Parents of newly-identified children who’re profoundly deaf, have a lot going on. Not least, they must make hearing and communication choices on behalf of the children, and decide how the family is going to communicate in general. Recently, the US state of Florida passed legislation for parents to be told of all the possible communication options
Fresh concerns over cuts to education supports for deaf/hoh pupils in the UK have emerged, after one-third of councils cut supports in 2011. NDCS is also reporting that almost one-half of London’s local councils did not respond to a Freedom of Information request to disclose spending plans by April 2, 2013. Read: Charity’s fears over
Deafness is called the ‘invisible disability’, and teens can be very reluctant to disclose what they see as a social vulnerability. A librarian who has hearing issues herself, shares some communication tips – which can be used almost anywhere a pen, paper, the internet or a mobile phone is available. Read: Serving teens with hearing
The award-winning book by Andrew Solomon, “Far From The Tree: Parents, Children And The Search For Identity” (November 2012), gives a very one-sided view of deafness, says US-based journalist Lisa A. Goldstein – who is deaf and verbal, with cochlear implants. Read Goldstein’s Critical Review: Far From The Truth Goldstein reminds us of the “anonymous
Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) is a parent-centred approach to enabling children with deafness to learn to talk by listening with digital hearing-devices from infancy, where possible. The UK had 14 certified AVT therapists (in 2013), and on April 27th (2013) a free 2-hour information session on AVT was held in Belfast for parents of deaf children
Parents have a stronger role than researchers thought, in developing verbal language in children with hearing issues. A new study from the University of Miami shows “maternal sensitivity [has] strong and consistent effects on oral language learning”, a fact that hospital cochlear implant teams need to note. Read: Mom’s sensitivity helps language learning in deaf
A new book, “He Is Not Me”, by Stuart McNaughton, tells the story of being deaf from birth – and opting for a cochlear implant in his twenties. Notably, Stuart’s parents mainstream-educated him, to equip him with real-world skills from the very start – with the support of teachers and professionals. Read: He Is Not
With bilateral cochlear implants (both ears) in Ireland’s news recently, here’s some information that may answer readers’ and families’ questions. Read: Who is a cochlear implant candidate? Some unilateral (single-ear) implant-wearers keep a hearing-aid in the other ear, and can recognise speech by listening through two ears. Others choose to ‘go bilateral’ with 2 cochlear
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