Dear Parents,

We have not only welcomed several new little ones into our school since August, we have also welcomed lots of new babies into our Sound Beginnings early intervention and family training program. These five new families have children with hearing loss ages 6 months to 15 months. They are getting an early start toward incorporating listening and language into every part of their daily routines. Our new families visit MOSD for one hour each week during which we incorporate listening, language, and speech goals into fun games, activities, and songs.

Many of our new families are helping their children learn to wear their hearing aids all waking hours. They have reported that busy mornings are always the most challenging. We know that children should begin wearing their amplification devices as soon as they wake up—“eyes open, ears on.” But that is not always the reality for families of very young children. Here is a valuable handout from Hearing First titled “Take Five” -- https://hearingfirst.org/-/media/Files/Downloadables/lsl-day-by-day-take-five.pdf . This handout emphasizes the importance of using the first 5 minutes of a child’s day to ensure their devices will allow them to hear all the sounds and language around them.

We hope you find this reminder helpful as you provide your own children with the opportunity to hear all of the sounds around them--- including even those during the first five minutes after they wake up!

Love,

Katie McLeod, Sound Beginnings Coordinator