Since the pandemic began, we have been having more and more important conversations about mental health, especially around our children. You may wonder how hearing loss impacts mental health.  As of 2019, about 20% of the world’s population has some form of hearing loss. A little over 15% of those people are kids.

What is anxiety?

The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as an emotion that is characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes. It is also considered a persistent heightened state of alert. Sometimes this can be a normal reaction to stressful situations and sometimes spirals into a disorder in itself.

What does it look like?

Anxiety can trigger physical symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, muscle aches, insomnia, and trouble concentrating, which may impact students’ quality of life and ability to perform and participate in school activities.

Hearing loss and anxiety

Language deprivation is a...

It's SUMMER!  

Although summer is something that many of us look forward to, for some children with hearing loss, summer is a time of stress and loneliness. 

However, a little bit of planning and thought can make a big difference for your child.  This blog post will outline the steps that can help families support their children this summer.

A lot of summer activities that are fun for other kids can be stressful for a child who is deaf or hard of hearing.  This stress can be triggered because they don't have full access to the activity or the planning, people or background information to understand or anticipate it.  This might mean that they do not understand where you are going, who you are with, or can fully access the conversation and fun that is happening around them.  This can especially be an issue when there are big groups of people involved.  This can cause stress and frustration for your child, which can impact the full...

Education is something that everyone should have access to, regardless of hearing (or any disability!). If we want deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students to be successful, one strategy is to use Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which provides strategies that make learning accessible to ALL students, including students who are deaf or hard of hearing. These are great strategies to utilize not only because it is all inclusive and guards against students feeling singled out, but also can be a great way to facilitate buy-in from teachers, so that they recognize that by supporting their DHH student in this way, they are actually supporting all the students in their classroom.  Because, after all, accessibility goes beyond the visual and auditory access and includes changes in the classroom instruction and the space itself.  

So, how do we make our classrooms more accessible? How can we incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into our classroom...

As promised, we’re back with a second post about preparing your deaf or hard of hearing child/student for the mainstream classroom! If you need a little refresher of what we talked about last time, we went into detail about how to identify if the general education classroom is inclusive and accessible for your child/student. Check back on the previous post to read those details of what to consider and how to get started. In this blog post, we will talk about how to start implementing tools to ensure that your DHH child/student is prepped for success. 

Now that you have determined that the general education classroom is appropriate, how do we get a general education classroom ready for a child who is deaf or hard of hearing? The first step is to determine potential barriers. Then, design teacher training procedures around strategies to reduce challenges (we’ll get to that later…..). 

Right now we are just going to talk about some factors...

Are you excited for summer? Us too!   The FRIEND Academy recently hosted a training for family members sharing tips on how to help your family make the most of it with your deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) child.  This is such an important topic because what may be fun for other children can be stressful for your child.  In case you missed the training, we will outline the highlights on what to expect and how to prepare for any challenges that may arise.

Time for Summer Fun?

As you are getting ready for summer, you may have some of the following top summer activities planned.  Water sports, biking, campfires/camping, nature activities, picnics, community celebrations (hello, 4th of July!), amusement parks and family vacation/travel, anyone?  

Yes, please!  

But there's only one problem.....

These things are all insanely fun for most people. However, they can be incredibly stressful for children with hearing loss. 

A lot...