Our Team
It all comes down the people. It’s not what they do, it’s who they are, how they care and what they have to share. Finding a team to understand your specific needs, share facts, options and opinions based on experiences they have learned from is what made the difference for us.
Below is the mighty team we have in place for Charlotte. These have been the resources that have led us to give Charlotte the best possible opportunities and get all the help she needs to ROCK her amazing life.
otolaryngologist
Within the first three months after a baby fails their newborn hearing screening, a pediatric otolaryngologist will need to perform an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test on your child to fully understand to what degree they have hearing loss.
Once we had the ABR results, a plan to support Charlotte was easier to develop and put into action.
As you may have read in her story, we originally visited a practice that didn’t give us the level of education or details to motivate us to REALLY pay attention and get Charlotte the help she needed to thrive. Thankfully we eventually ended up somewhere that knew educating parents first about hearing loss in general, as well as a full breadth of options for kids with hearing loss.
Speech Therapist
Charlotte began speech therapy at 8 months, after she got her first loaner hearing aids. We went weekly to learn how to help Charlotte hear, build new routines and support her listening and speech acquisition. It took time and dedication to make these appointments, but seeing her thrive in Kindergarten now makes every minute and dollar worth it.
Audiologist
Finding a pediatric audiologist that had studied and specialized in the needs of babies and children with hearing loss was a critical turning point in our journey with Charlotte. The confidence and information shared on my first visit to VCU Audiology versus the three previous visits to another audiologist in town was night and day.
Feeding Therapist
While not specifically linked to her hearing loss, Charlotte was identified at 8 months as having feeding issues. She put nothing in her mouth and was only nursing with no interest in baby food. An Early Intervention therapist helped us some, but real progress began when found an amazing sensory integration feeding therapist.
visual phonics
In 2017 I was introduced to Visual Phonics at Camp TALK, put on by the VCU Audiology Department. They brought in Ann Hughes from the Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University to give us a preview of this system developed by a mom to help her hard of hearing child learn the phonetic sounds of the 26 alphabet. I have taken multiple training sessions from Ann, as well as Cheryl Sale at and use it with Charlotte regularly.
Partnership for People with Disabilities