by Paula Rosenthal, J.D.
Founder and Editor of HearingExchange.com
Hearing loss may make your child's journey of education and
eventual employment bumpier than most, but it doesn't mean
your child cannot reach the same goals as a hearing child.
Below, are some of the lessons I'm teaching my hearing
impaired preschooler. These are the same lessons my parents
taught me, for I was also a hearing impaired child.
1. Teach your child to educate. Give your child the words to
explain her disability in age appropriate language. From the
time I could talk, I told other children that I needed hearing
aids to hear better just like people needed glasses to see
better. Hearing aids no longer seemed so foreign and children
found it easier to accept me as I was.
2. Teach your child to advocate. Your child should
understand that it is her responsibility to ensure that her
needs are met. Teach her how to ask a teacher for assistance.
She should learn to tell the teacher as well as her peers that it
is necessary to get her attention first and to face her when
speaking. As your child grows up, you won't always be there.
Help her establish early independence so that when she needs
to speak for herself she will have the experience and
confidence to do so.
3. Teach your child to focus. Children and adults alike pick
up conversational clues with the use of visual cues such as
facial expressions and body gestures. Teach your child to face
the speaker and be attentive. Focusing is an important skill
that is more easily learned at a young age and it will reap great
rewards.
4. Teach your child the power of humor. Humor is a truly
wonderful thing. Growing up, I experienced many
embarrassing and difficult situations because of my disability.
But I usually managed to find the humor in them. By laughing
at myself I was able to turn uncomfortable situations around,
thus earning respect from my peers.
5. Teach your child that no one is perfect. While many
people don't have physical disabilities or problems that you can
see, their lives are far from perfect. Realizing this, I've never
felt sorry for myself and I've always been open about my
disability. It may not be easy, but your child has everything to
gain by telling people that she's deaf or hard of hearing when
they first meet. People are much more understanding and
patient when they know you have trouble hearing. By
exhibiting this kind of self-confidence, it also sets the tone for
how people will view and react to your child.
While being a hearing impaired child is not easy, it is important
for parents to teach the child skills and coping strategies and
instill self-confidence at a young age. By doing so, the roads of
education, employment and relationships will be a lot
smoother.
Paula Rosenthal, J.D. is married and a mother of two young
children. Paula, her husband and their daughter are all hearing
impaired. Their son has normal hearing. A law school graduate,
Paula is the founder and editor of HearingExchange.com,
http://www.HearingExchange.com, a community for people with
hearing loss, parents of deaf and hard of hearing children and
the professionals who work with them. Subscribe to
HearingExchange News at http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs?customerid=6181.
Copyright © Paula Rosenthal, 2001. Reproduction of this article
requires written permission of the author. Email info@hearingexchange.com with your request.
