CROS aid? Any experience?

[awfulomission]

DS is off to our latest hearing screening next week. He has profound unilateral deafness.

He's hearing OK in school and in general it's going well but has problems listening iykwim. I mean, he's only 6 but his teacher reports significantly more 'drifting off' by him than others in the class. He uses a sound field system but I don't think this is enough any more. I'd like to try a CROS aid now he's older. I sense there will be opposition from the audiologist but I'd like to try at least; he tires of straining to hear the whole time. This could be his dyspraxia but I want to give supporting his hearing the best shot possible too.

NDCS has some info; the rest all comes from the hearing aid manufacturers and I don't trust them really!

Any experiences, positive or negative?

Bumping... Anyone?

Not directly; I do have a sense, though, that unilateral deafness is starting to be taken more seriously (I know a couple of adults with unilateral deafness who after decades of minimal interest from the NHS are suddenly being talked to about the possibility of CROS aids) -- but there's the issue of funding.

Do you have a ToD? They might have a good idea of what the climate is like at the moment in your PCT. And you could call the NDCS helpline / talk to an NDCS Family Support person about the best way to go about putting your case for a CROS aid.

We don't qualify as he doesn't have aided hearing at the moment. We do go to football with the son of a ToD and she might be able to say what's afoot.

We can afford to buy the equipment ourselves but we probably won't be able to afford ongoing upkeep if that is an issue. I'd also like the blessing of the audiologist iykwim, so that we haven't got that hurdle each time we see her.

We've recently moved to Kent from London and are seeing a huge difference in funding and access. the waiting times are much longer than what we are used to.

And it's nuts that we don't qualify for a ToD given that he has less overall hearing than many children who do have some bilateral loss or less severe unilateral loss and therefore aids...

Yes -- we're in a London borough that's very good with hearing support (which is a good thing; I think you'd get a ToD here given that DD2 was allocated one back in the heady days when they thought she only had permanent unilateral loss plus glue ear on the other side) but feel that we can never move out .

Try the NDCS helpline/support officers, then. Although I don't rate your chances of getting any public services in Kent to spend any money on anything particularly highly...

I will do, thanks. We had a ToD back in London and she was brilliant, really reassuring and came to all our audiology appts etc.

Our appt that we've been waiting for for months was cancelled yesterday. But I kicked off and it's been brought forward from 28th jam next year (!) to 4th Nov.

I know what you mean about 'back in the heady days'-it feels like a long journey sometimes.

And another yes to feeling you could never leave! It was a long old decision process.

Spoke to NDCS.

Their main advice was to go for a statement.

How am I going to find the time and energy to begin that. I have no idea.