Mission:
To provide balanced and comprehensive information for parents of deaf/hard of hearing children.
Is Beginnings MD right for me?
Path to Resilience
What is resilience? It is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape.
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We strive to build resilience in our children, but what about our own resilience? How do we as parents, ensure that we have the resilience needed to inform ourselves and develop effective pathways forward? How do we know where we want to be headed?
Ninety percent of infants who are deaf or hard of hearing are born to typically hearing parents. Many parents meet the first deaf or hard of hearing person they know when they hold their newly identified child. Some parents take identification in stride and get right to work, while others struggle to make sense of the news that they have just received. Family reactions to the identification fall along a spectrum of emotions. There is no one way to react or to feel, and parents need to know they are not alone.
Why is it that some parents seem to move into a planning and doing mode while others remain in grief and uncertainty? Our brains are designed to understand and accept things that we have a model for, or an established frame of reference. When we haven’t previously encountered a life with deafness or hearing loss, our brains immediately plunged into a state of uncertainty as we frantically try to create a new frame of reference.
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Most parents have spent at least nine months or perhaps years, imagining a life for their expected child and deafness or hearing loss was not a part of that design. A new model for this child’s life must be established in order for you to begin the path forward. How does that form? Who is available to help you create this new path? What will it be like? These questions are what create the uncertainty and anxiety that can cripple some parents into a state of inaction, and understandably! Human beings don’t like uncertainty. We don’t like changing or abandoning the frames of references that we have established over a lifetime!
At Beginnings MD, we understand the challenges of creating a new frame of reference for your child’s and your family’s life. We know that providing you with balanced and comprehensive information, at your pace, will enable you to create a vision for how you and your family will begin the journey on the path to resilience. Knowing that you are not alone, that many others have walked this path before, and that orienting yourself towards the highest goals you can conceive of will lift you up to a place of joy and content.
Making Decisions
While you are learning to create a new frame of reference for your child’s life, you will also need to make decisions. These can co-occur with support. First, there will be medical decisions that require immediate attention. The need for surgeries, feeding intervention, breathing intervention, or any procedure to improve your child’s quality of life will often require quick decisions and you will rely heavily on the recommendations by your medical team.
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Second, there will be decisions about the language you and your family will use in your home. Your child’s first language is the native language of your home. If your child cannot access that language, will your family want to, and be able to, learn a new language? If English is not spoken at home, will your child have access to intervention in your native language? Will a family member become fluent in English or American Sign Language, if that is an option?
Third, there will decisions about hearing technology, if appropriate. There may be several options that provide access to sound, including some options that require surgery. Your family may choose to forgo hearing technology and use a visual language with your child.
How do you make these decisions while still working through feelings of loss and grief? Remember that the best way to begin your path of resilience is by building a new vision for your child’s life.
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The more information you gather, while meeting families of children with hearing loss, and professionals with experience in the field of hearing loss, the more likely you will be to create a vision that will orient you in a direction towards your highest goals. Trust the truth you have within you about what it is you want for your family and your child, and build a new model for your child’s life with that aim at the pinnacle. This will lead to meaningful and fulfilling work along the path you establish, as you lead your child and your family forward. Beginnings MD will provide opportunities to learn the information you need and connect you with similar families and children at the very start of your journey. Families who partner with Beginnings MD will capitalize on their own strength and ability to learn and adjust their image of the future, to create fulfillment and find joy.