Colorado Families for Hands & Voices

Colorado Families for Hands & Voices

Colorado Families for Hands & Voices is a non-profit, parent-run resource group for families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (d/hh), from the time of identification through age 21. Since its conception 18 years ago in Colorado, Hands & Voices has expanded to include chapters in 47 states and three countries. Its mission is to support families with children who are d/hh without a bias around communication modes or methodology. Its motto is, “What works for your child is what makes the choice right.”

Support for Families from Families

Hands & Voices places a strong emphasis on families helping other families to become a part of a larger community through parent-to-parent networking. Though the Guide By Your Side program, families are paired with an experienced parent who receives ongoing professional development as a parent guide and is knowledgeable about resources in each region of the state. This is one way for families to be connected socially as well as educationally. For those looking to receive guidance from Hands & Voices, the first step is to call to meet a Parent Guide.

Hands & Voices helps with educational choices, emotional support, and advocacy in the community. Helpful materials with a wealth of information are also available on its website. The website guides families to find funding for services and equipment, and also caters to Spanish-speaking families. Hands & Voices publishes a quarterly newspaper, and authored “Educational Advocacy,” a book offering insight into becoming an effective advocate for your child with disabilities. The Colorado chapter connects families with a monthly “e-news” and Facebook pages along with face to face events and GBYS contacts statewide.

Early identification offers the best chance for effective intervention. The Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) bill was passed in 2000. This legislation requires that hearing screening for newborns be performed at the hospital before discharge to ensure hearing status is identified early. Midwives are also required to provide information about where to obtain a hearing screening if not offered through their practice. Whether identified in the newborn period or later, Hands & Voices assists parents to plan ahead for the educational needs of the child, and can guide them through the Early Intervention process. Children may use accommodations such as flexible classroom seating, hearing assistive technology, captioning and sign language interpreting or direct instruction in sign language. Without careful considerations for the classroom environment, a student can miss significant classroom instruction, let alone the communication of classmates so important to incidental learning. One study found that even with the use of an educational interpreter, students may access only 60 to 70% of information that is given in the classroom.

Different Things Work for Different Families

Hands & Voices points out that living with hearing loss is a personal experience for each family. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired, mild to moderate to profound, stable or progressive, and one-sided (unilateral) or bilateral. Each person will have a different story to share. Children who are deaf/hh will prefer varying use of technology and language preferences which may change depending on the environment. There is no wrong answer: according to Hands & Voices, each family should assess what works best for them, and what matches the child’s strengths in order to raise what Hands & Voices calls a WASK, a Well-Adjusted and Successful Kid.

Other Critical Issues

Parents who are d/hh often have children who are hearing. 95% of deaf/hh children are born to hearing parents. The Deaf Community considers deafness to be a sensory difference, not a disability, and is united in the use of American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf tradition. Some parents may choose a more English order sign language such as Signing Exact English or Pidgin Signed English to communicate, or Cued Speech, a system of visual representation of English phonemes. Others focus on teaching their children to utilize amplification and develop listening and spoken language. Some families choose a combination of these methods. For children who are born with a severe to profound hearing loss, audiologists may determine if they might be a good candidate for a cochlear implant¹ that utilizes a prosthetic device in the cochlea to transmit electronic sounds. Significant therapy is needed to develop listening and speech. Some families in the Deaf community do not choose implantation, which is an elective surgery and not without risk. Additionally, there are multitudes of hearing aids, implants, and bone conduction hearing processors that are available now for children with particular kinds of hearing loss. Some devices are water resistant or have the capability to wirelessly connect to a computer, telephone, or other electronic devices or assist in listening in noisy situations. While no equipment “cures” a child of deafness, many can and do benefit from amplification if the family chooses.

Parents with typical hearing raising a child who is d/hh will face unique challenges in figuring out how to communicate with their child. These parents may have to learn sign language alongside their child in order to teach things that come naturally to a hearing child. Metaphors and jokes are hard for a d/hh child to grasp because thinking and language develop in children simultaneously. Simply hearing words that adults speak builds concepts in children, but children with a different hearing status benefit from more focused instruction with visual supports and attention to acoustics and expression. Communication is the foundation of relationships.

As you begin to learn how to support your child who is deaf or hard of hearing, remember that Colorado Hands & Voices can be a welcome support to your family in this “low incidence” world. Hands & Voices can help guide you towards educated choices for your child and family and connect you with the deaf/hard of hearing mentors and other resources you need to help your child thrive.

¹A cochlear implant is a surgically-implanted electronic device that gives a profoundly deaf person a representation of sounds but does not fully restore hearing.