Episode 15 | Sarah + Brooklyn
Every time I put together a podcast episode, I'm so grateful for the people I have met through this journey with Colten. Every single person is truly amazing and a blessing to us! Sarah and I met at a class Children's Hospital offered for 18 months to 3 years old for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children getting ready for preschool. It was a great group of teachers and parents. I loved being a part of the group and we have kept in touch with so many families.
Sarah talks us through Brooklyn's journey and how she is raising her daughter culturally deaf. I learned so much from Sarah and I hope you do as well. A couple take-aways that I hadn't thought of for parents raising a deaf child. One, child care is pretty much non-existent. Think about how many providers are fluent in ASL? Second, although Brooklyn has had many great hearing teachers that have taught her with the use of ASL, Sarah has seen the most growth in Brooklyn this year in a class taught by a deaf teacher. Her language has grown tremendously. It just shows how important being connect to the deaf community is for children.
I wanted to clarify one of the topics we talked about. I loved how Sarah says her daughter didn't fail her hearing test, she passed her deaf test. Once a child has gone through the new born screening, they are referred to an audiologist for an ABR. An ABR is auditory brainstem response-this shows the doctors and parents how the hearing nerves and brain responds to sound. It is usually a 3 hour test in which the baby needs to be sleeping soundly or sedated if they are older.
Sarah is a wealth of knowledge, but her biggest advice for parents, who parent a deaf child, is to connect with deaf adults. She also recommended these resources below:
-Deaf Individuals-greatest resource
-Influencers on social media: Raven Sutton , Troy Kotsur and Language Priority to name a few
-Deaf Organizations: Colorado Association of the Deaf, Colorado School for Deaf and Blind, Rocky Mountain Deaf School
-Through the Rocky Mountain Deaf School, they have Youtube resources as well, and one amazing literacy program is with Jenny Jamison
Photo: Cali Gale Photography
