my baby is partially deaf any advise?

[disneystar]

i have a 2 mth ds whos totally deaf in one ear and partially in the other he has a whole range of problems
i have been advised we need to learn how to sign but when is the best time
he doesnt respond to any noise at all not even loud bangs he doesnt turn his head towars noise just looks with his eyes
how will this affect him?
what other help can i give him?
he seems to want to look at me all the time whenever i lay his down he cries until he can see me
any advise please

Hello

I am profoundly deaf myself. I am on the CAT system if you want to CAT me for any advice - more than happy to help you though what must be a very worrying time for you.

As for your questions, well I can only give you my story (in a nutshell!) to make you feel a bit better

Profoundly deaf from the age of about 10...only have about 2% hearing left...school, GCSE's, A-Levels, Biomedical Science degree, marriage and now a lovely DH and a 2 year old DS - so, for me - not a problem

The looking at you is very normal for all babies, not just deaf babies but I imagine that for him, he may not be hearing you still in the room so that is why he likes to see you. Perhaps you could invest in one of those baby ring things so he could be propped up and actually see you in the room? Worth a try

Do you have any support from the hospital? leaflets or anything else? There are mnetters here with deaf children who are probably more up on what its like to have a deaf child but I really didn't want to ignore your thread

XXXX

I would learn to sign sooner than later and you will be able to communicate with your ds. There are loads of baby signing groups around which may be a good starting point.. although I think these are based on makaton and not British Sign Language (BSL) which I believe is different. I would go back and see if they can give you any information on what would be the best way to go about it.

He will be fine.. my brother is profoundly (80/90 % loss)deaf uses hearing aids and can hear a tiny bit with them but can speak and I am 'severly' about 50% deaf and I can hear with hearing aids.

Congrats on your son! I think most little babies want to be held and to see people ALL THE TIME so in that he is quite normal.

I have no advise really but my DD's primary school has a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing on site and it is just EXCELLENT. The children all integrate for lots of the curriculum and it has a great reputation. I'm sure school seems like a million light years away but it is worth finding out about local schools that will cater for your son's needs in a few years.

DD (aged 2) got a ton of Baby Einstein DVDs from her grandmother for her birthday, and this morning she was watching one about signing! She started doing the sign for 'baby.'

So, it would seem that children understand communication by signing from an early age.

Oh, and have a friend who has a severely autistic child and she signs...

I don't know anything about deafness, but just wanted to 2nd learning to sign and doing it from about 7 or 8 months. I only started when my son was 3 and he has an ASD, and used to get so frustrated and upset. But even with only 50 signs he can express himself so much now. We are learning more signs all the time and I love signing now. Was initially a bit upset about it as I thought it was like accepting he'd never talk.

Makaton leads in to BSL I believe.

Disney -I've just checked your profile. I see you are in Glouc. That's not far from Bristol. Happy to meet for a chat in Bristol if you want face to face advice XX

Can I really recommend the cued speech association.

DD aged 5, profoundly deaf in one ear. Manages fine and has worked out many of her own little ways for coping.

Sign language - I think as early as possible! So if you say to him "Do you want a drink?" and do the sign for drink, produce the drink for him etc - he'll just learn SL in the same way he would learn to speak.

PS - always found PussinJimmyChoos advice rock solid - I'd go for a meet-up!

Doodle That's so nice

just a quick post here feeding samuel

pussinjimmychoos thanks so much for the advise and everyone else

id love to meet up when the dc are all back at school i have a ds just starting so when hes settled lets arrange something
all reassuring advise here thanks for answering

my dd is 15 and totally deaf in one ear and about 60% in the other we came from an age when sign wasnt really used in young children unless profoundly deaf overall she has managed fantastically and we found out at an early age she could lip read something which just came natural to her 9this can be quite funny at family do's etc when she blabs what someone says about someone else) she is a very talanted musician. I guess what im trying to say is that even with the hearing loss she has managed with no problems and although she probably would have benefitted from sign she still managed. Ther are local groups run for babies im going to one soon called tinytalk which uses bsl rather than makaton if you check on web there might be a group local to you. It is designed to learn sign in a fun way. I went to a taster session and found it fun for my 15mth old.

I've got a friend here in Cheltenham who learned to sign a few years ago, if you have trouble finding out about classes etc locally I could see if she's still up to date, and let you know some details if so?

We have found the National Deaf Childrens Society (just google NDCS) incredibly helpful since dd3 was diagnosed. We went on one of their newly diagnosed weekends which was absolutley fab. Do you have a teacher of the deaf? I think most areas have them, ours has been realy good at pointing us in the right direction for a lot of things, especially signing.

Dd3s favourite toys when she was tiny were the ones with lights on. She also prefered to be sat in her rocking chair than her moses basket, she needed the reassurance of being able to see us. Plenty of eye contact has always been important when feeding, talking and signing too. Congratulations on your new ds!

hi i just found out that my baby is deaf i am also deaf but would like to meet up with parents in the same boat as me