she failed her newborn hearing screening:
Charlotte.
With technology and hard work, she hears and speaks. Your child can, too.
Scary To Thriving
We spent 9 months prepping for this amazing human to join our family of 4. And she came into this world glowing and full of life, but she’d never heard my voice.
Our Choice
When we first learned that Charlotte might be deaf, we couldn’t help but jump to the conclusion that our family would be learning sign language.
As we continued learning about hearing loss, researching communication options, meeting with audiologists, early intervention teams, and speech therapists, the question that brought it all to focus was, “What do we want our daughter’s future to look like?”
We wanted for our deaf and hard of hearing daughter to have every opportunity in the world, which to us meant having the opportunity to connect with people and experiences.
This led to a simple choice. We wanted Charlotte to hear and speak.
95%
deaf babies have hearing parents
90-95% of children who are deaf or hard of hearing are born to parents that are hearing and speaking. Many have never met a deaf person or been to an audiologist. It’s okay to be confused and scared in the beginning.
1-3-6
urgent action needed
If your baby failed their newborn hearing screening, the next step is on you. Receiving a hearing loss diagnosis by 3 months and beginning early intervention by 6 months are key to their brain development. Our brains are powerful, your baby is going to be amazing.
100%
impact on your life
Learning about hearing loss and how it can impact your child’s overall development from the moment they are born is step one for giving your child every opportunity. We are so lucky to be in the 21st century with so many choices and opportunities for raising healthy families.
Virginia Deaf & Hard Of Hearing Resources
If your child “failed” their newborn hearing screening, figuring out what to do next can be confusing. We stumbled around for a while, but looking back almost six years later, I’ve learned a ton and wanted to share as much as I can online in one place for other Virginians needing information.
The Center For Family Involvement has developed a lot of helpful information which I have pulled from and added to from our experiences.
An overview of hearing
I’d taken my hearing for granted, didn’t have any medical training or really know much about the anatomy of the ear. Step one for helping our deaf and hard of hearing daughter began with understanding what might have happened to impact her ability to hear and what options for hearing might look like.
Learning about hearing devices
When a person has hearing loss, whatever degree they can hear is called “residual hearing.” While technology can never give humans back 100% of their hearing, it can open doors to a hearing world they can be part of, just like their hearing peers.
communication and language
For our family, being able to communicate with one another primarily comes through the use of speech. Thankfully it was 2013 and through technology, our daughter could learn to hear us and speak with us. Each family needs to learn about options and think about the future they envision for their child.
Early intervention and school
We had two kids, but had never even heard of Early Intervention until Charlotte was born. Thankfully someone had been down this deaf and hard of hearing path before us and paved the way for support and assistance as she grew.
“
from a 20th century activist and educator
Blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.
Helen Keller
Get Involved
Virginia has a problem. Only 40% of our deaf and hard of hearing kids are making it to kindergarten on par with their hearing peers.
virginia’s loss-to-followup
Why aren’t Virginia’s babies identified at birth with possible hearing loss making it into Early Intervention?
Legislation progress
A team of grass roots advocates for deaf and hard of hearing kids has been working to help Virginia.