We often hear stories about kids eating toys, and swallowing rings. For the Mulin’s family, they encountered their own experience with finding a bead in their son’s ear when he was 18 months old.

Graham Mulins, now five-years-old, was just a baby when he stuck a jewelry spacer bead into his right ear. This led his family on a unique hearing loss journey.

When the nurse wheeled our daughter Raina’s bassinet away for her newborn hearing screening I said, “Go ace your first test baby girl!”

Forty-five minutes later, she came back with bad news: Raina didn’t pass.

Having a child with a hearing loss sometimes can feel isolating but mom Macey Kibbey has found kindred community through Instagram. 

The hearing loss journey for Macey’s son Oliver began when his left ear failed the newborn hearing screen. A repeat test when he was one day old showed opposite results. Oliver was then referred to a specialist and diagnosed with a mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at three months old. 

Getting fitted with a hearing aid early in life may be the key to developing better language skills in deaf children, according to a recent study in Australia.

According to the study, the benefit of early amplification was especially true for children with severe hearing loss.

Emily Mikoski, mother of Max, author of Max and His Hearing Aids, wrote a children’s book based off of her son’s experiences to provide a resource for families who are in the midst of their child’s hearing journey.

Emily didn’t intend on writing a children’s book about hearing aids. Her focus was on settling into a routine of ENT, audiology, speech therapy and family service facilitator appointments. A routine that many parents of hard of hearing children are familiar with.

If you have an infant wearing hearing aids, then you know how incredible it is to have your child hear your voice clearly for the first time. However, you might also know that dealing with hearing aids and an infant can be tricky.

Having to keep hearing aids in a baby’s ears can pose unique challenges. If you are new to the hearing loss world you might be wondering how to handle some tricky situations. 

Two of my three children have hearing loss that was detected by the newborn hearing test on day two of life. With the early detection, we were able to start the process to get my children their hearing aids early in life. For my son, he had his hearing aids at 3-months-old. For my daughter, she received them at 4 months of age.

Here are the areas that we found challenging for our infants wearing hearing aids and practical solutions that we actually used to help.

In today’s video I am sharing with you why I decided to learn sign language with my family and how it has been beneficial for my son Harry.

Harry is deaf, but wears a cochlear implant. Even though he can hear with his hearing technology, and we communicate orally, we also use sign language with him. 

Are talking toys for deaf children naughty or nice?

If you walk into a toy store this holiday season, chances are you may be bombard with repetitive tunes, mechanical voices and motorized movements. Toys that make sound are all the rage these days, and may times children are attracted to them. 

But are noisy toys a good option for children with hearing loss? 

 

When Oliver’s mom Macey shared photos of her son with us on Instagram (@ohboyoliver), we instantly fell in love with the little guy.

Macey was gracious enough to share her family’s story: