her, I just don't want her to be limited by people who don't know how to sign. She can choose for herself how she wants to communicate, I just don't want to be the one to choose for her, if that makes sense? And by options, I meant aids, CI, or other devices, I know someone whose hearing loss was corrected with reconstructive surgeries... Of course I'd be okay with aids, but as for anything invasive... I don't know how I feel about that yet.

MEkanger said:
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I love your post. I never realized that the CI destroys any remaining hearing left... I assumed it probably had a lot of follow up apts but I've heard it doesn't click as well for some as it does others.. it's a lot of pressure to think about.. I'm trying my best not to dwell on those things yet until I find out what kind of hearing loss she has. I took her to the hosp in a panic that maybe something was blocking her canal or something else was actively damaging her hearing rather than it having been there since birth (never passed a hearing test, but she always seemed to hear and we don't have a family history of deafness), which the dr confirmed there was nothing obvious taking away from her ability to hear. He did a quick test with 2 tuning forks and said that he believes she has conductive hearing loss and showed no signs of hearing the high pitched tuning fork at all (which I thought meant sensorineural).

Regardless, we know she can't hear most or all of everyday conversations right now, so my husband and I are already trying to implement a few signs for her in now. Our 2 1/2 yr old is starting to do a couple of the signs herself, but I haven't been able to get Zoe to do any yet. We're trying to keep it simple with mainly just mom, dad, all done, eat, drink, play, bath, no and yes for now *mainly focusing on repetition with mom and dad, as those are usually the first words said*. My husband and I are trying to add additional ones to our vocab without signing too much just yet, I know there will come a day when she'll pass me up in ASL, so I figured I better start early but I didn't want to confuse her with too much signing too early on. I'll be a much happier person when the expert can come and help us, that's for sure. The good news is that I am a stay at home mom though, so I have nothing but time to devote to the girls.

CSign said:
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Not just yet, but I'm sure I will once I learn what kind of hearing loss she has :ty:
 
Yeah, I'm impatient for the official dx, until I have her hearing loss on paper, I can't get the therapist out here to help us learn how to communicate. I do plan to do both ASL and speech if all goes well, the speech is more for her than for our family, we don't mind learning ASL for her, I just don't want her to be limited by people who don't know how to sign. She can choose for herself how she wants to communicate, I just don't want to be the one to choose for her, if that makes sense? And by options, I meant aids, CI, or other devices, I know someone whose hearing loss was corrected with reconstructive surgeries... Of course I'd be okay with aids, but as for anything invasive... I don't know how I feel about that yet.
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Oh, yeah totally!!!!!! I hear you. Speech skills are a good thing to have on hand! I do know that while there are kids who are non oral, there are more and more orally skilled kids popping up at schools for the deaf, espeically larger ones. She'll be able to develop both speech and sign. If a kid can grow up bilingal in both English and French, there' s no reason why they can't grow up bilingal in both ASL and English.
I do want to say that ASL may be good for your other daughter too.....kids with spoken language delays can benifit from ASL, especially when language gets more advanced.
 
My both kids are deaf so am I too. We all don't like to wear hearing aids, I always kept took it off when I was 6. I really wish that my mom would keep teach me the speech, force me wear hearing aids, and put me in speech therapy. But she never did, she do what I wanted when I was young, and now I am adult, and having hard time to know how to writing english, kinda hard to communication with hearing people only we can chat as basic as writing on the note or on phone note. Also, I working at some jobs, I was really lonely, they chatting and laughing, keep eachother company while I work quietly and feel my work went too slow because nobody keep me company.

So yeah, I think it's best for your daughter to learn speech and signs both, I hope you don't decide to get her CI! I personally don't like the idea of kids use CI. Nowaday too many kids use CI and oral only, left my older son out at public school in deaf class, and now he finally join deaf school last year at age of 5 in kindergarten, he is very happy there, because everybody knows signs.

Hearing aids do works well for kids to learn speech if you keep push her, by keep on teaching her everyday, without let her do what she want, because she do not understand about the future as jobs, etc. I never really understand why do I need to learn talk, ASL is good enough for me till I got older, I regretted it for kept took hearing aids off, not motive to learn speech.
 
I think you're doing awesome for being new to everything! ASL and spoken English is definitely a plus while growin up. If they can benefit from hearing aids *if* they are prescribed of course after its dx'd as whatever type of hearing loss than I'd stick with the ha's as long as they work. It's true that if you get a CI most of the time you use your residual hearing (hearing you had before the surgery) but most people don't take that really as a downside because their hearing in that ear already was probably horrible to begin with. Hearing aids don't benefit some people which is where ASL can really help or a CI if that's what someone wants.
 
Nowaday too many kids use CI and oral only, left my older son out at public school in deaf class, and now he finally join deaf school last year at age of 5 in kindergarten, he is very happy there, because everybody knows signs.
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Glad he got to go to Deaf School. You're the second or third parent who has said that public school deaf classes seem to be very oral nowadays. But then again, I know that Maryland School, Texas School, Western PA, and Colarado School all have orally skilled kids......
 
You sound like your doing an amazing job; and being a mom is a helluva job to begin with ;). Just sayin'. Anyways, my youngest step-son was born profoundly deaf in both ears and so his bio parents decided at the time to give him CI's so that he would be bilingual. That was the choice that they made, and he's been mapped out 5 times but the audiologist says he has full hearing now as far as that goes. But then again, I don't know exactly how distorted or anything CI's can be as I am mostly hearing. He will be 3 in January, however his hearing age is 1.5 years as far as I know. If it were my decision, I don't think I would've given him the CI's because of all the recovery time he required, and because frankly deaf culture is so beautiful. Besides, think of it this way.... we are created as we were intended to be at birth, as near mirror images of a divine source; why should human kind try to change that which is perfect to begin with ? Perhaps a bit too religious/spiritual in nature but it's just how I feel. In the end really it's the parents decision, if I can be of any help or support just reach out. Take care!
 
mommy7x said:
My both kids are deaf so am I too. We all don't like to wear hearing aids, I always kept took it off when I was 6. I really wish that my mom would keep teach me the speech, force me wear hearing aids, and put me in speech therapy. But she never did, she do what I wanted when I was young, and now I am adult, and having hard time to know how to writing english, kinda hard to communication with hearing people only we can chat as basic as writing on the note or on phone note. Also, I working at some jobs, I was really lonely, they chatting and laughing, keep eachother company while I work quietly and feel my work went too slow because nobody keep me company.

So yeah, I think it's best for your daughter to learn speech and signs both, I hope you don't decide to get her CI! I personally don't like the idea of kids use CI. Nowaday too many kids use CI and oral only, left my older son out at public school in deaf class, and now he finally join deaf school last year at age of 5 in kindergarten, he is very happy there, because everybody knows signs.

Hearing aids do works well for kids to learn speech if you keep push her, by keep on teaching her everyday, without let her do what she want, because she do not understand about the future as jobs, etc. I never really understand why do I need to learn talk, ASL is good enough for me till I got older, I regretted it for kept took hearing aids off, not motive to learn speech.
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Expression said:
You sound like your doing an amazing job; and being a mom is a helluva job to begin with ;). Just sayin'. Anyways, my youngest step-son was born profoundly deaf in both ears and so his bio parents decided at the time to give him CI's so that he would be bilingual. That was the choice that they made, and he's been mapped out 5 times but the audiologist says he has full hearing now as far as that goes. But then again, I don't know exactly how distorted or anything CI's can be as I am mostly hearing. He will be 3 in January, however his hearing age is 1.5 years as far as I know. If it were my decision, I don't think I would've given him the CI's because of all the recovery time he required, and because frankly deaf culture is so beautiful. Besides, think of it this way.... we are created as we were intended to be at birth, as near mirror images of a divine source; why should human kind try to change that which is perfect to begin with ? Perhaps a bit too religious/spiritual in nature but it's just how I feel. In the end really it's the parents decision, if I can be of any help or support just reach out. Take care!
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There's an interesting contrast between the first poster, deaf, and the second poster, hearing .. :hmm:
 
@Bottesini may I ask what points you think are interesting between the two of us ? I am interested :ty::hmm:
 
Expression said:
@Bottesini may I ask what points you think are interesting between the two of us ? I am interested :ty::hmm:
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You haven't lived as a deaf person. Read what she wishes her parents had done.

You are suggesting the exact opposite to this parent when you have no idea what it is like.

Most people hope for what is known as a full tool box for all deaf kids.
 
@Bottesini I would guess you are right. Forgive me, I never claim to know it all believe me in this lol. I have however heard the side from my step son's dad who feels as though he feels as though he may have outted his son from the deaf community. You are completely right I don't know what it's like to be deaf, to live like that. I do know what it's like to completely misunderstand what others have said to me even though they are right in front of me, I do know how important communication is, and how integral community is for everyone hearing, hard of hearing or deaf.
 
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