Hearing Aid | Krystyann Krywko, Ed. D.

Becoming Stuck in Your Childs’s Hearing Loss

05/28/2013

349468_struggle Over the years I have spoken with numerous parents, from a personal as well as a professional perspective and while every family responds differently to a hearing loss diagnosis, there are also some characteristics that more successful families share.

Adjust Your Attitude

I have written about this before, but your attitude and acceptance of your child’s hearing loss goes a long way to creating a more peaceful climate for everyone. Children are really good at sensing the moods of others. If you are stressed and tense all the time about your child’s diagnosis, your child will begin to feel that there is something not good about their hearing loss.

Yoshinaga-Itano and Abdala de Uzcategui, (2001) have shown that parents of children with mild to moderate hearing loss are often more stressed than parents of children with more profound losses. Reasons can be they face more educational and therapeutic choices; also there is the potential that their child will have further hearing loss which can be stressful.

While I understand these stresses, having been through them, I also know the power of practicing a positive attitude.

Talk About It

Get real comfortable talking about your child’s hearing loss. When your child sees how easily you talk about hearing loss they will feel more comfortable about themselves.

If you don’t talk about and discuss hearing loss with your child then they will be uncomfortable discussing it with other people. They won’t know how to answer questions, or how to speak up when their needs aren’t being met.

Keep Things in Perspective

Yes, your child has hearing loss and no; it is not the end of the world. Yes, your child will need assistance with communication either through a device (such as hearing aids or cochlear implants), or through the learning of ASL or lip-reading. But the opportunities today are limitless.

Move Beyond “Why Me?”

If you are okay with your child’s hearing loss, they will be okay. There will be some changes that will need to be made with regard to education and communication needs, but what won’t change is the need your child has for love and support. Find the joy in your child’s voice, or the thrill of having them sign their first full thought. It’s about adapting and coming to terms with the child you have, rather than the child you don’t have.

Filed Under: Parenting Leave a Comment

When a Hearing Loss Diagnosis is a Cause for Celebration

10/17/2012

Most people look at me funny when I tell them that my son’s hearing loss diagnosis was the best thing that ever happened to us. Typical responses when I talk about my son’s hearing loss range from, “Poor guy, that’s terrible,” to “That’s so sad.” Very few say, “Wow, you must have been so relieved.” The ones who do are most likely parents of special needs children who have gone through their own diagnoses. They understand the calm that is in the center of a diagnosis.

As parents we are programmed to action. We want to take away our child’s hurt, to make everything better. The road to my son’s diagnosis had been frustrating. We were repeatedly told by people with medical degrees that he was fine; that he was simply a late talker. He was a boy and a second child at that. There was no need to worry about his delayed speech it would come when he was ready. When our audiologist told us that our three year old son would need hearing aids and intensive speech therapy, we finally had something to hang onto as parents.

Not to say that his diagnosis wasn’t emotional. Of course my husband and I cried. Our minds focused on of all sorts of worst case scenario moments about what this new reality meant. I went into my son’s hearing test thinking we would receive a referral to a speech-language therapist, and within a few sessions my son would be talking. Oh how naive we were…

But I also look back at his diagnosis as a celebratory moment in the life of my family. The diagnosis gave us something concrete to deal with and brought an overwhelming sense of relief. It brought specialists into our lives and the support my son needed. Someone had finally stood up and named the obvious, that my son’s speech and communication skills were severely delayed and that something was not quite “right.”

The diagnosis brought us a way to move forward.

Helping Caregivers Identify Hearing Loss – Hearing-Aid.com

Filed Under: Coping, Delayed Speech, Diagnosis, Hearing Loss, Special Needs Leave a Comment

The Hard Work of Listening

09/28/2012

Listening is hard work! If you have typical hearing you don’t even think about it. Your ears are always on, ready to receive new information. “It takes no effort to hear,” says Dr. Carol Flexer, professor emeritus of Audiology at the University of Akron, “hearing occurs all the time…at every moment of the day.”

However, if you have a hearing loss, even a mild hearing loss, you spend a great deal of time and energy listening and interpreting information that needs to get to your brain. Trying to focus on what your teacher is saying while blocking out the whispers and giggles of your classmates, not to mention the squeaky chairs, can be hard work. Remember hearing aids and implants make all sounds louder.

All this noise generally results in a cranky and tired child at the end of the school day that unfortunately coincides with your desire to pepper them with questions about their day, which leads to still more required listening on their part.

Here are some tips to help both you and your child transition through the “listening fatigue” that often sets in after the school day, or a therapy session:

If you pick your child up from school make sure the radio is turned down and the windows are up, if possible, to reduce noise from traffic. The noise from fans blowing heat or cold air can also be too much at the end of the day. A quiet car will also help your child recharge on the way to his after-school activities.

If your child takes the bus home from school try to arrange for her to sit near the front. It’s generally a lot less noisy the closer you are to the driver.

Try a “listening break.” Jennifer Rosenberg, speech language pathologist in NYC, often recommends this approach to her patients. A listening break involves letting your child remove their hearing equipment (hearing aids/CI processors/BAHA) for a specified period of time. Set a timer and let him do what he wants and take break from listening. After the timer goes off, back goes the hearing equipment.

Make sure that your house has is quiet and welcoming at the end of the day – try to not have the radio/TV blasting, the dishwasher going, or the dog and the cat chasing around the living room.

Let your child watch a captioned DVD or TV show; or let her curl up on the couch to look at a book. Looking does not take as much work as listening, and shifting the focus to another sense helps her unwind.

Let your child spend some quiet time alone. My son loves to pile up pillows and blankets and bury himself in them. He says he enjoys being “in the middle of still.”

Filed Under: Coping, Education 1 Comment

5 Ways to Bring a Little Bling to your Child’s Hearing Aids (and CIs)

09/19/2012

Unlike adult hearing aid wearers who want their hearing aids to blend in, young children love to see their hearing aids decorated in bright colors and stickers in order to make them cool or pretty. There are all sorts of accessories that are available for hearing aids – stickers, charms, glittery ear molds. Your child might enjoy the chance to decorate his hearing aids in his own unique style so that others can see what sports, colors, or activities he likes.

When my son first wore his hearing aids (they were decorated with soccer ball stickers) to his preschool class, one of the little girls was so excited that she went home and told her mom that when she got her hearing aids she wanted pink ones with glitter!

Below is a top five round-up of websites for some ideas:

Ear-Gear – Colorful and practical at the same time! Ear Gear bills itself as “Hearing Instrument Armor” They describe their product as “a water resistant double layered, spandex nylon sleeve that protects hearing instruments from loss, rain, sweat, dust and dirt, and makes hearing instruments more comfortable to wear.”

As an added bonus they make a pair with a cord and a clip that attach to the back of your child’s shirt. When my son was small he wore the ones with the cord and clip to school and when he was playing outside. Now that he is a little bit older he wears the sleeve only when he is skiing, playing hockey, or just running around on a humid day.

Plus, Ear Gear is a family run business, and they have a great story of how the product was developed (hint: it all began with a mother’s frustration). Read their story here. Love this company!

Hayleigh’s Cherished Charms – This site will bring out the fashionista in you! (Good luck choosing just one!) Hayleigh is young girl who decided to take her hearing aids to the next level and decorate them for all to see. Her designs are constantly changing and are perfect to add a little extra oomph to your hearing aids and cochlear implants. My son loves the “tube twists”, which come in orange, his favorite color. Next purchase, we are going to ask Hayleigh if she can make a custom pair of NY Rangers twists!

Stickers – These are probably my son’s favorite, plus I like them because they are so easy to change. Custom-sized stickers and decals are generally available from almost any hearing aid or cochlear implant company. The stickers we received from Oticon are sport themed so my son can display his favorite sports and change them as often as he wants. Ask your audiologist, or contact the company directly.

Tube Riders – Another cool idea started by a mom (gotta love those moms!) Originally conceived to help her son personal his glasses, but with a little experimentation (and a suggestion from her husband) they expanded to hearing aids. Slip them on and change them up!

DIY decoration – If you are one of those crafty people, then you are only limited by your imagination! For inspiration Google “hearing aid” or “cochlear implant” decorations. You will be amazed at what you find. This blog post has a great round-up of photos. Have fun!