9 year old Aided main stream child so many questions

[TODtobe]

It sounds like he is having trouble discriminating some sounds. It could be a simple as needing to change the settings on his hearing aids or adding an FM. He needs a speech discrimination test done by an audiologist both in quiet and in noise.

If he transfer to a Deaf school all his classes will be in ASL and English will be taught as a second language.

 

[NaidaUP]

He seems to be having a lot of trouble for someone who only has a mild loss.

I would say the settings on his hearing aids need changing.

A lot of people with a mild loss, do not get hearing aids as they find HA's pick up too much noise. Might be why he doesn't like to wear them?

Someone with a mild loss, will struggle in noise but even hearing people struggle in noise anyway.

Quote from Google -
"When your hearing test results are between 21 and 40dB you have mild deafness. Without hearing aids you can hear everything people say to you when you are in a quiet room, but have trouble hearing if there is lots of noise or if the person speaking is far away from you."

 

[NaidaUP]

It sounds like he is having trouble discriminating some sounds. It could be a simple as needing to change the settings on his hearing aids or adding an FM. He needs a speech discrimination test done by an audiologist both in quiet and in noise.

If he transfer to a Deaf school all his classes will be in ASL and English will be taught as a second language.

And for someone who is more hearing then deaf, I would say frustration will set in if English is taught as a second language.

 

[shel90]

And for someone who is more hearing then deaf, I would say frustration will set in if English is taught as a second language.

Studies have shown that children who learn multiple languages do well with critical thinking skills.

 

[ambrosia]

I'm leaning towards adjustment of his hearing aids or APD, but really more APD.

No offense guys to everyone jumping on the deaf school, but how many posters here actually have ever even had just mild loss? He deals with some of the same issues as we do, but not any where near the same degree. Trust me, just trust me, something else is going on with this kid. The difference between having mild loss and profound, or even severe loss is mind boggling. Even without aids he is still getting a lot of sound, that's how different it is. He shouldn't even have to see the speakers face to understand them, unless its really really noisy. When my loss was severe if I didnt have my aids in you could talk in my ear, if anything I could see like, your shoulder, and I would understand every word you said, without aids in mind you! Background noise will be a problem but it's not nearly as significant as with severe or profound losses.

 

[shel90]

I'm leaning towards adjustment of his hearing aids or APD, but really more APD.

No offense guys to everyone jumping on the deaf school, but how many posters here actually have ever even had just mild loss? He deaks with some if the same issues as we do, but not any where near the same degree. Trust me, just trust me, something else is going on with this kid. The difference between having mild loss and profound, or even severe loss is mind boggling. If without aids he is still getting a lot if sound, rhats hiw different it is. He shouldn't even have to see the speakers face to understand them. When my loss was severe if I didnt have my aids in you could talk in my ear, if anything i could like your shoulder, and I would understand every word you said, without aids in mind you! Background noise will be a problem but it's not nearly as significant as with severe or profound losses.

There are many children with mild losses attending deaf schools. Why not this kid?

 

[ambrosia]

There are many children with mild losses attending deaf schools. Why not this kid?

Nothing inherently wrong with it, no, but it's little bit of overkill. The kids not deaf, not anywhere near close. ASL would be nice, but it's not fundamental for his development. I'm telling he shouldn't be struggling this much, there is something else going on. I have no idea if a deaf school could address it. I don't have APD, and it sounds very likely that's what's up. If deaf schools can deal with issue, go for it. He could probably hear you talking without his hearing aids, he wouldn't understand everything you say, but that's the biggest difference. Hearing aids can do FAR more for him than they do for us.

 

[Frisky Feline]

If he gets a check up to see if its APD or not. it would make any difference for him regarding with school.

 

[ambrosia]

Admit I'm confused about turning in work with wrong words in them? What's do you mean? Like he was confused about the subject matter? Misuse of words? Words in a sentence? The title if the subject? I don't understand how his hearing loss would make him write wrong words. Unless he was writing something down someone said to him.

 

[deafdyke]

Will is using an FM system and has everything the school has to offer. However, no one takes into account the normal things that happen....
People walk in a class and yell things to there good buddy the teacher. Will gets only parts of this because it is confusing.
The teacher has to walk around our turn to answer someone, again, confusion, and adaption is hard for a 9 year old to learn.
He dosent always want to wear his hearing aids. Yes, I can make him however, it is his right not to wear them and there is no help when they are off.
Life happens, situations happen everyday.

My plan this morning is to start him, me and his sister in ASL. I am also going to go and sit at the deaf school for several days and see if that is a viable option for him. He qualifies for gifted and talented with his high IQ. However, first I must tackle the hearing challenges.

Where do I find these specialized audiologist? he tests perfect for communication in the 'ideal setting'. This is my huge issue. Life is not ideal EVER! So, he struggles on so many different occasions and dosent realize it.....Maybe we could just have a separate state for the deaf and hoh

You are an AWESOME mom,reconizing that there's more to school then sitting in a classroom.....dhh kids are very often at a disadvantage with incidental learning......you're also reconizing that theory (oh all HOH kids "need" are HOH style minimal accomondations) doesn't often translate well in real life....Hearing technolgy will never be as good as nautrual hearing...Even thou a kid can be a good aid/CI user,it STILL takes a lot of energy for HOH kids to hear/function like a hearing person.....With a full toolbox,he won't have to work so hard......Look at MSD yes but also ask if there are any dhh regional programs/magnet schools......I really do think your son would strongly benfit from specialized education,although not nessarily full on Deaf School setting...Maybe the Deaf School can help you....and ofc he could go to Deaf camp which might be a lot of fun for him!!!!!!

 

[deafdyke]

And for someone who is more hearing then deaf, I would say frustration will set in if English is taught as a second language.

Um,he is not more hearing then deaf. To say that HOH kids are more hearing then deaf is AUDIST......Yes,it's not as hard for them to hear (compared to say a kid with a deaf loss) but there's a reason the term is HARD of hearing.....Hearing isn't a strengh...it's a weakness in HOH kids......Almost all Deaf schools have good HOH services (ie auditory training,speech therapy and so on) They just have the advantage that they teach in ASL/Sign (not all Deaf Schools use ASL),which in turn means that CAPTIALIZES on deaf and HOH kid's nautrual visual processing abilty......why not capitlize on the nautral visual processing strengh that even HOH kids have? Even 30% of HOH kids still struggle academicly (and that's just the ones we know about....the total population of HOH kids who struggle is most likely much more then that)

 

[deafdyke]

Hearing aids can do FAR more for him than they do for us.

Ambrosia,there's still huge limitations as to technology.....Technology is never going to be perfect.Even mild loss kids still have to depend on imperfect hearing technology....and it's still a lot of work for dhh kids to "hear"...The difference is that most HOH kids of today never heard normally....so it's a weakness,so they have to work harder to hear then a hearing person......Even a HOH kid's favoirte word is still "what?" They're still at a huge disadvantage in crowds or non one on one listening situtions....They STILL have to expend a ton of energy on hearing,that hearing kids don't
HOH kids are more like legally blind kids rather then the type of kid who just puts on glasses and their sight issues are 100% corrected.......the disadvantage is STILL there.....

 

[WillsMom08]

Thanks for all the input. Still trying to get a solution

He had a project that he had to write sayings and glue them on a poster board. One of the sayings was "Seek to learn" he wrote "See to learn"
and 2 other of the same issue. He had a clue the next morning it may not be correct but couldnt get the words out to ask me correctly.

To top all of this off, I just met with the principal last week Thursday and showed him (again) WIll's IQ scores and expressed the concern that I will not accept half done work. If he makes these errors, at the least they should be sent home for my child to correct, he is smart enough to know and correct. Great, he was talking to the teacher again.

This evening. I hear that there was a spelling test for the class. My son was told to take his computer and move to the back of the class since he could not wear headphones. He was then instructed dont turn it up too loud I dont want you to disturb the class because you are not wearing headphones. He missed over half of the words from errors like gray he spells day etc.

I am really struggling on getting through this without going nuts on this teacher. This is my childs education that he is playing with and it appears to me a joke to this guy.

 

[deafdyke]

AHHHHHH of course grand rapids Michigan does not recognize ASL. They believe kids should recognize speech.

BANGING MY HEAD!

You're in Grand Rapids? OMG that answers the question....it's the home of a very strong oral program......ugh

 

[WillsMom08]

just posted the question in the other forum...if they are pushing oral death program when do they let my son in on the big secret to reading lips better. He obviously didnt hear them teach that subject and is struggling so how do you learn to read lips better??

 

[Bottesini]

just posted the question in the other forum...if they are pushing oral death program when do they let my son in on the big secret to reading lips better. He obviously didnt hear them teach that subject and is struggling so how do you learn to read lips better??

Speech therapy

 

[ambrosia]

Ambrosia,there's still huge limitations as to technology.....Technology is never going to be perfect.Even mild loss kids still have to depend on imperfect hearing technology....and it's still a lot of work for dhh kids to "hear"...The difference is that most HOH kids of today never heard normally....so it's a weakness,so they have to work harder to hear then a hearing person......Even a HOH kid's favoirte word is still "what?" They're still at a huge disadvantage in crowds or non one on one listening situtions....They STILL have to expend a ton of energy on hearing,that hearing kids don't
HOH kids are more like legally blind kids rather then the type of kid who just puts on glasses and their sight issues are 100% corrected.......the disadvantage is STILL there.....

DD, I know hearing aids won't give him the hearing of a hearing person, that's why I said he doesn't have to deal with things to the degree of someone with severe or profound loss. I've had perfect hearing. I've had mild loss. I've had moderate loss. I've had severe loss. Now I have profound loss. Hearing aids in overall are not going to give perfect hearing period. It's amplified sound, but when you don't have to push the gain so hard you don't have the level of distortion you'll get with greater gains. You just don't. The level of clarity in sound, I mean speech, music and white noise, everything, is night and day with milder vs more severe hearing losses. During the course of my progression I probably spent the longest time with severe hearing loss in one ear and profound loss in the other, but I did spend time in all stages. I didn't wake up one morning with profound loss. So I do in fact know very first hand the difficulties in each level of loss. Seriously seriously seriously. The struggles a person with mild loss does not even compare to, more extreme losses. It's like the difference of using your hands when you have a hangnail and using your hands when you've ripped you whole fingernail off. So jumping onto OMG you need to learn ASL you need to go to deaf schools with a kid with mild loss is like throwing someone a life preserver when they're in water waist deep, all they got to do is stand up.

It sounds like he's struggling harder than he should be. So...either something is up besides his hearing, or his teachers are completely incompetent and cannot even use common sense to help the kid.

 

[deafdyke]

The struggles a person with mild loss does not even compare to, more extreme losses. It's like the difference of using your hands when you have a hangnail and using your hands when you've ripped you whole fingernail off. So jumping onto OMG you need to learn ASL you need to go to deaf schools with a kid with mild loss is like throwing someone a life preserver when they're in water waist deep, all they got to do is stand up.

It sounds like he's struggling harder than he should be. So...either something is up besides his hearing, or his teachers are completely incompetent and cannot even use common sense to help the kid.

And? It's still a struggle!!!!! It's still a very weak point.......You're looking at this from "Oh the Deaf folks are doing the equalivant of suggesting Braille and a Seeing Eye Dog for someone who audilogically has the equliavant of mild nearsightedness......It's easier for a mild loss kid yes.........but you also have to understand that a mild loss for an adult who aquires it,vs a kid who has ALWAYS had it,are two completely different things....It's also clear and obvious that you have never dealt with the public school system in terms of trying to get services for a dhh kid.....

 

[ambrosia]

And? It's still a struggle!!!!! It's still a very weak point.......You're looking at this from "Oh the Deaf folks are doing the equalivant of suggesting Braille and a Seeing Eye Dog for someone who audilogically has the equliavant of mild nearsightedness......It's easier for a mild loss kid yes.........but you also have to understand that a mild loss for an adult who aquires it,vs a kid who has ALWAYS had it,are two completely different things....It's also clear and obvious that you have never dealt with the public school system in terms of trying to get services for a dhh kid.....

No, no I'm not. You're completely missing the point. With mild loss he shouldn't even need to be relying on speech reading. It might help, but seeing the speakers face at all times shouldn't be necessary with mild loss. She says he's using an FM system. He speech discrimination score are great.

My point is, given all of that something is going on besides his hearing. THAT should be the focus, not which school he should be going to, whether or not he should be learning ASL. The focus should be why he's not getting the speech he realistically should be able to get with mild loss.

 

[NaidaUP]

Um,he is not more hearing then deaf. To say that HOH kids are more hearing then deaf is AUDIST......Yes,it's not as hard for them to hear (compared to say a kid with a deaf loss) but there's a reason the term is HARD of hearing.....Hearing isn't a strengh...it's a weakness in HOH kids......Almost all Deaf schools have good HOH services (ie auditory training,speech therapy and so on) They just have the advantage that they teach in ASL/Sign (not all Deaf Schools use ASL),which in turn means that CAPTIALIZES on deaf and HOH kid's nautrual visual processing abilty......why not capitlize on the nautral visual processing strengh that even HOH kids have? Even 30% of HOH kids still struggle academicly (and that's just the ones we know about....the total population of HOH kids who struggle is most likely much more then that)

Um, he is more hearing then deaf.

Quote from Google -
When your hearing test results are between 21 and 40dB you have mild deafness. Without hearing aids you can hear everything people say to you when you are in a quiet room, but have trouble hearing if there is lots of noise or if the person speaking is far away from you.

Really with a mild hearing loss, hearing aids would properly cause more trouble then not wearing them due to the limited bandwidth.

He shouldn't need to speech read or even need to use ASL as a first language.

Ambrosia has nailed it on the head with her post, totally said the right thing.