Re: Introducing us

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/28/2005 1:34:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,

pjs_realmom@... writes:

The picture I've painted sounds rather grim...I hope you're not all totally

freaked out. He is an amazingly sweet boy and we love him dearly. He has

really come a long way over the last 2 years, and I really believe he has a lot

of potential. This little boy has been the greatest teacher in my life.

Not freaked out at all. The kids on this list are quite a range of abilities

and disabilities.

I'm Jill, mom to 2. Our Ian is now 15, has a bilateral progressive

conductive loss that is currently in the moderate range. He is a sophomore in

our

local high school, with a variety of services to support him in the oral

setting. Ian lost his hearing post-lingually. We don't know when his loss

began, but

we do know that if there had been infant screening when he was born (there

wasn't) he would have passed. By the time we discovered his loss, the boy was

lip reading like a pro, which helped keep his hearing loss hidden for even

longer. He was about 7 when we learned of his loss. It took another 18 months

until his loss was properly diagnosed and then aided appropriately.

I also have an 11-year-old daughter, . She has no issues except the

angst that comes with puberty. Actually at this point in our lives, dealing with

her rite of passage is more difficult than any of Ian's. Pubescent girls

should come with a manual, an on-off switch, and a volume control, so we could

as

least have some measure of control over the effects of hormones. (grin)

We're a hearing family. The only D/HOH member is an aunt who lost her

hearing due to scarlet fever as a child, back in the days of sulfur drugs,

before

antibiotics. Well, my 93-year-old grandfather also wears hearing aids, as does

my mother-in-law, but those are recent additions due to old age. So, we're a

hearing family who had no clue about hearing loss. It's been 8 years and I

often wish I'd known then what I know now. 20/20 hindsight is marvelous.

Our latest thing is that we've been taking ASL lessons. It's almost a year

now and we're doing pretty well, considering we have no one to practice with

except ourselves.

Well ... that's our brief history.

You'll find there is quite a range of people here. And the one thing we have

in common, aside from our kids, is that we're here to support each other.

The underlying theme here is that whatever decisions you make for you child are

the right ones. There is no one right answer, just a lot of options. The

combination that works for mine won't work for others. We share ideas and

advice. If we don't know something, there's usually someone who can point to a

place to start looking.

Again, welcome, I'm sure you're going to find this place a great resource.

The collection knowledge here is just amazing. So, don't be shy, ask questions.