I love meeting other hearing loss advocates! We can compare philosophies for living well with hearing loss and share tactics for garnering more focus on hearing loss issues from mainstream audiences. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Hu, the creator of MamaHuHears, a website dedicated to helping parents navigate the joys and challenges of caring for a child with hearing loss. Michelle is a pediatric audiologist who had hearing loss as a child, so she has expertise on multiple levels!
On her website, Michelle describes herself in this way.
I have bilateral profound hearing loss and I also happen to be a pediatric audiologist. I provide parents, friends and family of children with hearing loss with a glimpse of what growing up with a hearing loss is like. I talk about the challenges and the feelings, I share what worked or didn’t work for me and I celebrate the triumphs and wins. I love sharing my raw experiences in life and this is my little space to do so!
MamaHuHears.com
MamaHuHears: Online Program for Parents
Using her knowledge as a pediatric audiologist as well as her personal experiences, Michelle shares tips and tricks for living well with hearing loss frequently on social media, especially Instagram, where she has almost 10,000 followers.
Michelle has also created a helpful online program for parents of children with hearing loss. I got a sneak peek last week and was impressed.
Not only is it full of useful and practical information—for example, how to best hold a very young child for a hearing exam—it is emotionally supportive as well. Michelle shares personal stories of how she and her family adjusted to her hearing loss diagnosis. I was inspired by how she, even as a young child, helped her parents accept her for who she was. Together, they worked through each obstacle allowing Michelle to become the person she is today.
The content is divided into two parts:
Part One: My child has hearing loss, now what?
The first half of the program lays out what to expect in the first year post-diagnosis.
Part Two: Life with hearing loss
The second half of the program looks beyond the first year, and provides some insights on how to support your child, yourself, and your family, as you all grow along your hearing loss journey.
The complete program (videos & handbook) is $289. The handbook alone is $129.
Reframing Hearing Loss: From Fear to Opportunity
Sometimes doctors and other medical professionals advise parents of children with hearing loss to lower their expectations for their children. They warn them that their children will not achieve excellence at school, in their careers or even personally. This couldn’t be farther from the truth!
MamaHuHears demonstrates that a fulfilling life with hearing loss is possible. And she helps parents get started on the path to success right away. I particularly like how the program encourages parents to focus on what is under their control. It also emphasizes the importance of a can-do mindset and an optimistic outlook, which reminds me of the MindShifts concept we discuss in our book Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss.
Want to learn more about parenting children with hearing loss? Read Parenting A Child with Hearing Loss: An Advocacy Story about my interview with Heather Thomson from The Real Housewives of New York fame. Or watch the interview on This Week in Hearing.
Readers, what advice do you have for parents of children with hearing loss?
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Top advice: Don’t raise your child to believe they are broken and need to be fixed.
Good advice. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.