Hearing and Kids

Today’s blog is written by Krystyann Krywko, who is a hearing loss educator and writer who provides resources and support for families who are raising children who are deaf or hard of hearing. You can read more of her work at www.kidswithhearingloss.org; or click here to receive a copy of her free mini eBook, Five Emotional Sticking Points of Parenting a Child

School is almost out. What does that mean for children with hearing loss? There is a lot of data showing that many children lose skills over the summer. This is not limited to children with hearing loss. Many public schools programs send home assignments for kids to work on over the summer in the hope that they will not fall

Today’s blog is written by Dr. Mark Guiberson, an associate professor of communication disorders at the University of Wyoming and a bilingual speech-language pathologist and by his students, who interviewed him for the blog. Dr. Guiberson has extensive experience working with deaf/hard of hearing children (DHH) from Spanish-speaking families and has completed research in the United States and Spain that

Having a child identified with a hearing loss or any other disability can be very stressful. Some parents can deal with the depression and move ahead at the same time, but others cannot. Every pediatric audiologist has experienced the problem of helping parents move ahead while trying not to be too pushy. My mentor, David Luterman, has always said that

This week’s blog is written by Wendy Kupfer, who has a daughter with profound hearing loss. She searched for books in which children with hearing loss were characters but could find none, so she decided to write one. The book, “Let’s Hear it For Almigal” (Handfinger Press, 2102), was named among the best in family-friendly media and received the Mom’s

In the last few months, I have spoken with several siblings of kids with hearing loss and with other disabilities who were feeling in need of support. It reminded me that not only does the child with hearing loss need support, but siblings do as well. When parents have a child with a serious illness or disability, it can be

Today’s blog is written by Melissa Chaikof. I have known Melissa since her daughters were identified with hearing loss. Melissa K. Chaikof has worked as Donor Research Analyst since 2002 for Nonprofit Leadership (NPL), LLC. She is a current board member of the Coalition for Usher Syndrome Research; a past board member of the Gift of Hearing Foundation, Cochlear Implant

School districts are less and less willing these days to put children on IEPs (individualized education programs), preferring to keep them on 504 plans. On the surface, it may seem like this is okay – but is it?   What’s the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan? An IEP sets out specific services a child will receive and

Choosing a school for a child with hearing loss can be difficult. The first question is whether to mainstream a child or whether  to place the child in a special school or class. There are basically three types of school programs: Mainstream schools, Sign Language programs, and total communication programs. Mainstream programs provide good language models and the academic goals

The Sight and Hearing Association presents a list of noisy toys  each year. They report on toys that tested at over 100 dB – way above the acceptable levels of safe noise. The federal threshold for hearing protection is exposure of no more than 85 dBA at 50 cm for 8 hours. Exposure to a level of 100 dB for