Apr 16, 2020
Episode 31: Hearing Loss And Achieving Your Fullest Potential With Guest Theresa Harp
In this episode, we discuss learning helping your child learn
language when they have hearing loss, as well as helping your child
to achieve their fullest potential. When guest Theresa Harp was
about 10 years old, her brother was born, who was later diagnosed
with Down's Syndrome. When he was in elementary school, he began to
experience hearing loss. This coincided with Theresa's college
years and her coursework in speech therapy and audiology. This
helped guide her to her career in speech therapy with children who
have hearing loss.
With kids, she works with American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken
language, although this depends on what the family wants to focus
on. This can change as the child's strengths and needs change. Each
family is different; some focus only on ASL, some focus only on
spoken language, and some choose to use a blend of both. The goal
is to make sure that whatever approach the family chooses, that the
family can communicate with the child and that the child can
communicate with the family. Sessions typically look like playtime,
and family is always included in sessions. Sessions are flexible
and dependent on what the needs of the child and family are that
week. The approach is different for each family, because each
family is at a different phase of grief, and each family has
different needs at different points in time.
To reach the child's fullest potential, Theresa asks parents how
they envision their child's life 5 and 20 years from now and what
their goals might be. Theresa educates the families on what that
child's potential could be, and gaining social supports of other
parents in the same situation helps as well. Theresa has noticed
that social support has been key for these families, including
Facebook groups. It is important to know that you can work on
language development very very early on, including talking and/or
signing to you baby, using language well, and using language often.
Speech therapy strategies can be easily implemented into daily
life, without having to have tons of timeout of your schedule.
Links:
Theresa Harp
Facebook
Instagram
Signing Time Videos
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Show Music:
Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0
License (www.freesound.org)
Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License
(www.freesound.org)
Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under
CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)
Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple
Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.
Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple