Our daughter Keisha has lived with hearing loss for almost 15 years – as long as she’s been alive. We found out about this 13 years ago this month.
Today we had an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) team meeting at school to talk about the rest of this year and make plans for next year, as she enters high school. Ever since we became aware of this process, my wife and I have been passionate about understanding what goes on in this process and how well our daughter is doing.
Just as her experience with being hard of hearing is so different from children, so is our experience as her parents. And we have been passionate in our desire to see that she has everything she needs to be successful.
In the beginning when we’d found out she was hard of hearing, we wanted her to have access to whatever she could get in order that she could communicate and learn. This involved having a sign language interpreter, and FM system that works with her hearing aids, speech therapy, and other accommodations. She didn’t like having all of them and even resisted and resented having some of them.
Since she uses speech, lip-reading, and hearing to communicate, we decided that she didn’t need an interpreter. The FM system works well, and she’s matured to take responsibility to make sure it’s working as it needs to. She’s older and has grown into understanding her need to advocate for herself.
The planning process for students getting into high school starts looking ahead to life after high school. She is able to share the vision for what she’d like to do after graduation.
Today’s meeting also presented an opportunity for my wife and I to share our vision and our hope for our daughter. Here’s what we shared: (more…)
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