Hello!

[Brenda Elliott]

I'd like to introduce myself briefly - I have four children, two of whom were born hard-of-hearing (HH)- the oldest (12) and the youngest (16 mos.). Prior to my oldest child's birth, there was no history of congenital hearing loss (or otherwise). Our next two children were born hearing, and our fourth child was also born with a hearing loss. Okay, now we know it's genetic! :-) My kids who are HH are both boys, and praise God we have new born hearing screenings in our state! They've both worn hearing aids (HA) since they were 4 1/2 months old. I'm excited about finding this community, and I hope we can share and learn from one another's experience. It's so important to advocate and educate for those folks whom I feel are "betwixt and between" - neither deaf nor hearing.

[Brenda Elliott]

Susan - I can relate to what you're saying in terms of technological advances, Justin (now just over two) just had some great unaided tests, and they adjusted his aids utilizing a 'real ear' test. We noticed a difference right away! Immediately his speech approximations for his siblings names were replaced with their actual names... Because his language is pretty good, I thought he was already doing well. Who knew he couldn't hear that well? I think back to our oldest who had the same setting (remember the dials for volume?) from 4 1/2 mos. old to seven yrs. old...no one considered the size of the ear canal and adjusting the gain accordingly... He's turned out just fine, but I know he had to work a lot harder. :-)

We haven't started the genetic testing yet either. I think it might be helpful for the kids to have an understanding of the likelihood of their children having some sort of hearing loss...we'll see. For now, we're just taking each day as it comes - in interrupt mode! :-) Thanks, Susan and Karen, for connecting with me. Merry Christmas!

[SUSAN E GRAVES]

So you're the one in your family who happend to marry someone else with the same gene! Me too! It's been very interesting! They told us if it was congenital, and they thought it was at the time, then we had a one in four chance of other deaf children, and since 2 of our 5 are deaf, that's pretty accurate, I think! I'm which of the children will bring us deaf grandchildren. We may be tested before then. I'll let them make their own decisions on that count.

[SUSAN E GRAVES]

Hi! My husband and I have 5 kids together; oldest and youngest are deaf! The most incredible improvements have come along in the time between the two of them! If only I could re-do the first experience with the technological advances that I've had with the second one! And I wish I had had the good sense to listen to my own advice when I first started out on this road ( and ignored a few of the so-called professionals!)

[Karen Putz]

Hi Brenda,
We've got the genetic ball rolling in our family too. Five generations of it! I have a 15, 12 and 11 year old with hearing aids. We've got an entire kitchen drawer devoted to batteries.