Knowledge is Power.....I hope!

Since I've found out that our school system does not think Miles will qualify for an IEP, I have been scouring the web looking for information. How can they tell me that my child who has hearing loss, wears hearing aids, is eligible for disability insurance, has a genetic reason for hearing loss, but does not have a disability because he is not failing! I swear, it all boils down to the whole deaf and dumb stigma! So my little guy is smart! He's hard of hearing! Deaf/hard of hearing does not mean that he can't learn! He has always been put in the best possible environment for hearing and learning. Most of the day at home, it's just him and me. He has one on one attention. Then when he's at school, he's in a very small classroom with great teachers. And every two weeks, a wonderful woman from the Regional Infant Hearing program comes to our house and works with him one on one. Now they want to put him in a classroom full of 3 year olds and wait until he fails. What is wrong with our school system? I'm going to fight as hard as I can to get them to recognize that my son has a disability.

Ohio defines a hearing impairment as:

(1) An average pure tone hearing loss of fifty decibels or greater, according to the “American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Guidelines for the Audiologic Assessment of Children From Birth to Five Years of Age” (2004) for children from birth to five years of age or according to the "American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Guidelines for Manual Pure- Tone Threshold Audiometry" (2005) for children six through twenty-one years of age, for the frequencies five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand hertz in the better ear; [The guidelines referenced in paragraph (J)(1) of this rule are available atwww.asha.org.]

(2) An average pure tone hearing loss of twenty-five decibels or greater (ASHA) for the frequencies five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand hertz in the better ear, which has an adverse effect upon the child's educational performance related to documented evidence of:

(a) A more severe hearing loss during the developmental years than is currently measured;

(b) A history of chronic medical problems that have resulted in fluctuating hearing, presently or in the past; or

(c) A delay in diagnosis, provision of amplification, or initiation of special programming.

(3) A hearing loss in excess of twenty-five decibels (ASHA) for the frequencies one thousand hertz through eight thousand hertz in the better ear, resulting in such poor auditory discrimination that it has an adverse effect upon the child’s educational performance.

I'm focusing on number (3). I'm not exactly sure though if he has to qualify under all three definitions or if just one definition is satisfactory. So, I'm going to ask our audiologist if she would send us a letter stating that his hearing loss results in such poor auditory discrimination that it has an adverse effect upon Miles educational performance. I'm going to ask our pediatrician to refer us to a developmental pediatrician to also get a recommendation. Then, I may see if I can get a free assessment from the Ohio School For The Deaf. I may be doing all this for nothing. But, I have to be able to say that I did everything in my power. Some people may think, why would I be doing all this just for a kid with mild hearing loss. Well, I've read way too many studies on the negative impact that just a mild hearing loss has on a child. And it's really hard for a normal person to see that negative impact because hearing loss is an invisible disability. It's not fair for my child to have to struggle even the tiniest bit for what comes natural to all the other children in the class. So, I'm off to do more research and see who I can contact in higher places.

And while I'm doing this research, I will have to have one eye on Miles because he is just completely into EVERYTHING lately.