First Hearing Aid for my daughter

The only schools for the Deaf I have found near us (we are near Houston) are all oral schools and well.....I want one that uses ASL.
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Check to see if Houston has a program or even a school for dhh kids. Contact the head of special education for the city. See what's offered. Heck.....Newark NJ has a Deaf School, and it's not that large. Join the listserv I mentioned, and ask about educational possibilites.
You might want to send her part time to an oral program so she can get really good speech therapy. I know that one of the complaints that some parents have about ASL programs, is that they don't have a lot of speech therapy, or the speech therapy is not of good quality. If she is seen by a good experianced speech therapist, her speech should develop well.
Oh.....and I almost forgot.......when your daughter's a little older she can go to summer camp at Texas School for the Deaf. At least that's a possible option!
I just got the results from her ABR in the mail today.
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Is there any way that she can be tested more traditionally? Like with play audtriomy like they use with younger kids? Sometimes there's a discreprency between what's seen on ABR, and more tradtional audilogical examination.
 
smileysk8 said:
I think my daughter is a 65 in one ear and 95 in the other if I am understanding the results correctly. So yeah she seems to have a similar hearing loss as you did.

That kind of surprised me when I read that I may be the only mom on the forum with that view of ASL that you have seen. I guess it has to do with my exposure to the Deaf culture in college with my Deaf friends and I went to many Deaf events (even saw a Deaf poet, he was really good). I have noticed I have some strong views on some issues that come directly from my old college friends who are Deaf and heavily involved in the Deaf community. So that may be why I strongly feel ASL should be her first language though right now she probably signs a mixture of ASL and signed English (is that SEE?) b/c I am not interpreter level ASL signer but I try. I know these things are touchy issues so I won't go into this stuff. But I do want to ask one thing, is it very likely that she will lose more hearing as she gets older? Her loss was caused by a medication she was given before the age of 1. Atleast that is what we were told.
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Yeah it sound like she is hearing in 95 and 65, its ok if you mix SEE and ASL up its called PSE its fine she don't need pure form of one kind of sign language just as long she's exposed to sign language and I want you to be sure she's getting right service and check on her writing and reading skills once in a while, get involved in PTA meeting, parents day and IEP meeting because its the most common difficulties deaf people have in school.
But so far I think ur doing great :)
 
I forgot to add about if she'll lose her hearing later in life, I don't know everyone's different.
Mine was overnight thing and some people were progressive it mean slowly losing hearing over time, some stayed same until death. Nobody know till after it happens.
 
As has been mentioned, it is difficult to say whether or not your daughter will lose her hearing rapidly or progressively.

In my case, I was born prematurely and also lost my hearing due to ototoxicity as well as a number of other unrelated factors during childhood and my teenage years.

My hearing loss was diagnosed at age 3 (although my two former hearing aid audis believe it may be congenital due to the fact that newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60s/early 70s). My hearing loss was mild at the time of diagnosis. I didn't start to wear hearing aids until I was 15 for a bilateral moderately-severe loss.

By age 25, my loss progressed to bilateral severe-profound and it was at this time that I began learning PSE, ASL and other alternative communication techniques for the deafblind.

I think you're doing the right thing by exposing your daughter to ASL and/or PSE. That way even if her hearing loss should progressively get worse, she always has ASL and/or PSE. She won't have to learn ASL and/or PSE later in life like I did.

Deafdyke brought up alot of great recommendations -- especially the summer camp at the Texas School for the Deaf. I attended a summer camp for the blind since I was 8 years old and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Being able to meet other blind and visually impaired people like myself helped me feel as if I wasn't alone in facing the challenges I did as a mainstreamed student. I attended this camp until I was 18 years old and made many friends with whom I still communicate to this day.

It sounds as if you're doing everything you can to ensure that your daughter receive all of the appropriate services for her hearing loss. Good for you! :)
 
Off the top of my head, I know that about 20% of hoh kids will eventually go deaf. However, it does seem like you're not worried about it. You definitly are doing the right thing by equipting her with a full toolbox.
Is there a Deaf Club in Houston? Maybe a good idear might be to contact them, and see if they offer anything.
 
Well... this is my first post on this forum so I'll try to help using my experiences with my deaf daughter. She was born with a moderate loss and was fitted at 5 months (the youngest at Johns Hopkins) She's now six and will be fitted next week with the new Naida's. She had a moderate loss (45-60 db) which has progressed into a 80-90 db loss in both ears. We use total communication and are VERY fortunate that she attends a "typical" elementary school that also has a classroom designed for the deaf children in the area. Her teachers are amazing. We are also very lucky as we do NOT have to pay a cent for her HA as her mediacl assisatance pays for it all, not to mention we are in a "trial" program with Naida. It would be well worth your time to look into medical assistance as I know many states differ. Here in PA they pay for everything and I mean EVERYTHING. Again we are very lucky. My daughter loves being deaf, she knows she is special and she's tickled to try out her new "super-ears" that will be red!
 
especially the summer camp at the Texas School for the Deaf. I attended a summer camp for the blind since I was 8 years old and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Being able to meet other blind and visually impaired people like myself helped me feel as if I wasn't alone in facing the challenges I did as a mainstreamed student.
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Yes, I think that mainstreaming can work if a kid gets a lot of supplemental stuff, like summer camps, and social groups at agencies for their particualr disablity.
 
ivylea......That is awesome that your daughter is at an excellent mainstream program. Are you in touch with the various and sundry schools for the Deaf in PA, for when she gets older?(not saying that dhh kids should go to residental school....just more as an "in case" measure) I know Western PA School for the Deaf is supposed to be really superb.
 
Yes, we are well aware of the schools in our area that support deaf students. WPSD is a very good school and comes highly recommended. It has been an amazing journey learing all there is about raising a deaf daughter, of course everyday, you learn so much more.
 
Oh good..............that's awesome! I really think that the mainstream programs for the Dhh (ie self contained and magnet school setups) should be offically made programs of the Deaf School, so that the self contained and magnet kids could take advantage of programs/services at the Deaf School. That would also help with tracking mainstream kids, so they don't fall through the cracks.....
 
Your question about hearing aid

Hi .I know how expensives heairng aid can be. I am profound deaf and have ben deaf all my life. I am 49 years old. I do wears hearing aid and still is now. The avgeage cost is around 900 to 1 thousdands. There's never cost me fo haivng hearing screen test . I go there every 3 years. If i need a new earmold cost is about 60 dollars. Not so bad through. On the other hand for the hearing aid .. you can make payment plan if they accept it. I did that before to make payment plan and it's really helps me budget plan.
~Daneen:)
 
ivylea77 said:
Well... this is my first post on this forum so I'll try to help using my experiences with my deaf daughter. She was born with a moderate loss and was fitted at 5 months (the youngest at Johns Hopkins) She's now six and will be fitted next week with the new Naida's. She had a moderate loss (45-60 db) which has progressed into a 80-90 db loss in both ears. We use total communication and are VERY fortunate that she attends a "typical" elementary school that also has a classroom designed for the deaf children in the area. Her teachers are amazing. We are also very lucky as we do NOT have to pay a cent for her HA as her mediacl assisatance pays for it all, not to mention we are in a "trial" program with Naida. It would be well worth your time to look into medical assistance as I know many states differ. Here in PA they pay for everything and I mean EVERYTHING. Again we are very lucky. My daughter loves being deaf, she knows she is special and she's tickled to try out her new "super-ears" that will be red!
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How much will the Naida cost you? I called the audi Friday and now today too and couldn't get a hold of her. I am going to ask her why it would be $3,000 for one Naida and what all is included or if that is how much she charges for just the hearing aid. I am waiting to see what she says before making a decision to switch to another audi.

By the way, thanks to everyone for all the replies!
 
Looks like we should be able to get the Naida for around $1,800 (if they stick to what they told me in the finance department). They told me I would save 40% if I pay for my daughter's hearing aid in full instead of making payments. So the first quote for $3,000 is only if I make payments. My goodness! I was shocked I could get them down that low! So we are sticking with this new audiologist for now atleast. I hope she will get her hearing aid next week.
 
That's great! I am glad that you were able to get a more affordable price! I wish your daughter the best of luck with the Naida. I am wearing them now and so far I am really pleased with the sound I am getting from them!
 
My daughter has Oticon Gaia. They were really great when her loss was more moderate. They have never needed to go to the shop in 3 1/2 years. The cases have scuffs and cracks, the volume wheel (which is diabled) is broken, but they work perfect!
 
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