Parents’ Pack
Parents of children whose deafness is newly-confirmed, have a lot going on. They need to know where to seek advice, to learn a whole new terminology, and how to navigate the national healthcare, support & education systems.
IDK digitised this information pack in 2010 from a print version produced in 2006 by a team at the Children’s Hearing Service, for the North Western Health Board. All info-sheets are in PDF format; click on each title to read.
Parents’ Audiology Information Pack (10 sheets – HSE, 2006)
- Children’s Community Audiology Services
- How The Ear Works & The Cause of Hearing Difficulties
- DeafHear
- Glue Ear
- Deafness: State Entitlements (*see also IDK’s Services Map)
- Ear-Moulds & Repairs To Hearing-Aids (*see also IDK’s Essential Tips)
- Reading An Audiogram
- The Visiting Teacher Service (*see also IDK’s Educational Entitlements)
- Staff Working With Your Child
- HSE Speech & Language Service (* see also Sign Language)
**Parents can read this piece, Teaching Deaf Children To Speak, for insights to home-teaching options if local speech & language services are limited.
*** Advice for families to accept hearing-technologies is given, with the reasons why children need to consistently wear their hearing-aids.
Please send any questions or feedback on this pack to IDK. Many thanks to Miriam Walsh and Marlene Wessels for their help with ‘webifying’ the print documents, and to the relevant staff at the HSE for agreeing to the project.
Remember to check the Parents’ area of this website for further details, and to use the search-box in the blue column to find website articles of interest.
The National Council for Special Education also has a guide for the parents of children who are deaf & hard-of-hearing (published in March 2012).
‘New’ parents wanting to network or chat with others are welcome to join IDK’s Facebook page, to introduce themselves (or not), and ask questions.
Read some parent testimonials we’ve received >>