Anyone here have children who are deaf/HoH?

[TexasLady]

My daughter was born 60-40 hearing loss, learned to read lips on her own, spoke her first full sentence at age 8, and wears hearing aids that arent covered at ALL on her med. insurance. I never understood that one!

She went to a deaf retreat a few months ago, and came back talking and signing better than Ive ever seen her do! It helped her to decide that she definitely wants to go into the sign language teaching field.

The other day a recruiter called her and as long as we keep the volume up on the phone and her hearing aids are in, she can hear fairly well on the phone. As soon as she messed with the recruiter, and kind of obviously mispronounced a few simple words, she let the recruiter in on her 'secret'. I guess they talked a good ten minutes before she told the nice recruiter she was hearing impaired. phone conversation ended pretty quick after that.

I did go through a ton of guilt though, when she was small and could only say one or two words at age three...her dad and i took her to a really wonderful specialist who has worked with us on her getting hearing aids thru a foundation in Austin. Her school speech therapists deserve most of the kudoes for her getting her speech to the point that most people dont even notice she's impaired. She graduates next year, as long as she passes the stupid TAKS tests here in Texas(not sure if they are in other states?)and it worries me..because while she passes all her grades and classes, that damned TAKS is pretty difficult for her.Makes me ill. I hate that stupid test with a passion, and she is why. She and I both know she is smart as a whip, but those frigging tests get her to the verge of tears. She passed two subjects on them, but failed two, and she has to pass them to graduate.

Amazingly, her French class was passed with an A, and her English class is the one giving her hell.

Anyone else have kids that are having a rough go of it in school?

[demobabe]

1. Not a Deaf/HOH child, but a son who is technically speech delayed

See my post here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=381x184#201

My husband and I have been learnging and using ASL with our 20 month old toddler who is still mostly non-verbal. The results have been amazing.

In the post I referenced above, I mentioned the resource we've been using, Signing Time! kids videos by Rachel Coleman. She has a Deaf daughter (the inspiration for Signing Time!) and she also has a child with Spina Bifida and Cerebal Palsy who is able to communicate through sign language. Rachel ended up teaching all the kids in her neighborhood some sign language so her daughter could have some friends, as all the kids avoided her because she was Deaf.

It's a truly moving story and Rachel is hands down one of the most amazing people I've ever seen. The videos are extremely well produced; the songs aren't annoying like so many kids programs are. I can't say enough good things about them. Many PBS stations are now airing the videos and Rachel tours around and gives free performances.

The website for Signing Time! is at http://www.signingtime.com, and they have a forum and chat room over there, too. Rachel also tours and does free signing events for the kids and families.