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Our daughter was diagnosed with autoimmune hearing loss when she was around 3 years old. We noticed that she couldn't hear us when we talked to her from behind and so took her in for some testing. It took them over 6 months to diagnose the cause of her hearing loss because it's a rarer form of it. Here is some basic information about autoimmune hearing loss, "Autoimmune inner ear disease(AIED) is a syndrome of progressive hearing loss and/or dizziness that is caused by antibodies or immune cells which are attacking the inner ear. AIED is rare, probably accounting for less than 1% of all cases of hearing impairment or dizziness." Jenna does not experience the dizziness or balance problems. We were very lucky that she had already gained most of her speech before the loss occurred. She has also taught herself to read lips. We do not use sign language at this time.
The scary thing about AIED is that our daughter could totally lose all of her hearing at any point in the future. We've thought a lot about learning sign language now while we have the time and she still has her hearing, but we just never seem to get around to it. We've tried twice to study and learn it and just find it difficult to stick with. She does wear hearing aids which bring her hearing up to about 80-90% of normal and we are in the process of getting her new digital hearing aids. We have heard that the sound they produce is so much better and that they pick up so much more. As she enters her teen years, we want to give her every possibility of fitting in well with her peers.
Jenna does study karate and we feel that that helps with any balance problems she could experience with this type of hearing loss. Her hearing loss does sometimes limit her ability to participate fully in conversations or talking on the phone, but we are learning what works best and also hope the new digital hearing aids will help with these problems. She is not embarassed by her hearing aids either; we just treat them like glasses or braces ... something that is needed to make her life better. Our daughter is a great person and does not let her "special need" get in her way at all. If you need to look for more information on hearing loss, I suggest using a search engine to find what you need. I am not going to list links here because there are too many to list!
It is my hope that you will find something useful here on my site!
I currently enjoy the privilege of being able to stay at home
to homeschool my children and I am always striving to be
the best caretaker for my precious family.
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."
~ Philippians 4:13 ~
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All Rights Reserved. © 2006.
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