Re: Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

December 5, 2003

Hi Chad,

I am in Houston and have an ENT and audi here. If you would like you can

e-mail me privately and I can give you some info. Bethany

ravant2@...

Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing exam

a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11 months) has

been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot give you numbers at

this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss and cannot hear very well in

the high frequencies. We asked for the genetic test to try to find out a cause.

Those results have not been reported yet. She came back with an abnormal EKG

and we are getting a follow up on this (not too worried about this one).

I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did not

get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon hearing aids and

gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am not in denial and have

accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but we could not even tell she had

hearing loss other than the radio and TV being too loud. Her speech is good and

she seems to understand everything we say even with her back turned or in

another room. Her teachers said they would not even have known she has a

problem hearing.

The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of a

good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the Texas ENT

specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your help and thanks

for all the knowledge I have already gained from your responses on the other

forum. You are a true blessing and answered prayer.

Chad

December 5, 2003

Chad,

Welcome to the list. I wanted to address a few of your concerns. First of

all those aids you mentioned are not the only ones out there and there are

some that are less expensive in the 2-5 thousand range instead of over 5.

They are very very expensive unfortunately. I would suggest you look into a

bunch of different brands and prices and know also that many places or aid

companies will give you aids on a trial basis so you can try them out to see

how they work. This would also give you a chance to see how they help your

daughter.

In regards to you and your family and the school not really seeing anything

serious to indicate a loss that may very well be and that is really great,

however it is possable that your daughter developed language before she

started loosing her hearing and so she has very good understanding already.

The biggest concern though is that even if there is a mild loss it can be

very difficult for a child to follow along in school. I realize the teacher

doesn't notice a problem but it may just be that she is doing really well

but with aids she may do even better. It is important to find out if her

loss is suspected to get worse. There are many causes of hearing loss aside

from the genetic possabilities and often they can tell if it is progressive

and likely to get worse. Anyway just something to consider. Sometimes with

sensorineural hearing loss aids are not incredibly helpful, because much of

the issue is not just the sound not being loud enough but it is also often

not very clear so even if you increase the volume sometimes that just isn't

enough. However often it is and it is good to at least try the aids which

is why I recomend asking your audi or ENT about a trial period or seeing if

your local children's clinic or hospital may have loaner aids or even

contacting the company yourself and telling them you are considering

purchasing the aids but would like to see if they are going to help your

daughter first and see if they will give you a trial period. You could also

talk to the school about getting her an FM system to see if that makes a

difference in her performance. Often the school will pay for things like

that but usually they don't allow the child to take it home it is strictly

for school use. The FM system helps hearing impaired children to single out

the voice of the teacher because very often HOH children have a really hard

time hearing the teacher when there is background noise of a classroom. All

the sounds get blended together including the teachers voice and it is

really hard to single out one sound or another, so the FM system filters out

background noise and aims the teachers voice directly into the childs ear

making it louder than the other noises and making it much easier for the

child to focus on the teacher. Often when a child has just a mild loss the

only symptoms are just lack of focus in the classroom so it is very likely

that even if she is having difficulty no one noticed because it wasn't very

apparent.

-- Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing

exam a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11

months) has been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot give

you numbers at this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss and

cannot hear very well in the high frequencies. We asked for the genetic

test to try to find out a cause. Those results have not been reported yet.

She came back with an abnormal EKG and we are getting a follow up on this

(not too worried about this one).

I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did not

get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon hearing aids

and gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am not in denial and

have accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but we could not even

tell she had hearing loss other than the radio and TV being too loud. Her

speech is good and she seems to understand everything we say even with her

back turned or in another room. Her teachers said they would not even have

known she has a problem hearing.

The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of a

good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the Texas

ENT specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your help and

thanks for all the knowledge I have already gained from your responses

on the other forum. You are a true blessing and answered prayer.

Chad

December 5, 2003

Hi Chad,

Welcome to the list. You will find a wealth of experience and information here,

as well as on Kay's Listen-up website.

I'm glad to see you're not falling into the trap we did when our son was first

diagnosed at very close to your child's age. We were so stunned by the

diagnosis that we kind of panicked and bought the first aids they offered. As a

matter of fact, they were Oticon digitals and have served us extremely well (and

we're heading into our fourth year with no repairs!) but we did not take the

time to do much homework so I consider us lucky. The only SMART thing I did

then was to find the Listen-up website through a search engine. (The

audiologist was trying to sell me " in-the-ear " aids for a 4 year old and I

didn't think that sounded right.) Sure enough, I found tons of info which

included what does and does NOT work for a young child.

As I said, we did buy the expensive aids (but behind the ear models) but we

dumped the audi 3 months later in favor of the ones at our local Children's

Hospital. (That was the SECOND smartest thing I did.) There we had some

additional testing which included a CT scan and we learned the cause of '

hearing loss, that it would probably be progressive and that there were certain

activities he would need to avoid in order to preserve his residual hearing.

This gave us a good direction to go with our communication choices. You are

fortunate that your daughter has already developed age-appropriate language as

that will serve her well.

Oh, and $5100 sounds REALLY high for those aids! I am a big fan of digital

programmables but they may be offering you more aid than your daughter needs at

this time. I know that to replace my son's aids with the same model today would

be over $1000 less than your quote, at least in our area.

Carol - mom to , 7.6, mod to profound, LVAS

December 6, 2003

There is also Lions Club and Masons that offer help getting hearing aids in

many areas. This is another option for obtaining hearing aids and

audiological services. In my town, there is a Lions Club clinic within the

Speech/Hearing clinic at the university that provides refurbished hearing

aids for free for those who qualify.

Colin

_________________________________________________________________

Browse styles for all ages, from the latest looks to cozy weekend wear at

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December 6, 2003

Chad,

I live in Houston and I would go to two places - Center for Speech and

Hearing and/or Methodist Hospital has a very good audiology department.

Both places will give you a good evaluation.

Amy

Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing

exam a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11

months) has been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot

give you numbers at this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss

and cannot hear very well in the high frequencies. We asked for the

genetic test to try to find out a cause. Those results have not been

reported yet. She came back with an abnormal EKG and we are getting a

follow up on this (not too worried about this one).

I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did

not get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon

hearing aids and gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am

not in denial and have accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but

we could not even tell she had hearing loss other than the radio and TV

being too loud. Her speech is good and she seems to understand

everything we say even with her back turned or in another room. Her

teachers said they would not even have known she has a problem hearing.

The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of

a good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the

Texas ENT specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your

help and thanks for all the knowledge I have already gained from

your responses on the other forum. You are a true blessing and answered

prayer.

Chad

December 6, 2003

Chad,

As you've probably already noticed, this list is filled with very helpful

people and good adivce. I'm in New York, so I cannot help with any

ENT./Audiologist/hospital recommendations but our local Lion's club will arrange

for trials

of aides and even provide them to families who cannot afford them. It is

certainly worth a few calls to the Lions club -- or the Masons. (My grandfather

is

a Mason and gets huffy if I mention talking to the Lions -- grin) As to the

prince of aides -- we also had sticker shock when we first heard the prices. We

also found that buying aides through the local hospital was cheaper than

through the audi. Still, we love our audi and asked for his recommendation as to

which would address our son's needs. Our Ian has a conductive loss not a neural

loss, so his aides and needs would be different from your daughters and a good

audi can help you figure out which ones would work best.

We did not find out about our son's loss until he was in 2nd grade. He spoke

clearly and seemed to understand everything. He even fooled his first ENT who

didn't bother to cover his face when testing Ian -- he read the man's ips and

passed the testing with a false result. Ian was not just reading lips, he also

was reading body language and facial expressions with such skill that he

could figure out what was being said. Kids develop amazing coping skills, but

those skills will only go so far. That is why even mild losses are educationally

significant. Ian was marvelous at aquiring vocabulary, but when it came to

language that did not have concrete meaning -- like idioms, he would get lost.

His coping was taking him only so far.

My guess is your daughter Carly is a bright and amazing little girl, who is

copying very well right now. But our son's teachers were a big part of the

problem in getting him the services that HOH kids need to succeed. They thought

he

was hearing just fine, even as he started to fail in his classwork.

I guess my point here is that you should be pleased and delighted that the

teachers are telling you that she is doing well. But not to take their

evaluations as the only measure of what she needs or how well she is really

doing. On

our first visit, our audi explained to us the " speech banana " on the audiology

test result -- the plotting of what Ian was hearing. And we were amazed to

discover that he could hear only half of the speech sounds, the rest he was

figuring out based on lip reading or how words were used in sentences. We

decided

that was an awful lot of copying for a little kid and that we needed to do

whatever he needed to help him.

Get a second opinion, find an Audi and an ENT that you are comfortable with

and feel you can trust. We saw 3 ENTs before finding the one we use. Our

audioloist is our second one ... but I'd have kept looking if we needed.

We wish you luck ... Best - Jill

___________________________________________________________________

In a message dated 12/5/2003 7:02:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,

chad.jackson@... writes:

>

> My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing

> exam a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11

months)

> has been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot give you

> numbers at this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss and cannot hear

very

> well in the high frequencies. We asked for the genetic test to try to find

> out a cause. Those results have not been reported yet. She came back with

> an abnormal EKG and we are getting a follow up on this (not too worried about

> this one).

>

> I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did not

> get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon hearing aids

> and gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am not in denial and

> have accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but we could not even tell

> she had hearing loss other than the radio and TV being too loud. Her speech

> is good and she seems to understand everything we say even with her back

> turned or in another room. Her teachers said they would not even have known

she

> has a problem hearing.

>

> The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of a

> good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the Texas ENT

> specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your help and thanks

> for all the knowledge I have already gained from your responses on the

> other forum. You are a true blessing and answered prayer.

>

> Chad

>

December 6, 2003

In a message dated 12/6/2003 10:17:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

enriquez16@... writes:

> I wanted to add that many children with mild losses pass the school

> screenings. The school screenings are not a substitute for an actual hearing

test.

> I heard even some with mild - moderate losses can pass a school screening.

> I personally was frightened by this finding and I think that in addition to

> the screening they need to test word recognition with something covering the

> speakers voice, because that will tell them a lot more than the test itself

> and if they don't pass while it could be something other than a hearing

problem

> that would warrant a hearing test outside of school screening, and a lot

> more hearing impairments would be caught earlier

>

In my rather biased opinion, school screening counts for nothing. Our son was

able to hear a click made by an older testing unit. He couldn't hear some of

the tones, but he told us he heard a clicking noise, so he always raised his

right hand, no matter where he heard the sound/click. The nurse didn't catch on

at all that he was cheating, she saw a hand go up and did not worry that it

was always his right hand. Plus when the real audiogram was provided to the

school, during one of our many meetings, she (the prinicpal) called in the nurse

to " help " interpret it for the other people in the meeting. (She did not

like/trust my explanation.) Our nurse was honest and told the committee that she

was not qualified to evaulate the audiogram and therefore would not give any

opinion, that this was why the district had an arrangement with a local

audioligist.

A word recognition test would have identified our son's loss much earlier and

perhps some of the problems with the school and getting him services could

have been avoided. Ah, 20/20 hindsight -- isn't it marvelous?

I know I'm biased and perhaps some school nurses are quailified, but I will

never again trust a screening from the school. If I see even a hint of a

hearing problem in our daughter, I'll have her to our audi in a heartbeat, no

matter

what the school's lastest screening might indicate. In fact, when she was in

second grade we had the audi run a complete set of tests on her -- not just a

simple hearing test. We wanted to be sure we were not missing signs hearing

loss in her the way we had in our son.

Sorry to be so vehement ... the topic of school screenings is a hot-button

for me.

Best - Jill

December 6, 2003

I wanted to add that many children with mild losses pass the school screenings.

The school screenings are not a substitute for an actual hearing test. I heard

even some with mild - moderate losses can pass a school screening. I personally

was frightened by this finding and I think that in addition to the screening

they need to test word recognition with something covering the speakers voice,

because that will tell them a lot more than the test itself and if they don't

pass while it could be something other than a hearing problem that would warrant

a hearing test outside of school screening, and a lot more hearing impairments

would be caught earlier

Re: Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

Chad,

As you've probably already noticed, this list is filled with very helpful

people and good adivce. I'm in New York, so I cannot help with any

ENT./Audiologist/hospital recommendations but our local Lion's club will

arrange for trials

of aides and even provide them to families who cannot afford them. It is

certainly worth a few calls to the Lions club -- or the Masons. (My

grandfather is

a Mason and gets huffy if I mention talking to the Lions -- grin) As to the

prince of aides -- we also had sticker shock when we first heard the prices.

We

also found that buying aides through the local hospital was cheaper than

through the audi. Still, we love our audi and asked for his recommendation as

to

which would address our son's needs. Our Ian has a conductive loss not a

neural

loss, so his aides and needs would be different from your daughters and a good

audi can help you figure out which ones would work best.

We did not find out about our son's loss until he was in 2nd grade. He spoke

clearly and seemed to understand everything. He even fooled his first ENT who

didn't bother to cover his face when testing Ian -- he read the man's ips and

passed the testing with a false result. Ian was not just reading lips, he also

was reading body language and facial expressions with such skill that he

could figure out what was being said. Kids develop amazing coping skills, but

those skills will only go so far. That is why even mild losses are

educationally

significant. Ian was marvelous at aquiring vocabulary, but when it came to

language that did not have concrete meaning -- like idioms, he would get lost.

His coping was taking him only so far.

My guess is your daughter Carly is a bright and amazing little girl, who is

copying very well right now. But our son's teachers were a big part of the

problem in getting him the services that HOH kids need to succeed. They

thought he

was hearing just fine, even as he started to fail in his classwork.

I guess my point here is that you should be pleased and delighted that the

teachers are telling you that she is doing well. But not to take their

evaluations as the only measure of what she needs or how well she is really

doing. On

our first visit, our audi explained to us the " speech banana " on the audiology

test result -- the plotting of what Ian was hearing. And we were amazed to

discover that he could hear only half of the speech sounds, the rest he was

figuring out based on lip reading or how words were used in sentences. We

decided

that was an awful lot of copying for a little kid and that we needed to do

whatever he needed to help him.

Get a second opinion, find an Audi and an ENT that you are comfortable with

and feel you can trust. We saw 3 ENTs before finding the one we use. Our

audioloist is our second one ... but I'd have kept looking if we needed.

We wish you luck ... Best - Jill

___________________________________________________________________

In a message dated 12/5/2003 7:02:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,

chad.jackson@... writes:

>

> My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing

> exam a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11

months)

> has been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot give you

> numbers at this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss and cannot

hear very

> well in the high frequencies. We asked for the genetic test to try to find

> out a cause. Those results have not been reported yet. She came back with

> an abnormal EKG and we are getting a follow up on this (not too worried

about

> this one).

>

> I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did not

> get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon hearing aids

> and gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am not in denial and

> have accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but we could not even

tell

> she had hearing loss other than the radio and TV being too loud. Her speech

> is good and she seems to understand everything we say even with her back

> turned or in another room. Her teachers said they would not even have known

she

> has a problem hearing.

>

> The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of a

> good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the Texas

ENT

> specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your help and thanks

> for all the knowledge I have already gained from your responses on the

> other forum. You are a true blessing and answered prayer.

>

> Chad

>

December 7, 2003

Chad,

My 7-year-old son has a mild-moderate hearing loss too. His whole

educational career we've had to fight all the teachers who say he seems to

hear 'just fine'. He *does* hear alot. He just doesn't hear everything and

worse, what he thinks he hears is not always what they are saying. For

instance, I say we're having pizza for lunch and he hears that we're having

peaches. I have helped out in his classroom for years and I see the blank

look on his face sometimes, but the teacher never notices.

Don't get me wrong, in some ways has done so well. His speech is

excellent and at age 6 he had the expressive and receptive language of a

9-year-old. But socially he has done much much worse. He does get

speech/language services at school because of a limited social vocabulary.

He does struggle with social interactions and finds children's voices very

hard to hear. He takes everything quite literally and is so angry and

humiliated when it turns out he has misheard conversations. Like an elderly

person who cannot hear well, he tends to dominate conversations and have

trouble with understanding other people's points of view. It has been

suggested that it's his way of controlling his auditory environment.

Nevertheless it's a problem at school! I understand that his social

development is fairly typical of those who don't hear that well. I can

assure you that and my dad have a great time mishearing each other then

getting aggravated, LOL!

That being said, he's as cute as a button. He has terrific green hearing

aids(Phonak Claro digitals) and people love to know him. His hearing loss

does not define him. He is a bright, engaging boy first and a hearing-aid

wearer second.

I will argue that if you are considering hearing aids you MUST trial

digital aids. We were also told that the profession is not in agreement

whether the digital aids are better for some hearing losses so we had to

fight to try these. I'm quite angry that we were directed away from the

technology for any time at all. It has been so beneficial for , he's

made such leaps socially since acquiring the new aids that I feel like we

lost valuable time with his old aids. And his old aids were top-of-the-line

analog programmables. Every child is different, but the digital technology

is very much worth trying " even " for a mild-moderate loss. We were able to

get financial assistance for 's aids through a Shriner's organization at

Rhode Island Hospital, and also some support for an FM through Blue Cross of

Massachusetts.

We found out about 's hearing loss through newborn hearing screening so

we've been on this road a long time and have had time to get used to it. You

will get there too, but right now it's probably very hard. I wish you luck.

Daphne

mom to ,7, hoh & Leo, 5

> Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

>

> My name is Chad and my wife's name is Leah. We had an extensive hearing

> exam a few weeks ago and yesterday. Our daughter Carly (4 years and 11

> months) has been diagnosed with sensor neural hearing loss. I cannot

> give you numbers at this time but she has mild to moderate hearing loss

> and cannot hear very well in the high frequencies. We asked for the

> genetic test to try to find out a cause. Those results have not been

> reported yet. She came back with an abnormal EKG and we are getting a

> follow up on this (not too worried about this one).

>

> I was not really pleased with the ENT and the audio was okay but we did

> not get a lot of information. The audio told us about the Oticon

> hearing aids and gave us the shocking price of $5,100 for a pair. I am

> not in denial and have accepted the fact that Carly has hearing loss but

> we could not even tell she had hearing loss other than the radio and TV

> being too loud. Her speech is good and she seems to understand

> everything we say even with her back turned or in another room. Her

> teachers said they would not even have known she has a problem hearing.

>

> The point is, I would like to get a second opinion. Does anyone know of

> a good ENT and audio in the Houston, TX area that is not a part of the

> Texas ENT specialist group? Would like to know. Thank you for your

> help and thanks for all the knowledge I have already gained from

> your responses on the other forum. You are a true blessing and answered

> prayer.

>

> Chad

>

December 7, 2003

Of course you are biassed but I have read that school screenings which often

aren't done by an audi (red flag right there) miss up to 70% of all mild to

moderate losses in children which usually affects the childs performance in

school and it is up to the parents to get them tested. I don't know why they

even do the school tests with those statistics. That's really lame, that the

click from the machine making the beeps was louder than the beep itself. I'm

sure your son heard something so he thought he was doing the right thing. I

think not only would a word recognition test weed out a lot more losses but also

conditions like CAPD and other problems a child might have discriminating

sounds. I wish more parents knew how unreliable the school tests were before

their children are diagnosed so they might be more observant and get the child

tested at the slightest possability that there might be a problem. Many parents

I imagine might suspect a loss but figure that they passed the school screening

so it must be ok. By the way for all of you out there, the school vision tests

are the same way, my son has worse vision than I do he was thinking pieces of

lint on the floor were frogs, and stuff so I took him to get tested (by a

pediatric opthamologist) and he needed glasses sure enough, in one eye he had

-125 and in the other it was -100. I have -75 in one eye and -100 in the other,

and that isn't too bad but I can't read street signs until I am right under them

so imagine the effects that 125 and 100 will have on a child in school trying to

see the black board. The school screening didn't catch it. When he got his

glasses he no longer thought there were frogs and spiders crawling around the

house when it was just lint or a piece of paper. Andy also has astigmatism so

that is what affects his vision close up so try learning how to read and write

being far sighted with no glasses. Just a heads up that you should always get

your child's vision checked by a qualified opthamologist regardless of what the

school says.

Re: Daughter with sensor neural hearing loss (I am new)

In a message dated 12/6/2003 10:17:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

enriquez16@... writes:

> I wanted to add that many children with mild losses pass the school

> screenings. The school screenings are not a substitute for an actual

hearing test.

> I heard even some with mild - moderate losses can pass a school screening.

> I personally was frightened by this finding and I think that in addition to

> the screening they need to test word recognition with something covering the

> speakers voice, because that will tell them a lot more than the test itself

> and if they don't pass while it could be something other than a hearing

problem

> that would warrant a hearing test outside of school screening, and a lot

> more hearing impairments would be caught earlier

>

In my rather biased opinion, school screening counts for nothing. Our son was

able to hear a click made by an older testing unit. He couldn't hear some of

the tones, but he told us he heard a clicking noise, so he always raised his

right hand, no matter where he heard the sound/click. The nurse didn't catch

on

at all that he was cheating, she saw a hand go up and did not worry that it

was always his right hand. Plus when the real audiogram was provided to the

school, during one of our many meetings, she (the prinicpal) called in the

nurse

to " help " interpret it for the other people in the meeting. (She did not

like/trust my explanation.) Our nurse was honest and told the committee that

she

was not qualified to evaulate the audiogram and therefore would not give any

opinion, that this was why the district had an arrangement with a local

audioligist.

A word recognition test would have identified our son's loss much earlier and

perhps some of the problems with the school and getting him services could

have been avoided. Ah, 20/20 hindsight -- isn't it marvelous?

I know I'm biased and perhaps some school nurses are quailified, but I will

never again trust a screening from the school. If I see even a hint of a

hearing problem in our daughter, I'll have her to our audi in a heartbeat, no

matter

what the school's lastest screening might indicate. In fact, when she was in

second grade we had the audi run a complete set of tests on her -- not just a

simple hearing test. We wanted to be sure we were not missing signs hearing

loss in her the way we had in our son.

Sorry to be so vehement ... the topic of school screenings is a hot-button

for me.

Best - Jill

December 7, 2003

Hi Chad and welcome,

I live in Australia so won't bother making any suggestions about hearing aids. I

just wanted to say that our daughter has a moderate loss and if wasn't for her

test results, we too never would have picked that she had a hearing loss. She

was diagnosed at 11 months and aided at 12 months. She is now 3 years old and

her speech is age appropriate. She has always appeared to hear us well enough

without her hearing aids, but recently I have noticed that sometimes when she

repeats back what we say, she gets a word wrong and I have to correct her. Also,

when she changed from programmable analogue hearing aids to fully digital

hearing aids, within 2 weeks she learnt to say " s " and " f " sounds. It's times

like these that I realise how much the hearing aids really do help her, even

though she is too young to explain what difference they make to her hearing. It

can be harder to accept a hearing loss when it is mild or moderate because it is

not so obvious, and sometimes friends and family need extra convincing, but you

are doing the right thing for your daughter getting her aids and helping make

hearing easier for her. I hope you are able to find good aids in your budget -

good luck!

Kerryn

, 3, mod, ha's; 12 weeks, hearing

Melbourne, Australia