question, my 4 year old is deaf

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Hester

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We use ASL, her language skills test at age 5 to 6, so there is no problem there. She can say some words, but does not have enough hearing to understand spoken English. My question is this, how do we teach her to control her volume when she decides to use her voice? We don't mind whther she chooses to be voice off or not, but we don't want to injure her voice confidence at such a young age by complaining about her volume all the time. But, her loudness is becoming a serious issue, it's causing anxiety attacks for me, her mom. Also, she screams as loud as she can when she is angry or frustrated, this is incredibly painful for the hearing members of the family, we're at a loss as to how to convince her that it isn't fair. Any advice, incite and support is more than welcome, thank you in advance.
 
well that is very most common for deaf kids scream loud. and, they don't hear their voice if their hearing loss is bad. Only way for you to teach ur own kid, pls do not yell or discpline something, hopefuly will be less for kid use high pitch voice. Hopefully will help you somehow.

Good luck..
 
Hmm, that's a good question. My son also was very loud, but as he got older he learned to modulate his voice. But, he gets a lot of benefit from his hearing aids, so that helps. Now, even with his hearing aids off, he talks constantly even tho he can't hear himself, and his voice stays at a moderate level. The problem we still have is that he cranks up the tv big time. He doesn't like to put the "words" on, tho I always have them on anyway, he isn't a good enough reader yet to make use of them, and he wants the volume up where he can hear it. So, really, we've just gotten used to it, we just have a loud house. I've learned to block it out.
 
My question is this, how do we teach her to control her volume when she decides to use her voice? We don't mind whther she chooses to be voice off or not, but we don't want to injure her voice confidence at such a young age by complaining about her volume all the time. But, her loudness is becoming a serious issue, it's causing anxiety attacks for me, her mom. Also, she screams as loud as she can when she is angry or frustrated, this is incredibly painful for the hearing members of the family, we're at a loss as to how to convince her that it isn't fair.
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Speech therapy maybe? I learned some techniques for modulating my voice when I was younger. Unfortunatly, the techniques aren't foolproof.....and that's YET another reason why I am against oral-only.....being constantly admonished to modulate your voice is frustrating. Even at 25, I still cannot control my volumne too well....:(
 
Hester, what state do you live in? It would be a little eaiser to point to in the direction of availible resources with that info
 
I live in Oakland county, Michigan.We have very good resources for deaf education compared to the rest of the state. The only trouble is, it is expensive to live here, so we make sacrifices because there is no way that we could leave these services and settle for less now that we are accostomed to getting them :D

Another mom of a girl in Gabby's classroom has the same problem, we plan to ask the teacher if she can talk to the kids in class about volume and give us some hints for home, school starts next week. Neither of our girls wear hearing aids, maybe that is why we are having this problem.
 
I've been around many deaf people, mostly adults, and I've seen them having a lot of trouble controlling the pitch and loudness of their voices. I think your daughter will outgrow the screaming in time (I've seen kids like that, but rarely over 6 years old).
As I read your post, I was trying to think of something that would be equivalent to the screaming, but something she would understand as a deaf child. I thought of comparing the scream to a bright light being flashed in your eyes. I don't know if you want to explain this or use this with her, but it's just my suggestion. Most kids needs things related to themselves as examples, so maybe it'll work. Good luck!
 
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