Working
with Professionals Becoming
Part of the Team
You
are not "just a parent," you are one of the professionals.
You are a key player on the team.
~"I
want professionals to understand that there is so much
more to my daughter than her hearing loss. She is not
just an audiogram. She is not just a test score. She is
a child who just happens to have a hearing loss."
~"When
professionals acknowledge that the parent knows the child
in a way they never will, they can tap into the best resource
possible."
~"I
think that sometimes professionals see things and automatically
put us in a category without even getting to know us.
Without even realizing it, they are putting stress on
our families that doesn't need to be there. Each of us
is an individual, each of us handle things in different
ways. For some of us, a child with a hearing loss is a
breeze. For others it is a struggle. We all have challenges
in different areas, and too many times professionals don't
take the time to find out who we are and who our children
are. We aren't the families of previous years and the
dynamics of our children and families are different, so
our needs are different."
~"I
would like professionals to understand that parents and
professionals are a TEAM with the best interest of the
individual child at the center."
~"We
know our child best…Listen to us. Help us achieve
our goals. Think of us as a team."
~"I
want professionals to know that despite my daughter's
multiple disabilities and developmental delays, she is
capable of doing many things, with good potential for
the future."
A New Role for Parents
Immediately after the diagnosis, a flurry of activity thrusts
parents into new roles that are unfamiliar and sometimes
intimidating. Until now we knew our child so well, and we
were the center of their universe. Often, overnight we find
ourselves in the position of having to trust a number of
professionals who seem to know more about our child than
we do.
You Know Your Child Best One very important thing to remember
during this time is that while you may not understand the
hearing loss and all that goes with it, you still know and
understand your child better than anyone else in this world.
What sets us apart from the professionals is our emotional
attachment to our children. While this attachment can sometimes
get in the way when we are working with professionals, it
is also the force that drives us to settle for nothing but
the best and go to any length to figure out what that may
be.
You
are not "just a parent," you are one of the professionals.
You are a key player on the team.
