Well, it’s been decided that my middle child will need to be fitted with 2 hearing aids. Gah! It’s not enough that the kids has an autism spectrum disorder — now we get to throw this in on top of it. Not that this is the end of the world – there are things that are, of course, much worse to have happen to your child.
But, like most of us have experienced, kids are mean. He’s already been the victim of bullying and been physically assaulted on the school bus. Now we get to throw something else for kids to pick on him for into the mix. It’s very frustrating.
And now, I have a whole new area to learn. When my #2 son was diagnosed with an ASD, I learned everything I could on the subject, and keep a constant eye on new studies, therapies, medications, etc. I know more about what’s going on in the autism community than my pediatrician does — like most parents of a child with a disability! We all become experts in “our field”. Now I have a new field to cover, and I’m at a small loss of where to start. I’ve done a ton of searches online, but none of the sites have quite what I’m looking for. My son isn’t deaf, he doesn’t sign, but he will be using 2 hearing aids and will be registering at the state level as “hearing impaired”.
What I need to find is how this affects the child study team and his IEP. What services/accomodations/modifications are out there for him? Does the CST have to bring in a specialist for his IEP meetings, or does the speech/language pathologist cover this?
If anyone out there has any experience on this, I would love to hear from you! Or if you know of a really great website that can help me learn about these things.
I have to say, if nothing else, life in the B. house is never boring! Time to kick the sense of humor up and keep a straight head on.
And maybe look into a perscription for Xanax…..
ah, you have my sympathies …. i have two children with learning disabilities. fortunately both were helped, but it was a long slow process for each! sending happy thoughts and good energy that you are led to all you need
.
I have wished for that prescription myself in the past few weeks. It has been a rough few weeks for our family as well. I hope thigns get better for you soon.
Kris, I don’t know if she can help you on this, but my friend Ocean, from http://deafpagancrossroads.com/, is an extraordinary deaf pagan woman and has a large experience/knowledge in many aspects of this side of the world, for obvious reasons. Just a hint, hope it helps!I do hope everything goes well. Your son is such a special kid always surprising you, I bet he’ll surprise you again.Kisses from us.
I’m afraid I don’t have much that will help, as my experience was over 25 years ago with my oldest. We found when she was 3 that she had significant upper frequency hearing loss. She wore one hearing aid for about 2 years, while she had speech therapy. In her school, the speech therapist was involved in her IEP.The hearing aid was temporary as it heightened the background noise as well. I know there have been vast improvements in the technology since then.She still has a slight lisp, her manager thought for awhile that she had a tongue stud. She learned in high school not to just nod yes when she didn’t understand what someone said, after ending up with a date she didn’t want!Good luck to you.
I wish I had something more substantial to offer on this one… but all I can do is wish you lots of luck. I know how rough kids are… mine has been bullied and it really gets old.
I am sorry that he will have to have hearing aids but at least he isn’t deaf and it will help him right? And yes you need a prescription. They say these times go by so fast but sometimes I don’t know.
Take care and blessings.
I wish I could help you more than I can. I have a cousin with a hearing aid, she doesn’t wear it because she gets picked on. I wish you the best of luck!
You are in my thoughts, as are your children. I have no experience with this, but I will catapult as much healing and positive energy your way as I can.
My sister (Only a Movie) sent me your way. My son is profoundly Deaf and wears hearing aids. He goes to a school for the Deaf and uses ASL, he also speaks very well…feel free to check him out on my blog…I don’t know if any of it will be of use to you..
No experience here, but much sympathy and thoughts coming your way. Glad to see you blogging a little. I borrowed the dancing squirrels for my blog.
I am so sorry to read that your son will have another hurdle to jump over. Hopefully the kids won’t be too horrible and the hearing aids will be a blessing for him.Mama Kelly2witches.com
Kris, your best resource will be the Listen Up Web: http://www.listen-up.org/. They have a ton of information for you, including a section on IEPs, http://www.listen-up.org/rights/rights.htm#ieps.On the Xanax, I remember a couple of years ago having a few drinks with some other moms of DHH kids at a conference. The one with the youngest kids was asking how we managed, since of course these things always fall on the mom the hardest. The unanimous reply was drugs; we compared anti-depressants after that! Never be afraid to ask for help when you need it. What your son needs most is a strong mom in his corner.Oh, and you might be surprised at how things have changed regarding teasing. My kids (both have cochlear implants) have never been teased at school. And the hearing aids you can get these days! Racing stripes, stickers, flashing lights, neon earmolds–he’ll be the coolest kid in his class!
So, did you rent him the first season of ‘The Six Million Dollar Man?’bionic hearing’s the best!