Toddler Deafness

Dreamer 7

My 2 yr old baby girl has been diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss

She has just had moulds of her ears done for 2 hearing aids and I was looking for anyone in a similar situation who can give somwe advice etc.

All the info I have been given teaches you how to communicate and teach sign language etc but che can talk perfectly(for her age!) and sings songs all the time!!

Boston

I was deaf as a toddler (partial hearing and it varied for the first four years from nothing to normal). Is There anything you would like to know.

Nevyn

Ideally your little one's hearing will improve and she may not need the aids long term.
Or it could be that she may not suffer any further loss and stick with the aids.
But unfortunately there is the chance that it could get worse.

You have to be really really brave and while hoping for the best prepare
for the worse.
The best way to do this is to learn some sign language for yourself
and teach it to your daughter.
Make it fun, a game a giggle if you can.

So that if the unthinkable should happen you will be able to
communicate and reassure her like you do a 100 times a day.
If she was to suffer a sudden loss or a lose to the degree that she
could not hear your or herself clearly she may stop talking or chatting
as her voice and words would not sound right.
This could leave her very frustrated and isolated.

Hopefully she will never need it but it will be a good skill for her to learn
anyway.
There has been research about children as young as 6 months
being able to communicate through sign and how good it is for them and
thier skills and reasoning.


It does seem like you need to get in touch with a support group,
to talk to other parents who have been where you are.

http://www.enablesoft-ebusiness.net...ection.asp?s=53
http://www.childcare.ie/msdp/support.shtml

The links below will help you find some one that can be there for you.
I wish you and your little one the best.

loz

Dreamer 7 wrote:

My 2 yr old baby girl has been diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss

She has just had moulds of her ears done for 2 hearing aids and I was looking for anyone in a similar situation who can give somwe advice etc.

All the info I have been given teaches you how to communicate and teach sign language etc but che can talk perfectly(for her age!) and sings songs all the time!!

My daughter is now 5 - starts school in sept - has had HA's since 18 months, and regular checkups in town. She is also in speech therepy although i think her speech is perfect - and when i compare to other children without hearing issues - i think shes even slightly advanced now.

speech therepy concentrated on s's with sammy snake being involved, and then letter clusteers, bl in blue black etc, fl in fly, flu, flood etc...

shes cool now.

I make sure she wears them every day and shes well used ( and all her pals are )

im sure on day when shes a little older she will tell me she doesnt need them, although less harm in making her wear them now ! just in case !!

as you can see im not completely convinced theres a problem, just cause she didnt put men in a boat at the ear test place in time when she was younger....

just make sure you have loads of spare batteries in the house ( and at grannies )

and the soft moulds are eaier to fit ( and apparently comfier ) than the hard moulds.

ps bonavox are a rip off - go to the hearin centre on north george st for everything !

Agent Smith

There Are a few options...

if you are intrested in learning Sign language, Trinity college do both day course and night course's ( i am currently a student of the day course " Diploma in Deaf studies".

If you think that hearing aid (s) are the best Option, I can pm/email you details of reccomend centers in ireland for fitting/purchace

another option, is a cochlear implant. this is a Hearing system that bypasses the Ear drum and connects to the nerves in the brain. It is quite exspensive and is VERY difficult to reverse.

if you hve any more questions, feel free to pm me.


Joseph

Laguna

My brother was diagnosed deaf at the same age, turns out he wasn't deaf at all, he just couldn't be bothered to speak. Doctors ey? I'd get a second, third and fourth opinon on it with your child, they instantly label someone with something if they aren't conforming to the 'norm'. We thought he was deaf because he didn't speak until he was three, now at 13 he tells us that he couldn't be bothered to speak as he understood us perfectly... weird ey

miju

my son (who is 3 and half years old) is profoundly deaf and has a cochlear implant my parents are also profoundly deaf if you'd like to talk about anything in particular or would like any advice / suggestions / experiences PM me and Ill give you my mobile number / email addy

it can be a difficult time discovering your child is deaf however you will soon come to realise that as unfortunate as deafness is, it really isn't anywhere the worst thing that could happen and every deaf person i know lives a very full and normal life

miju

agent smith wrote:

another option, is a cochlear implant. this is a Hearing system that bypasses the Ear drum and connects to the nerves in the brain. It is quite exspensive and is VERY difficult to reverse.

wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG

please dont be saying things that you obviously know nothing about escpecially on something as serious as a cochlear implant, its difficult enough making the decision to get a an implant.

im sure any parents whose kids may be eligible for an implant wont appreciate you making their decision any harder with your mis-information

Talliesin

_raptor_ wrote:

im sure any parents whose kids may be eligible for an implant wont appreciate you making their decision any harder with your mis-information

I'm sure any parents whose kids may be eligible for an implant will find that by the time they're at the stage of making that decision they've enough conflicting opinions and information from the medical and deaf communities that they won't pay much notice to that post anyway.

For those like Dreamer 7 who are not (and may never be) at that stage, and for those of us who are merely interested, could you say a bit more about exactly how agent smith is wrong?

miju

1: the implant procedure is not expensive (its government funded and I'm 90% cannot be gotten privately as implant candidates have to indiviually assesed)
2: it is a reversable procedure but AFAIK to date the 120-140 odd implantees in Ireland have not had this done
3: it doesnt connect to nerves in the brain, a coil wraps around the cochlea and signals are sent from the external part of the implant to the audio neves via electrodes (cant remember the exact number but its about 20 so that if any electrodes fail the others can be switched on i'll clarify later)
4: the implant (the inner coil itself) is gaurenteed for 15 odd years and more than likely an implanteee will have to undergo another procedure sometime in life for an upgrade/replacement

Off the top of my head, the operation itself lasts for about 3-4 hours and a small S shaped incision is made behind the ear which fully heals and is not noticable in any way (at least not on my child) . The implant doesnt actually get "switched on" for about a month after the operation either. The implantee hears electronically and kind of sounds like "digital noise" when first switched on but after a series of tunings on the implant the sound becomes an awful lot clearer (im actually working on a site about the implant and for anyone who is interested i hope to be having audio samples of what im talking about)

The conflicting reports from what I've been told is mainly due to deaf people being against it for no apparent reason other than that they feel its impacting and taking away members of the deaf community (im being told this by my parents both of which are deaf)

What it actually does is give the implantee access to a range of sounds (low, high, mid) over a period of time (as the implant is fine tuned) but what we were always told is that it's down to the parents to encourgae speech and vocal communication as much as possible otherwise the implantee does not benefit from the procedure as much as they should.

Personally, speaking when we were told this we got everyone of our friends/family to encourage him to talk and along with the speech therapy he's starting to string sentences together and fully understands what you are saying after only 1yr and half.
There are no conflicting reports that I'm aware of or have heard that doubt the benefits of getting implants or criticise it's results (other than what ive said above and thats seem to have to do with the parents)

I think thats pretty much a crash course in the implant (i may have left 1 or 2 things out cos im typing off the top of my head)

Agent Smith

Apoligies For Mis-leading infomation,

i can assure you it was Not done Delibertly.

luckat

By the way, if you're learning signing (good fun to do in any case - i can't understand why it's not taught in schools), remember that there is a "real" sign language, which is a language in full, with its own grammar and words, and also a translation-language called something like Signing for English, which is basically a way of spelling stuff out in signs.

There are also other signed languages, like ASL, American Sign Language. Interesting background - a lot of the signs in that came out of the transnational Native American sign language that was used throughout the continent by people travelling across other peoples' territories (countries, really). Other sings came, for instance, from the deaf whaling communities. Deafness and an ability to sign were actually an advantage for whalers, because you could see a sign where you couldn't hear a shout in a screaming gale, and somewhere in the US - Juilliard, maybe? - there was a town of deaf people dominating the whaling industry. Or so I've been told.

I used to have a dictionary of Irish sign language somewhere, pm me and I'll see if I can hunt it out, if you like - not promising, since the place isn't the most finding-things-friendly, but I'll have a look if you're interested.

miju

ISL is constantly changing just like spoken english does.

id suggest do a sign language course and then do an advanced one, as i already said you'll find that you and your child will quicklu begin to develop your own sign language and communicate with each other

also, if your worried about school down the road alot of kids these days go to school and they either have a special needs assitant or the teacher wears a radio aid (basically a small microphone that hangs about his neck that transmits to your kids hearing aid)