Building a Support Team

Most parents with a newly identified child have had little or no exposure to children or adults who are deaf or hard of hearing. In fact, fewer than 10% of deaf children are born to parents who are deaf.

Generally, most parents with newly identified children do not have adequate information about what it means to be deaf or hard of hearing. Parents and family members should expect to receive information and support from their family-infant specialist and other team members from the time their baby is identified as deaf or hard of hearing.

However, it is also essential that parents build their own support system. Additional support is found with family, friends, others with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, and experts within the school system and community. Your child's infant/family specialist and other professionals can help to identify additional sources of support.

​Finding Programs and Resources in Your Community

You are probably curious about programs and resources in your community. There are a lot of people that you can ask:

• Your school district’s Special Education Director.
• A Service Coordinator assigned to your family, who will help your family link with community agencies and services.
  
• Your neighborhood school principal.
• Your Family-Infant Specialist or teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
• Other parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Ask for a chance to visit places that sound interesting to you and appropriate for your child. If you have an Infant/Family Specialist, maybe you can go together and talk about what you have seen.

You can use this chart to keep track of their information.