It’s time for Ask the Educator! This occasional post answers questions our parents/caregivers have about raising a child who has hearing loss. Today’s post comes from long-time educator Michelle Graham, MS, CED, LSLS, Cert-AVEd. She’ll admit she’s heard a lot of questions but one seems to be timeless. “All parents ask me about the future”, she says. “Whether they’ve been with me for a few years or they are newly diagnosed, they *all* ask ‘What is next? How will this affect his future?’ It’s a fair question. After all, there’s no handbook for any parent! 

I tell them about the student I had who struggled to read and is now in college. I reassure them with the story of the alum who will graduate this month and landed a job programming a major corporations’ computers. I talk about kids who play instruments in the school band, compete in Debate club, win 4H awards in their county and of course, play sports. Just this week, I handed a family this article and assigned it to another teen.”

“Your hearing loss doesn’t define you, you are still you!”, she says confidently. “And you will grow and learn and become the person you are meant to be. My only job is to make sure you reach all of your goals!”