Today me and Dominik have participated in all-day Med-El training which took place in company’s offices on Rumiana street. The subject was “The latest medical, technological and therapeutic achievements that allow true equalization of opportunities for hearing impaired children in universal education”. The meeting was addressed to teachers, therapy specialists and parents of hearing impaired kids.
Days like that always give me a lot to think about, they widen my point of view on hearing disabilities even further. The newest and the best standards of early intervention and support of children with those problems were discussed today. Experts involved with the training know very well what’s good and important for such kid and his family in those hard times, but lack of funds and communication slow things down. We, parents are broken when we find out about our child’s deafness – we don’t know what to do at first, where to go and we don’t have much support from national institutions. On the other hand on a world scale we are doing very well. There aren’t many countries like Poland, with early screening tests for newborn, which allow detection of hearing problems in the first 24 hours of child’s life. We’ve got many public and private support centers when we can report and get necessary help and support. Most of our speech therapists (surdologopaedists) are constantly improving their skills by studying and training which is reflected in better and better effects during rehabilitation of people after implantation. Surgeries are reimbursed – that’s still not a standard in every country. After today’s meeting I can admit that I’m happy that I live in Poland. In spite of the fact that help and support system for implanted kids’ families is still flawed in some aspects, I know that on a world scale we are at the forefront.
I was very interested in the words of Mrs Joanna, she told us about the world conference where a new standards of helping implanted people were set. What really stuck in my memory was the fact that specialists should – above all – focus on the whole family, support parents and help them to adapt to such difficult situation, adjust their working time to children and their capabilities. Flexibility, aid and good communication – those mean a success for all of us! The presented research showed us that it was clear that early implantation is of great importance. A brain of two or three-year old is the most elastic and is developing the most rapidly, that’s why that period of time is the best for rehabilitation. I am of the opinion that the earlier we decide on surgery, the bigger probability of better “functioning” implant. The Med-El representative was telling us about the newest types of implants, processors and new planned products. I was very pleased to hear that the newest version of Rondo processor – smaller and better – will get released this year. I’m looking forward to this product.
My conclusions after today’s meeting:
– support and safety are the key things to assure proper growth of my daughter
– If my child feels safe, she will be able to develop way better, which means her speech will also improve.
– I have to fully accept my child, it’s the best way to give my daughter a sense of being loved for who she is (nowadays I accept her 100%, even though I had to help myself by paying few visits to psychologist
– which I strongly recommend)
– I will treat my child as an able-bodied person and I will do the same things with her as I would do with a normal-hearing kid
– I have no wish to overreact with too many visits to speech therapists, though their hints and advices shall accompany me for a long time
– I am the rehabilitant of my child, so every moment at home or at the playground with her is the time when I can rehabilitate and teach her
– I’m glad that I live in Poland because here I have a possibility to develop my deaf kid’s needs We thank Med-El company for the opportunity to participate in the training.
