Patient and Family Education
We want you to have all the information you and your child need to understand your child’s condition and to participate in treatment. This page provides links to resources that we hope will be helpful.
Resources at Seattle Children’s
- What to expect at the Childhood Communication Center
- Audiology Patient and Family Resources
- How to prepare for your visit
- Transportation and lodging
- Hospital services
- Paying for care
- Sign Language Tuition Assistance Application
- Social Work
Tests and Procedures
- About Newborn Hearing Screening
- Aural habilitation (PDF)
- Care After Cochlear Implant Surgery (PDF) (Spanish)
- Cochlear implants (PDF)
- Evaluating VPD in Your Child (PDF) (Spanish)
- Hearing Screening: How to Prepare Your Baby (PDF) (Spanish)
- Is a Cochlear Implant Right for My Child? (PDF) (Spanish)
- Programming and Follow-Up for your child’s Cochlear Implant (PDF) (Spanish)
General Resources
-
Family information sessions (videos)
Education sessions on various topics for parents of children who are deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) and professionals including educators, audiologists and speech-language pathologists.
Listening Effort and Listening-Related Fatigue in Youth who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing, March 2023
School-age children with hearing loss experience more listening effort and are at greater risk for developing listening-related fatigue than their peers with typical hearing. During this session, we explore the link between listening effort and fatigue. We discuss factors that contribute to each and review methods for measuring and mitigating classroom-listening challenges – some evidence-based, some anecdotal. Finally, the importance of collaboration between educators and audiologists is discussed.
Acquisition and development of two spoken languages: Background and clinical recommendations, October 2021
Dual language development: Background and critical concepts
Dr. Rojas sets the stage for dual language development.
Dual language learners: Assessment and intervention
Dr. Rojas discusses how to use converging evidence to assess the speech and language of dual language learners in addition to cross-linguistic approaches to intervention.
A Practical Protocol for Evaluating Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children
Join Elyse Lambeth and Kari Tibeau as they discuss complicating variables when evaluating clinically and linguistically diverse children (CLD) and provide clinically applicable, evidenced-based assessment tools for evaluating CLD children.
Building a Toolbox for Managing Worries and Sadness for Kids who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing, September 28, 2021 (1:26:24)
This session is designed to help parents learn and build strategies to support children who are deaf/hard of hearing cope with feelings of worry and sadness. Dr. Melick offers many tips and tools and helps parents identify when it may be time to seek professional help.
Life in the Digital Age Video Series
Improving the Classroom Listening Environment for Students Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing, November 2018
- Improving the Classroom Listening Environment for Students Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
How can we improve the classroom listening environment for students who are deaf/hard of hearing? Learn about FM/DM systems and hear from kids and young adults about accommodations make them successful. - Professional Panel on Improving the Classroom Listening Environment
- Patient Panel: From Accommodations to Advocacy
Linguistics of ASL, May 16, 2018
- Linguistics of Signed Languages
In this video, Lorna Rozelle, PhD, explains ASL grammar, comparing and contrasting it with English. - Sociolinguistics of the American Deaf Community
In this video, Kristi Winter, MA, discusses the sociolinguistics of ASL. This includes ASL variation in communities and historical change in the language. - Deafhood: A Journey to a Healthy Deaf Identity
In this video, Lance Forshay, MS, shares his experiences and views on Deafhood and Deaf identity. He discusses the importance of language and identity and the relationship between them. The views expressed here are those of the presenter; they do not necessarily reflect the views of Seattle Children's Hospital or the Childhood Communication Center.
Communication in Children With Down Syndrome and Hearing Loss, February 22, 2018
Stuttering 101 for Parents, February 17, 2016
- Stuttering 101 for Parents
Stuttering can be overwhelming for children who stutter and their parents. Explore the challenges and victories of raising a child who stutters with speech-language pathologists Elyse Lambeth, MS, CCC-SLP, from Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Melissa Kokaly, MS, CCC-SLP, from the University of Washington. This session covers causes of stuttering, treatment options and how to support the child who stutters.
Executive Function in Children With Hearing Loss, March 9, 2015
David Horn, MD, and Amy Melick, PhD, discuss an overview of executive function, current research on children with cochlear implants and resources for improving executive functioning.
8th Annual Loeb Family Foundation Symposium: Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss: Assessment and Outcomes, October 24, 2015
- Talk About It! Strategies and Accommodations for Unilateral Hearing Loss
- Amplification and Assistive Listening Devices for Unilateral Hearing Loss
- Audiologic Assessment of Children with Unilateral Hearing Loss: From Laboratory to Clinical Measures
- Consequences of Unilateral Hearing Loss in Children
- Consequences of Unilateral Hearing Loss on Hearing in Natural Acoustic Environments
- Etiology of Unilateral Hearing Loss
- Children with Unilateral Hearing Loss: Assessment and Outcomes
- Nuts and Bolts of Binaural Hearing
- Quality of Life
Be the Boss of Your Hearing Loss, May 8, 2015
This video is a presentation “by teens for teens.” Stephanie Olson from Children’s Hospital Colorado moderates a panel of teens with various degrees of hearing loss. What are the challenges they face? How have they handled these challenges? What makes them successful?
What Can Your School Audiologist Do (and Not Do) for Your Child?, February 25, 2015
- What Can Your School Audiologist Do (and Not Do) for Your Child?
Education audiologists Dennis Lambert, MA, CCC-A, and Erin Donlin, AuD, CCC-A, from Seattle Public Schools, discuss advocating for your child’s audiological services, working collaboratively with your school district, legislative mandates (IDEA and ADA), special education (IEP) and 504 plan processes.- Lambert slides (PDF)
- Donlin slides (PDF)
Children Who Are Hard of Hearing: Still Forgotten, October 25, 2014
This session provides a basic understanding of outcomes for children who are hard of hearing including the journey of HH children and their families from early intervention through school age years. It also explores amplification and strategies for optimizing communication.
- Early Intervention: The Whole Child, Whole Family and Whole Team
Stephanie Olson, BA- Presentation (PDF)
- Amplification and Strategies for Optimizing Communication
Meghan Wisneski, AuD, and Lisa Yamaguchi, AuD- Presentation (PDF)
- And They Grow… Journeying Through the School-Age Years With Hearing Loss
Stephanie Olson, BA
Say It Clearly: Information on Common Speech Sound Disorders and Stuttering and How Parents Can Help, May 22, 2014
Say It Clearly: Information on Common Speech Sound Disorders and Stuttering and How Parents Can Help
Speech sound development; various speech difficulties including articulation, phonological and other disorders; childhood apraxia, dysarthria and stuttering; and strategies for parents to support their children's motor speech development and tools for supporting fluency.Microtia and Aural Atresia: What Every Family Should Know, October 14, 2013
In this video, presenters discuss and give an overview of microtia and aural atresia; hearing and amplification options; surgical options; and auricular prostheses.
All about VPI (Velopharyngeal Insufficiency) (video, 3:14)
All about VPI (Velopharyngeal Insufficiency) Treatment at Seattle Children's Hospital
- Improving the Classroom Listening Environment for Students Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
-
Support groups and classes
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing Support Group for Middle and High School Students Who Communicate With Sign Language (PDF) (Spanish)
- Social Group for Kids and Teens who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing and use Spoken English (PDF) (Spanish)
- Social Support Groups for Children/Teens Who Communicate With Spoken English (PDF)
- Parent to Parent (The Arc of Washington State)
- Guide by Your Side
- List of support groups at Seattle Children’s
- Sibshops
-
Education services for deaf and hard-of-hearing in Washington state
-
External links
- AAC Institute (augmentative and alternative communication)
- American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
- Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
- Apraxia-KIDS
- Babyhearing.org
- Center for Deafness and Hearing Loss (CDHL)
- Early Hearing-Loss Detection, Diagnosis and Intervention Program (Washington State Department of Health)
- Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families)
- Hands and Voices
- Washington State Hands and Voices
- Hearing Loss Resource Guide (Washington State DOH) (PDF)
- International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- National Association of the Deaf
- National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management
- National Cued Speech Association
- Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (Washington State Department of Social and Health Services)
- Parent to Parent (The Arc of Washington State)
- Vaccines and Immunizations (CDC)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Washington Sensory Disabilities Services (WSDS)
-
External videos