We hope you can join us to:
WHEN: 7:30 – 9:00pm
WHERE: #27-7488 Southwynde Ave., Burnaby
(Look for the blue & orange balloons)
CONTACT: Kim Shauer at kshauer@cw.bc.ca to RSVP or with any questions.
by Jen Gow, North Vancouver
As parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, we draw support from different groups of people. There are the usual suspects that all parents hope they can call on: family, friends and neighbourhood community. Our network extends beyond this though; we also look to professionals, and deaf and hard of hearing peers to educate, mentor and support us; to bring us up to speed and keep us on track in this new community we find ourselves in.
With this in mind, it was a real treat to welcome Jenny Hatton to be our guest speaker at the Coffee Night following this year’s BC Hands & Voices AGM in March. Some of you will know Jenny in her capacity as an audiologist with the Early Hearing Program and BC Children’s Hospital. Jenny has the unusual advantage of being able to share her perspective on hearing loss from both a professional and personal level.
Jenny was diagnosed with moderate bilateral hearing loss when she was two and a half years old. Although Jenny demonstrated typical development in most areas, and there was no family history or risk factors for hearing loss, Jenny’s parents noticed that her speech production was not on par with her big sister. The family doctor declared Jenny’s hearing was fine after finger snapping behind her ears when she was one and a half years old. A long-awaited referral to an audiologist revealed the true nature of Jenny’s hearing through tests in a sound booth followed by verification with auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing.
At that time in the 1980’s, families were advised to decide on one mode of communication, sign or oral, with little support for combined approaches. It became apparent soon after being fit with hearing aids that Jenny was a hearing kinda gal! She loved her hearing aids and rapidly developed speech. A speech language pathologist visited her home, and Jenny’s parents, who were teachers, built on this foundation. After attending specialist services for preschool (Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC, known as the Vancouver Oral Centre at the time) she went on to kindergarten in the mainstream elementary school where her mum taught.
Jenny learnt strategies to optimize her hearing in school, for example, classroom positioning (set-ups were more static in those days). She recognizes now that the advocacy of her parents’ paid dividends with teachers likely modifying their teaching strategies. During her school years, Jenny didn’t really perceive herself as being hard of hearing. This, combined with an independent spirit, led to Jenny’s reluctance to work with the Hearing Resource teacher, especially during high school. Her grades were good – she didn’t need help! (I’m sure this rings some bells for most of us when we reflect on our teenage years.). In high school, Jenny also became self-conscious of the technology that facilitated her hearing; although she continued to love the function of her hearing aids, she started to hide them. She also didn’t adopt using a FM system until her university years, and now realizes that there were details she was missing out on.
Jenny learnt as a young adult to embrace the hard-of-hearing aspect of her identity, no longer concealing her hearing equipment. Although this aspect of Jenny’s life has doubtless had some influence on her career choices, it was a somewhat circuitous path that led her into Audiology. After switching degree course three times, Jenny took on a research assistant position at the Human Auditory Physiology Lab (HAPLAB) for several years, where her interest in audiology grew. As an audiologist, she now provides ABR testing at BC Children’s Hospital, and supports and trains other audiologists around the province.
Jenny was happy to field questions from the fifteen parents in attendance. We covered topics ranging from deaf/hard of hearing peers and support groups, to extra-curricular activities, self-advocacy and identity, genetic testing, use of technology…
From a personal point of view, I can attest to the power of Jenny’s story. Jenny identified my daughter’s severe-profound hearing loss when she was six weeks old. At the instant of being told this news, I felt lost. What does this mean? I don’t know anybody with hearing loss. Why is this? Are they ‘hidden’ in my community? Are they so well integrated that I don’t notice? Jenny answered my questions very professionally. The nuances are lost in my memory but what will stick with me forever was Jenny telling me that she had a severe hearing loss. This young, professional woman had a hearing loss. Of course everybody’s path is varied but this detail was my starting block; it gave me the strength to stand up, walk out, drive home and tell my family what I’d just found out.
I’m sure that you’ll agree that Jenny’s story is empowering on many levels. It is nevertheless worthwhile reflecting that Jenny’s family found it difficult that her hearing loss was not identified earlier. Thankfully, this situation has become rare in BC since the initiation of the BC Early Hearing Program. Most families now have the opportunity to draw on services and supports sooner to help us figure out the best way to support our deaf and hard of hearing children. In fact, BC is now leading the way in this; it is the only province in Canada to achieve an “Excellent” Grade on Early Hearing Detection and Intervention*. Go BC, go!
When your child has unilateral hearing loss, it can sometimes feel like the resources and services out there in the deaf/hard of hearing world don’t exactly fit. Many people who grow up with unilateral hearing loss don’t even consider themselves hard of hearing. And yet some of it does fit – people with unilateral loss often struggle to hear in noisy situations, and this can have an impact on a child’s ability to learn in a loud classroom. Unilateral hearing loss also makes it difficult to localize where a sound is coming from. Some kids with unilateral hearing loss benefit from using a hearing aid or assistive listening device, while others do not use any hearing equipment. So how do parents figure out what their child needs?
These were some of the topics discussed at a recent Coffee Night hosted by BC Hands & Voices, where the focus was specifically on unilateral hearing loss. Six families attended (nine parents in total, along with a couple of beautiful babies!), and the group eagerly listened to our guest speaker, Lisa Cable. Lisa has a unilateral hearing loss and is also the parent of a hard of hearing child, so she was able to share from her own experiences growing up as well as from her perspective as a parent. There was such a rich exchange of information, as parents learned from Lisa and also from each other.
Many strategies were shared around safety, such as teaching our children to stop when they hear a vehicle, and figure out where the vehicle is and what direction it’s moving before continuing. Strategies that work well with teachers and friends were also discussed; for example, asking teachers to give our kids the benefit of the doubt that they may not have heard what was said, rather than assuming they are misbehaving or not listening to instructions. One of the key messages that emerged was the importance of attitude towards the hearing loss. When parents are open, positive and matter-of-fact, kids pick up on that and become comfortable with who they are.
The evening flew by – as the parents headed home, everyone expressed how much they appreciated the opportunity to get-together, and how helpful it was to talk with others who were experiencing something so similar. It seems there may be more “specialized” coffee nights in our future!
Please visit our Yahoo Group for parents of children with Unilateral Hearing Loss
Join us for a play day!
Whether it’s your first time coming to an event, or you never miss a chance to socialize and catch up.
When: Tuesday, August 26th, 2014, 11:00am – 2:00 pm
Where: Grimston Park, 19th Street at 7th Avenue, New Westminster
(close to 22nd Street Skytrain Station)
Look for the orange & blue balloons!
This park has a beautiful playground and wading pool. Bring a picnic lunch and blanket.
RSVP is not required, but please watch our Facebook page for notice of cancellation if it’s raining.
Please feel free to print and share the event flyer.
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (Please note that we have changed the start time from 7pm to 7:30 to help out commuters. Coffee night will conclude at 9 pm as usual.)
Location: Cathy Luther’s house, #27 – 7488 Southwynde Ave, Burnaby. Look out for the orange and blue balloons! Parking is along the street.
Come on out for coffee, treats and the chance to get to know other parents of kids with hearing loss. It’s a great place to share ideas about how to support your children with hearing loss. Please feel free to pass along the invitation to anyone else who may be interested.
Please RSVP to Anja at arosenke@telus.net so we can get an idea of numbers.
We hope you will join us at our upcoming Hands & Voices coffee night; we are thrilled that Jenny Hatton has agreed to join us as a guest speaker! Jenny is hard of hearing, and is now an audiologist with the BC Early Hearing Program. She will share her story (in our usual informal Coffee Night manner), and is happy to answer any questions you might have about what it was like to grow up with a hearing loss.
Please note a couple of changes for this month’s coffee night:
DATE – Thursday, March 6 (**not a Monday)
TIME – 7pm for AGM portion, with guest speaker to begin around 7:30-7:45. Please feel free to attend the AGM as well to hear about all the great things Hands & Voices is doing and to meet our board members.
PLACE – Children’s Hearing & Speech Centre of BC. The address is 3575 Kaslo Street, Vancouver.
We will have hot drinks and baked goods on hand as usual, and are looking forward to seeing you there. Don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions!
RSVP to arosenke@telus.net
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (Please note that we have changed the start time from 7pm to 7:30 to help out commuters. Coffee night will conclude at 9 pm as usual.)
Location: Cathy Luther’s house, #27 – 7488 Southwynde Ave, Burnaby. Look out for the orange and blue balloons! Parking is along the street.
Come on out for coffee, treats and the chance to get to know other parents of kids with hearing loss. It’s a great place to share ideas about how to support your children with hearing loss. Please feel free to pass along the invitation to anyone else who may be interested.
Please RSVP to Anja at arosenke@telus.net so we can get an idea of numbers.
By Gina Cooper-Watt, Campbell River, BC
I admit it, I am a research junkie. When my daughter was born, I became a “Google Mother.” As I sat at the computer, rocking Sara in one arm and perusing the internet with my other hand on the mouse, I would read fascinating articles on parenting, and experiment with many of them.
One particular parenting site claimed that exposing your baby to classical music could stimulate her brain and make her smarter. (“The Mozart Effect”- a theory which has now been debunked.) My daughter spent many hours each day playing and listening to Mozart and other classical musical legends, all the while not hearing anything, and possibly wondering why mommy was dancing around the house with a proud flair at the thought of her brainchild becoming a famous gifted “something or other!!” Oh, the irony.
This experience etched itself in my mind, however, and shortly after my daughter was identified with profound hearing loss, I once again found myself Googling. This time, I was researching music and deafness. I came upon a very interesting article describing how Music Therapy can play a role in the speech development process for the children with hearing loss, published by our city’s Music Therapy Association.
Of course, I enrolled my daughter in private music therapy lessons at the association, group music therapy classes at our Outreach Organization, a playgroup where singing played a part in the structure of the class, and a toddler dance class. I also found an online support group with a member who happened to have a lot of knowledge with regard to cochlear implants and music. He suggested flooding your child’s ears with songs that had long, deep base lines such as Barry White and Isaac Hayes as this style of music has less disturbing factors and interference than other songs. I became an official “Pageant Mother” to my somewhat concerned yet curious family members. Could all of this really help Sara learn to speak more effectively?
Music therapy can lend itself to traditional auditory training by providing an alternative and pleasurable environment in which to help a child learn to listen. Both speech and music contain pitch, tone, rhythm, timbres, duration and intensities. Children can learn how to distinguish, identify and understand these sounds with careful exposure to them. Music therapy can become a motivating tool and can enliven speech therapy sessions! Furthermore, music therapy can also be effective in teaching children who use equipment for listening how to pay attention to sounds, the differences in sound, recognizing objects and events from their sounds, and how to use hearing to determine the distance and location of sound.
My daughter’s curiosity level definitely peaked while exposed to all the different musical instruments, during her private and group music classes. She would stare at, and try to mimic the music therapist’s mouth movements as she sang at various levels. The group music class certainly provided a fun family environment where all we parents would gather around the music teacher, dance with and sing to our children, take turns playing an instrument, sing a line of a song and listen to the sounds of everyone’s differing voices.
Music facilitates family bonding! “Dancing with the Stars” would play every Thursday evening while daughter and mommy would take turns as Daddy’s dancing partner. We would do our best to sing along to every song, keep the beat and find the rhythm to every dance style. We learned as well, through many humorous evenings, that my partner is a wonderful baritone and I am a natural at the Rumba. We now tend to leave the singing to daddy and the dancing to mommy to best offer our natural ‘gifts’ to our child.
Music can be a wonderful way to help children learn routine transitions and help prepare them for a sound sleep as well. Singing bedtime stories to your child can help your child to not only recognize and attach meaning your voice but also teach self-soothing techniques and emotional connection through tone of voice. Music can induce physical relaxation and help set an emotional tone of peace and well-being needed for a good night’s sleep.
Rhyming is also essential to speech, language and literacy development. Songs such as The Wheels on the Bus, Hey Diddle Diddle and the Itsy Bitsy Spider all incorporate rhyming and repetition that help develop an awareness of speech sounds. By singing songs loaded with early developing sounds such as p, b, t, d, k, g, and m, you can possibly give your child a ‘head start’ to great listening and speaking skills.
At two years of age, my daughter’s attention span would only last half an hour but it certainly gave us enough time to expose her to a wide range of sounds, help to stimulate the auditory nerves, and hopefully set a foundation for learning to listen. I also discovered through research that deaf people not only enjoy but benefit from music. Evelyn Glennie, a famous deaf percussionist, and subject of the fascinating film “Touch the Sound, explains how she “feels” music through its touch and vibration.
While I don’t claim that music therapy is a critical component in the speech development process, in my opinion and personal experience it definitely was a stimulating experience.
You don’t have to become a “Pageant Parent” either. That phase was short-lived with me as I do not want to burn out in this journey. Learning is an ongoing process and now we, as parents and partners, involve our daughter in just one ‘extra-curricular’ activity per season to enhance speech therapy.
What I really liked about our experience with Music Therapy is that it made therapy fun. As a cochlear implanted child, with years of communication therapy ahead of her, I am really striving to ensure my daughter’s childhood is filled with happy, fun memories, not a lot of tedious therapy sessions and ‘forced’ communication training. To me, this cochlear implant tiourney and all of its therapy and training is about being as natural and as fun as possible.
