Subject: HearingExchange News 5th Edition Welcome to the fifth edition of HearingExchange News! You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to it at HearingExchange.com. Feel free to forward this to friends, family, doctors or anyone else you think would be interested. Subscription and removal information are at the end of the newsletter. If the links don't work or you are an AOL User: please copy and paste the links into your browser. ---------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE: * What's New * News & Articles * Message Boards * Featured Site * Featured Book * Ask the Experts * Poll Results * Get Involved ============================================================ " " " " " " " " " " " W H A T ' S N E W " " " " " " " " " " " HearingExchange has new and improved message boards! Now you can search messages by keywords or date, get email notification on threads of interest, add smilies and icons and much more. In addition to our original boards - Cochlear Implant, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Parenting, Special Education, and Late Deafened, we now offer a Professionals forum for teachers, therapists, doctors and other professionals who work with deaf and hard of hearing children and adults. There are new ideas and questions up on the boards. Please register and join the forums. We respect your privacy and do not post members email addresses on the forums, nor do we sell, rent or otherwise distribute our email list. Click here to go to our HearingExchange Forums today: http://www.hearingexchange.com/ubb/Ultimate.cgi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Discovery Health Channel has several new programs on cochlear implants and hearing loss airing during the months of January through March. Check our new Television Programs section of the site to see dates and air times: http://www.hearingexchange.com/tv_programs.htm Many new dates and locations have been added to our Sound & Fury timetable. Sound & Fury is a thought provoking documentary film about a young deaf girl who asks her deaf parents to get her a cochlear implant because she wants to be able to hear. The extended family enters the picture and a debate ensues. Check our listings to catch it: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/sound_fury_dates.htm In a case of art imitating life, the television show Gideon's Crossing will air a storyline about a 14 year old girl who wants a cochlear implant despite her deaf parents' opposition. The first of three episodes will air on ABC this Monday, January 29th at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Check your local newspaper for the showtime in your area. ============================================================ " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " N E W S & A R T I C L E S " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " Are you an adult with a cochlear implant? Have you had your CI for one year or more? Help others by participating in a study of how people are functioning with their implants in real world settings. Read more about the study and get the link to it at: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/henews-0115a.htm Has it been difficult getting where you are today? There are fewer than 100 deaf attorneys nationwide, but 15 years ago there were fewer than 15 in the profession. Now there are three deaf judges in the U.S. The numbers are slowly growing, thanks to technological advances... Read this interesting news article and find out how far deaf attorneys have come: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/henews-0122b.htm Sprint, a global communications company which provides Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) in 27 states to deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and speech disabled consumers and to the Federal government, has become a Gold Sponsor for Deaf Way II, which will be held next year at Gallaudet University and in the Washington, DC, area July 8- 13, 2002. Read more at: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/henews-0122a.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do you wish people were more considerate of your hearing loss in social situations? "Healthful Hearing Tips" offers people with normal hearing several easy to implement tips on how to keep the deaf and hard of hearing included at social functions. Print it and pass it out: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/helpful_hearing_tips.htm Guest columnist, Lisa Simmons has written another great article for parents. Lisa writes, "As a parent we all want our children to feel included & successful at school. As a parent of a child with special needs this is an especially sensitive area. It's easy to feel like once our kids reach school age, that there is little we can do to help them socially. WRONG! One of the best things you can do for your child is help them get started on the right foot." Read Lisa's informative article here: http://www.hearingexchange.com/articles/disability_awareness.htm More great News & Articles can be found on the main page of HearingExchange. Go to: http://www.hearingexchange.com =========================================================== " " " " " " " " " " " " " " M E S S A G E B O A R D S " " " " " " " " " " " " " " Have something to say? Say it on our Message Boards! Register today so you can participate. Your email address will not be viewable so you cannot be spammed. Where do you find deaf or hard of hearing people in your area? I get emails all the time of people looking to make friends with people like themselves. Post your state and local organization or group for deaf and/or HOH people. Online friendships can be great, but it's nice to go out for coffee with friends too! Post your reply here: http://www.hearingexchange.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000002.html Parenting children can be overwhelming at times. Parenting children with special needs can add its own unique situations. I've found support by joining my local Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA) through my school district. They also offer a monthly support group meeting in addition to the monthly SEPTA meetings. Where have you found support online or off-line? Let's give each other ideas to draw on here: http://www.hearingexchange.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000002.html Are you a professional working with deaf and hard of hearing children or adults? Come on over to our new forum just for you! The Professionals Section forum is the place to meet, chat, network and get to know your colleagues. Go to: http://www.hearingexchange.com/ubb/Ultimate.cgi and post today. These topics and more can be found on our new message boards. Tell us what you think about our new look! Click here to see a list of all the forums available: http://www.hearingexchange.com/ubb/Ultimate.cgi ============================================================ " " " " " " " " " " " " " F E A T U R E D S I T E " " " " " " " " " " " " " The Featured Site spotlights a website we feel offers significant, useful information or products for people dealing with hearing loss and related issues. This month's Featured Site is the Listen Up Web at http://www.listen-up.org. The Listen Up Web is of particular interest to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. Offering comprehensive information and resources for communication options, IEPs, special education laws, organizations, services, products and much more - it is a must-see site. ============================================================ " " " " " " " " " " " " " F E A T U R E D B O O K " " " " " " " " " " " " " Our Featured Book this month is "The New Language of Toys," an insightful and instructive guide for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. Sue Schwartz and Joan Heller Miller show you how to use toys your children enjoy to facilitate language development. Paste this link into your browser to get the book: http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&sourceid=34200770&bfpid=0933149735&bfmtype=book ============================================================ " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " A S K T H E E X P E R T S " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " Question for our Special Educators panel: In our state there is educational assessment testing in 5th grade. My daughter has been in the mainstream, she is in 5th grade in a learning support classroom. The teacher says that she is at 4th grade level. Do you recommend that she take the state assessment or not? The school claims that no learning support students take it because of self esteem. Use the link below to read their answer. Question for the Auditory Verbal Therapist: I have a 5 year old son who received a cochlear implant 1-1/2 years ago. He goes to Auditory Verbal therapy and we love it. He hears beautifully, speaks and sings. We are working on his voice quality as he sounds monotone. Any ideas for home practice? Read Linda Daniels' reply at the link below. Question for the Cochlear Implant Expert: I have a five year old daughter who is losing her hearing. She is considered a good candidate for a cochlear implant. How do I choose? Is there a good source of information that compares each implant company? Dr. Pat Chute answers this parents' question at the link below. The answers to these questions and others can be found at: http://www.hearingexchange.com/experts/past_questions.htm To submit your question for one of our experts please click here: http://www.hearingexchange.com/experts/ Be sure to submit your question only once. We will re-direct it to the appropriate expert if necessary. ============================================================= " " " " " " " " " " " " P O L L R E S U L T S " " " " " " " " " " " " Last week's poll crashed so there were no results from the "What is your favorite part of HearingExchange?" poll. We'll ask that one again in the future. This week, we're asking how you communicate. Are you oral, use sign language, cued speech, SEE or another method? Go to http://www.HearingExchange.com to register your mode of communication. We are very interested in what you have to say and how you say it. ============================================================= " " " " " " " " " " " " G E T I N V O L V E D " " " " " " " " " " " " Visit the new HearingExchange Book Store at http://www.hearingexchange.com/bookstore/index.htm. We already have a diverse selection of books including a children's book, books on cochlear implants, communication choices and inspirational books. Let us know what you think! Do you work with deaf or hard of hearing children or adults? Do you want to? Visit our free Employment Board! Post your resume or list an open position at your organization today. Go to http://www.hearingexchange.com/jobs/ Like to write? HearingExchange is currently accepting article submissions. We encourage you to participate by submitting your original articles, tips or ideas for articles. Articles should be 500 words maximum. Visit this page to read more about submitting your work: http://www.hearingexchange.com/article_submissions.htm Hosting an event of interest to the adults, parents or professionals who deal with hearing loss? Looking for workshops or seminars on this issue? Visit our Event Calendar and browse around. Be sure to click on the actual date of an event to read more about it. Post your events by clicking here: http://www.hearingexchange.com/events/calendar.cgi Are You an Expert? We Need You! We're currently seeking qualified experts. If you're an expert or know someone who is, please send us their email address or have them contact us at mailto:info@hearingexchange.com. We need experts in the fields of Speech Language Pathology, Otolaryngology and Parenting. All experts must have experience with hearing impaired adults and/or children. Our Resource Directory is growing! We now have 145 links related to hearing loss for you to review. Visit http://www.hearingexchange.com/resources/ when you're looking for organizations, assistive devices, hearing aid manufacturers, listservs and much more. Use our Add a Link feature to refer great links you have found. We will review and post them promptly. HearingExchange now offers awards to websites that offer valuable information for people with hearing loss, parents of deaf and hard of hearing children or the professionals who work with them. Do you know of a website or organization that deserves an award? Go to http://www.hearingexchange.com/awards.htm and submit them to us for consideration. ============================================================ We encourage you to distribute this newsletter to interested friends, family, professionals and discussion lists. Your input is always welcome at HearingExchange. Send us your comments, suggestions and any news related to hearing loss. Looking forward to "hearing" from you, Paula Rosenthal, Founder & Editor HearingExchange - Exchanging Ideas & Information on Hearing Loss http://www.HearingExchange.com To subscribe to this newsletter simply click here - mailto:HearingExchangeNews-subscribe@listbot.com