For Parents with Children who are Hard of Hearing

When parents discover that their child has a hearing loss, they soon learn that many of the resources available to families are directed toward children "who are deaf or hard of hearing." Often people and organizations make no distinction between children who are "deaf" and children who "hard of hearing."

One reason resources are targeted toward "deaf and hard of hearing children" is that there is so much common ground between families with deaf children and families with hard of hearing children. Most of these families grapple with similar questions, such as, what are the best communication and educational options for my child? People and organizations may also be hesitant to make distinctions between "deaf" and "hard of hearing" children because those terms are used in such different ways by different people that they are often meaningless. A child who is considered to be "hard of hearing," for instance, may have a temporary, fluctuating or permanent hearing loss; may have a loss in one ear or two; and may or may not know any sign language. Children who are hard of hearing have audiograms that reflect vast differences in hearing levels at different frequencies. Also, as children get older, whether they (or their parents) consider themselves to be "deaf" or "hard of hearing" may change from day to day or from situation to situation. The labels can be burdensome for kids who are, after all, themselves first, not "deaf" or "hard of hearing" people.

Despite the vast common ground shared by deaf and hard of hearing children, and problems with terminology, there do appear to be some issues that are of unique concern for families with hard of hearing children. Sometimes these types of issues are overlooked in resources that are targeted toward "deaf and hard of hearing" children. For the purposes of this part of the website, "hard of hearing" generally means "a hearing loss, whether permanent or fluctuating, which adversely affects an individual's ability to detect and decipher some sounds" (see www.handsandvoices.org).

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