Mom of deaf daughter...hi!

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Tristen

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I've been lurking on the forum for a few weeks now and decided to sign up and post a Hello! My daughter is 4 months old and was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. My husband and I are learning ASL from the state's deaf school here in our town. Its been quite interesting, learning a new language, researching her hearing loss and the Deaf community and culture that we hope to fully immerse her in! We have monthly meetings with the deaf school, as well as a place that does outreach services and who is working with us to develop her IFSP and hook us up with other services/information. There is no hearing loss in our family and my pregnancy and delivery were all wonderful! She's the light of our lives and we can't wait for us all to be fluent in ASL! :applause:
 
Tristen said:
I've been lurking on the forum for a few weeks now and decided to sign up and post a Hello! My daughter is 4 months old and was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. My husband and I are learning ASL from the state's deaf school here in our town. Its been quite interesting, learning a new language, researching her hearing loss and the Deaf community and culture that we hope to fully immerse her in! We have monthly meetings with the deaf school, as well as a place that does outreach services and who is working with us to develop her IFSP and hook us up with other services/information. There is no hearing loss in our family and my pregnancy and delivery were all wonderful! She's the light of our lives and we can't wait for us all to be fluent in ASL! :applause:
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Awesome! I am so glad you have been able to find resources to help you provide early language to your daughter. I am a teacher of the deaf who provides services for very young children and their families who have chosen spoken language. We provide in home therapy to help the caregivers learn how to facilitate access to spoken language for their child who is deaf. I also have a classroom where 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds come to school, often with their parents, and we help them grow their spoken language. I teach the children directly, but often coach the parents as well, on how they can expand their child's language. It sounds like those monthly meetings at the school for the Deaf are probably doing the same thing for you!

May I ask what state you are in?
 
Welcome :wave:. So awesome you are immersing yourself in ASL and Deaf culture while she is still very young. :cheers:
 
Teacherofthedeaf said:
Awesome! I am so glad you have been able to find resources to help you provide early language to your daughter. I am a teacher of the deaf who provides services for very young children and their families who have chosen spoken language. We provide in home therapy to help the caregivers learn how to facilitate access to spoken language for their child who is deaf. I also have a classroom where 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds come to school, often with their parents, and we help them grow their spoken language. I teach the children directly, but often coach the parents as well, on how they can expand their child's language. It sounds like those monthly meetings at the school for the Deaf are probably doing the same thing for you!

May I ask what state you are in?
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I'm in Montana. The meetings with the deaf school have been primarily about her options as she grows up, but we've only had a couple so far. I hope they soon include mini-tutoring sessions for me and my husband, as the ASL classes are only thru Nov 15, so at some point, we will need extra time/lessons to learn if we want to be fluent.
 
Tristen said:
I'm in Montana. The meetings with the deaf school have been primarily about her options as she grows up, but we've only had a couple so far. I hope they soon include mini-tutoring sessions for me and my husband, as the ASL classes are only thru Nov 15, so at some point, we will need extra time/lessons to learn if we want to be fluent.
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What do you mean by "options as she grows up"? That seems a little strange. She has all the options in the world!

If you want her to communicate through ASL, you have the right to put parent education goals in your IFSP. They can be very specific. You can say that you want to learn X number of words a week, or have a Deaf adult visit with you, or have your parent educator help you find other fluent ASL adults to help you learn.
 
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Teacherofthedeaf said:
What do you mean by "options as she grows up"? That seems a little strange. She has all the options in the world!

If you want her to communicate through ASL, you have the right to put parent education goals in your IFSP. They can be very specific. You can say that you want to learn X number of words a week, or have a Deaf adult visit with you, or have your parent educator help you find other fluent ASL adults to help you learn.
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I just mean they talked to us about the school offering a total communications approach, where she can/will learn speech, written and verbal language, as well as sign language, and all the different combinations of approaches. Its actually a state school for the deaf and blind. Her IFSP is through a place called Quality Life Concepts, and its more focused on her fine motor skills and napping, which seems a bit silly, but its what the specialist came up with. Maybe I should change it...anywho, just trying to get as familiar as I can with her new culture and community, and glad to have found this forum! Lots of different opinions and passionate people!
 
Tristen said:
I just mean they talked to us about the school offering a total communications approach, where she can/will learn speech, written and verbal language, as well as sign language, and all the different combinations of approaches. Its actually a state school for the deaf and blind. Her IFSP is through a place called Quality Life Concepts, and its more focused on her fine motor skills and napping, which seems a bit silly, but its what the specialist came up with. Maybe I should change it...anywho, just trying to get as familiar as I can with her new culture and community, and glad to have found this forum! Lots of different opinions and passionate people!
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As the parent, you are the driving force behind the IFSP. Your concerns and goals should be what matters. For example, I have a family whose IFSP says, "The family wants S. to develop spoken language commiserate with his hearing peers." So, that is what we are doing. The family is learning the strategies to have him develop spoken language, he gets daily aural rehab and speech therapy and access to my classroom group. While he has a profound hearing loss, he has received bilateral cochlear implants and is gaining language super fast!

Whatever your goals and concerns, that is what the IFSP should target. You should have access to a developmental hearing therapist whose focus is early language development, as well as family education. My parents receiving coaching on listening strategies, but you could receive instruction in ASL and how to develop early print awareness.
 
Tristen said:
I've been lurking on the forum for a few weeks now and decided to sign up and post a Hello! My daughter is 4 months old and was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. My husband and I are learning ASL from the state's deaf school here in our town. Its been quite interesting, learning a new language, researching her hearing loss and the Deaf community and culture that we hope to fully immerse her in! We have monthly meetings with the deaf school, as well as a place that does outreach services and who is working with us to develop her IFSP and hook us up with other services/information. There is no hearing loss in our family and my pregnancy and delivery were all wonderful! She's the light of our lives and we can't wait for us all to be fluent in ASL! :applause:
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First of all!
Congratulations on your new born baby girl!

How is she doing? Sleeping well and eating well I hope?

As for advice, as far as I could give any as a hearing person, I'd say try and reach out to the Deaf community, go to a Deaf meetup, maybe you'll find some other parents with also small kids, which will give you and your husband a chance to learn from them and help your little girl learn ASL and have some friends who go through the same things.
 
Mieke said:
First of all!
Congratulations on your new born baby girl!

How is she doing? Sleeping well and eating well I hope?

As for advice, as far as I could give any as a hearing person, I'd say try and reach out to the Deaf community, go to a Deaf meetup, maybe you'll find some other parents with also small kids, which will give you and your husband a chance to learn from them and help your little girl learn ASL and have some friends who go through the same things.
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Thanks so much! She eats like a champ, no issues there! Sleeping..that used to be good til a few weeks ago, I've been reading about the dreaded 4 month sleep regression and I think we have succumbed to it!

Thanks for the advice. I was given the info of another mom who's child has the same HL as my LO, (permission was given!), but I'm a pretty shy person, so I haven't reached out. Gotta get over that though, especially if it benefits the kiddo! And yes, we hope to be very involved with the deaf school and meet lots of families.
 
If you want to just talk about being a new mom, I have 2 of my own, a girl of 7 and a boy of 5 years old, so feel free.
 
I have no children and am not a Mom so cannot contribute anything useful to that part :dunno2:

I can welcome you to the site though and wish you all the best in your ASL adventure!
 
Tristen said:
I just mean they talked to us about the school offering a total communications approach, where she can/will learn speech, written and verbal language, as well as sign language, and all the different combinations of approaches. Its actually a state school for the deaf and blind. Her IFSP is through a place called Quality Life Concepts, and its more focused on her fine motor skills and napping, which seems a bit silly, but its what the specialist came up with. Maybe I should change it...anywho, just trying to get as familiar as I can with her new culture and community, and glad to have found this forum! Lots of different opinions and passionate people!
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And I am super glad that they did. I am impressed that they told you about ALL the different options and how things can and do drasticly change as dhh kids needs change. Almost all schools and programs for the Deaf do offer a strong comprehensive approach, including speech, Sign etc etc. It takes a village and they'll attract more kids if they offer a comprehensive approach. Actualy, I don't even think you'll have to deal with the typical " oh her needs changed so we have to do this or that.", since their approach is comprehensive and child centered. They offer everything, so there's no arguing over lack of services etc...I think the only real issue you'll deal with is when to mainstream her. (and attending preschool/kindergarten and first grade at the school would be really awesome. Then that way she could have a baseline of experience to compare with mainstreaming, and can tell you which placement she prefers.) The speech therapies tend to be excellent, and of course the early childhood programming at deaf schools/programs tends to be really good. IMHO, if there is a deaf school or a dhh program locally, then parents should take advantage of it for early intervention and early childhood. The key is not to panic, but to try to give your kid a variety of methodologies, tools etc, so they can decide which ones they like best. You might be surprised. I remember someone here who went to a deaf school, got exposed to ASL, speech etc....and she decided on her own she prefered talking. And then there are always the very verbal kids who discover that they really like ASL in addition to speech, and so on and so on....and of course many very verbal and HOH level kids love ASL and deaf culture b/c it capitalizes on their visual processing strenghs, as well as gives them a social outlet. The important thing is to give the kid the choices in the first place. You don't know what will/won't work unless you try it in the first place!!!!! Good luck, and you're BEYOND lucky to have such an awesome resource!
 
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Tristen said:
Thanks so much! She eats like a champ, no issues there! Sleeping..that used to be good til a few weeks ago, I've been reading about the dreaded 4 month sleep regression and I think we have succumbed to it!

Thanks for the advice. I was given the info of another mom who's child has the same HL as my LO, (permission was given!), but I'm a pretty shy person, so I haven't reached out. Gotta get over that though, especially if it benefits the kiddo! And yes, we hope to be very involved with the deaf school and meet lots of families.
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YAY!!! Even kids who are HOH or successfully oral can really benefit from knowing other dhh kids.... The social piece of the puzzle is BEYOND important!!!!!!
 
Teacherofthedeaf said:
As the parent, you are the driving force behind the IFSP. Your concerns and goals should be what matters. For example, I have a family whose IFSP says, "The family wants S. to develop spoken language commiserate with his hearing peers." So, that is what we are doing. The family is learning the strategies to have him develop spoken language, he gets daily aural rehab and speech therapy and access to my classroom group. While he has a profound hearing loss, he has received bilateral cochlear implants and is gaining language super fast!

Whatever your goals and concerns, that is what the IFSP should target. You should have access to a developmental hearing therapist whose focus is early language development, as well as family education. My parents receiving coaching on listening strategies, but you could receive instruction in ASL and how to develop early print awareness.
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But what do you do in the cases where the parent might not have realistic scenerios as to their concerns and goals? That happens quite a bit.....So why not be childcentered and give the child everything? It's SO obvious you're buying into the thinking that a comprehesive approach neglects speech/spoken language. That's why formal oralism is still around, b/c it capitalizes on the myth that a comprehensive approach neglects speech/spoken language, based on a few programs that were badly resourced. Either that or the person claiming that they don't offer speech has some sort of a vendetta against the program b/c something didn't go perfectly. I know someone who completely flipped out on an bilingal-bimodal program (that had excellent speech services and where the kids were allowed to speak) simply b/c an instructor refused to do Sim-Com. The parent was overanxious over speech services, and completely flipped out and demonized the School for the Deaf, based on that ONE incident. Up to then the parent had been pleased with the approach. Schools for the Deaf DO offer a very very comprehensive approach. The ONLY difference is that they include EVERYTHING, not just an exclusive fixtation on speech or thinking that speech will be the Answer to Life the Universe and Everything.
 
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Hi! congratulations on your baby girl!
I work in a preschool/daycare and we start teaching the babies signs for "mom" "dad" "milk" and "more" by the time most of them are 7-9 months they start signing to us because we have introduced it and reinforced it with them. The children in the pre-k classrooms know a handful of ASL but when they start mainstream school they loose it.

You have started to learn now is wonderful and your daughter will never feel alone. Having patience and showing her love while she learns will create a stronger bond between you all.
 
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