24,000 children are born each year in the U.S. with some degree of hearing loss. Most of these children are born to parents with normal hearing, who have had no experience with deafness or hearing loss of any kind. So many paths, so many decisions.  Not only do parents need to focus on all the decisions necessary in establishing an inclusive language plan which includes auditory treatment, speech training and language development, they need to provide their baby with valuable early language exposure that builds a strong foundation.

Communication is constantly an effort. Even if you know all the signs (if you are using manual communication), you still have to make sure that you have your child's visual attention, and that they get your attention. You are always looking up from what you are doing, always dropping things to get your hands free! It requires a lot of explaining and extra work to keep up with their hearing peers. Every day is a constant challenge."

When I reflect on the first months after the diagnosis of my two-year-old daughter who was identified with a moderate to severe hearing loss, my fears concerning her would go from one minute worrying about whether she would learn how to speak, to the next moment worrying whether she would be invited to the prom (sixteen years from then).

Over the years, many of my fears have been resolved. The foundation for resolution of fear mainly comes from the acquisition of knowledge, information, and building confidence in our ability to make the best possible decisions. Also, hope for our daughter's future came as we were able to meet deaf and hard of hearing adults who were leading normal healthy lives...Meeting a man, profoundly deaf, who uses ASL, has a degree from college, a wife and kids...Spending time with a woman who has a severe hearing loss, teaches in public schools and has beautiful speech... As time goes by, you realize that the hearing loss is not the main thing that will define your child

While friends and relatives sometimes felt sorry for what our child could not do, we knew that it is something she just could not do YET. We knew that with time and effort she would do it. And when she did, we celebrated what would be an everyday occurrence to parents who have a hearing child. In many ways, we have been given a gift.  We've learned not to take things for granted, and we have learned  to take notice of even the little things that many parents overlook. We get to celebrate successes that they don't even notice.

I think I struggled with the "success" issue more when my daughter was very young. When I stopped comparing her to other children, I began to enjoy the smaller, everyday accomplishments. When you have a child who has to work harder to achieve the same things as other children their age, you appreciate the little things that much more. I am so proud of who my daughter is today. I know I would be just as proud of her if she were not deaf, but I know for a fact that I have enjoyed and celebrated even the little successes along the way much more because I know the effort it took to get where she is today."

It took me some time to figure out that regardless of how much I fretted over my daughter's future, she was going to choose her own course, which is exactly the way it should be. The dreams I might have had for her before she was born were MY dreams, not hers. If those dreams have changed, it is because she has gone a different direction than I would have predicted, not because of her hearing loss."

I cannot think of one thing that she has not been able to do because she was deaf-although some things took lots of planning, or educating people, or contacts made ahead of time. I feel so lucky to have been given this child, she has taught me so much and I admire her greatly as she is the one who has the drive, and the perseverance to not give up. I hope she learned some of that from me as I showed her how to get involved and keep working for changes that need to be made. She also developed security in herself knowing that we respected her deafness.