Over 20 years ago, when my parents first learned about my deafness, they had to go to the library, talk to people, make phone calls, and create connections. There was no internet in those days. Now today, when parents learn about their child’s deafness, they can just go on the internet and find a wealth of information within a click of a mouse. It’s amazing.
This makes me ponder what is the first word that parents will type in the Google search box when they first learn about their child’s deafness? For all those who took advantage of the internet to research when you were learning about the diagnosis of your child’s deafness, what was the first word you typed in the Google search box? From there, did you find anything that helped guide you on your child’s journey?
Hi Rachel,
It was such a pleasure meeting you at the AG Bell Valentines Day Party a few weeks ago. As you may remember from our conversation, my daughter failed two newborn hearing screens five years ago. I convinced myself that she was profoundly deaf, so I started searching for information that comforted me. I knew about cochlear implants, so I googled “Cochlear Implant Success Stories,” and your name popped up! Reading about your experience led me to google auditory verbal therapy, and I found several other websites about kids who were having good success with CIs and AV therapy.
As it turned out my daughter passed an ABR at two months and then another one after she had PE tubes placed, so we thought for five years that she did not have a hearing problem. After she failed her five-year-old hearing screening though, I began to search again, and the first thing I searched was AVC of Atlanta, which led me to your blog and several others, including the Deaf Village aggregator. All of these blogs have been great resources for me as I have been trying to figure out the best way to treat and advocate for my daughter who currently has bilateral mild SNHL.
Anyway, glad to see you blogging more, and again, it was a real pleasure meeting you.
Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca — February 17, 2010 @ 11:17 am