Dear parents:
Four years ago, I was in the same situation as you: the child was diagnosed withHearing loss, And we didn’t know anything about hearing loss at the time; at that time, our husband and wife had normal hearing (I have now been diagnosed with hearing loss and wearHearing aid) We do not have any intersection with the hearing impaired.
In the first few months after the son was diagnosed, we not only had to deal with the negative emotions, but also had to make various decisions: choose the right one.Hearing aid, Promote speech therapy, choose suitable education methods.Our son was diagnosed at the age of 3, which made us feel very urgency. He has missed so much time in contact with voice over the years!The son’s hearing problem has become an overwhelming event in our parents’ lives, but in the process, we constantly “bump” to adapt to new situations and new people, meet every new challenge, and gain knowledge and strength from it!
Looking back on the past four years, I want to share some principles and encourage others on the road!
Try to be optimistic.The diagnosis of your child’s hearing loss is a positive step, and your child is lucky to be able to use hearing aids or cochlear implants.Maintaining a positive attitude is one of the best things parents can do. Children are watching how their parents cope with the new changes in their lives and learning from them how to cope with them.Hearing aids or cochlear implants should be seen as helping children hear better and participate more fully in family and school life.If a child observes that his parents feel nervous or embarrassed because of his hearing aid in public, he will feel that his parents feel embarrassed because of him, and he will feel self-blame and pessimistic psychologically.
Don’t change your way of education.Many parents ask their children whether they should change their education methods after they are diagnosed with hearing loss. Frankly speaking, children’s hearing loss will bring changes to their parents’ lives. The changes are mainly focused on the responsibilities caused by hearing loss: such as maintaining hearing aids, arranging speech and speech therapy courses, participating in rehabilitation teaching, etc…. What does not change is the support of the parents to the child, and the child must understand him and Your relationship and his status at home are not changed because of his hearing loss. Parents cannot be “different” from other children because their children are found to have hearing loss. Use a “compensatory” mentality to face parent-child relationship and education problem.He should bear the “responsibility” and expectations like other children at home and school!
Spend time playing games with your children and talk a lot to the children.Many parents agree with this, but because of the busy life and the parents shuttle between different professional institutions, it is difficult to do it.But in any case, please take time to talk with your child in rich language and spend time with your child to learn new vocabulary and ideas, sing, read and play together, and expand your child’s thinking!Going for a walk in nature with your children will give them plenty of opportunities to use all their senses to explore the world around them. Exploration itself contains a wealth of opportunities to learn languages and understand the world!After trying, parents will find that learning to listen and speak works better in natural life situations!
Don’t be overly obsessed with searching for information on the Internet.Although searching for information about hearing loss from the Internet is important, don’t overdo it.When you read a lot of information about hearing loss, the latest research reports or suggestions in various forums and parent blogs, the most important thing is to remember that “your child’s hearing loss is unique.” There are many factors that can affect it. His/her progress and development, such as the age at which hearing loss was diagnosed, the degree of hearing loss, hearing aid status, the child’s personality, etc.
Ask professional audiologists and teachers to recommend high-quality online resources.Some parents are accustomed to searching for information related to hearing loss through Baidu, Google, etc., to identify the quality and correctness of various online information. In contrast, it is better to consult professionals directly and ask them to recommend quality. Better network resources and benefit from them.
Get in touch with other hearing impaired families.When you learn that your child has hearing loss, you will feel very lonely and helpless, because the children of your friends around you are all hearing normal, “it seems that you and them lost the common language all at once.”Finding a family that has the same experience as you is one of the ways to get help and support. Many organizations have parent groups for hearing-impaired children. You can contact more parents of hearing-impaired children through these organizations and professionals; You can find some forums and social groups for parents of hearing-impaired children to share experiences, information and experiences with other parents, and encourage and support each other.
Don’t ignore the other children in the family.If there is more than one child in the family, help him/her accept that he/she has a brother or sister with hearing loss based on the age of the other child in the family.Remember that you are the parent of all the children in the family. While paying a lot of attention to the one with hearing loss, don’t let the other children in the family feel ignored and don’t know why; because in this situation, they can easily feel depressed. With emotional trauma, parents must find a way to spend time alone and communicate with other children. www.jhhearingaids.com
Teach children to “be responsible for themselves and call the shots”.This can start when the child receives a hearing aid or a cochlear implant. Let the child know that the hearing aid is very important to him. As he grows older, the child should discover the abnormal condition of the hearing aid in time.We can practice with the child at home, for example, before the child puts on the hearing aid, take out the battery quietly, wait for a while to see his/her reaction after the child puts on the hearing aid, if there is no response, the parent can say “Weird, I put it on The battery is taken out, do you find that one ear can’t hear the sound?”
Let your child know that when he/she does not hear clearly or understands the first time, you can ask the speaker to speak again.Sometimes the speaker’s voice is too small or the surrounding environment is too noisy, which will cause the child to fail to understand or understand what the other person is saying; teaching children to express “I’m sorry, please say it again” and other words can make the speaker Feel more comfortable and let the other person know that your child is not ignoring him/her, but because he/she did not hear clearly or understand.
Don’t let other people’s ideas influence your decision.There are some parents around us who try hard to pretend that their children are not “different” and do not use hearing aids for their children and accept rehabilitation.Time is of the essence for the successful development of listening and speaking.The earlier a child uses suitable hearing aids and receives rehabilitation services, the more likely he is to develop his full potential and have better development opportunities. I hope you will not be affected by this.Hearing Aids Made in China
When your child suffers from hearing loss, it will accompany your life journey, you will face the coexistence of good and bad days. In fact, this is a process of gradual growth; people around you are wrong about hearing loss because they don’t understand. Understanding and perception, this will be what you have to face and overcome.But remember to find time to relax for the whole family and yourself.Full of confidence in children, children’s continuous progress and development cannot be separated from their parents’ continuous support of time, space and support!
