3 year old HOH Child

[amylucinda]

We are going to Disney in a few weeks with an extended group. Our HOH daughter uses hearing aids and is very verbal. She does minimal signing (by her choice, when her verbal language began far outrunning her and our signing abilities). She hears amazingly well with hearing aids, given her loss, but we now have the added complication of just having learned that her loss has progressed from moderate to moderate-severe very rapidly.


Obviously, the captioning devices won't work for her, and I'm afraid that Disney's assistive listening devices won't work well with her Phonak hearing aids and her Phonak Microlink FM system. I've tried calling, but just got the documentation and a recommendation to stop at GA when we get to the park. I realize there's little we can do to prepare for their technology, short of buying new stuff, but even just knowing whether we'll be successful or not with what we have ahead of time would be comforting. Has anyone used FM technology with what Disney has to offer?


I'm not sure if there's much we can do that would be useful for her. Obviously, at least attempting to use her technology is a start. About the only other thing I can think of is for preferred seating at shows to allow her to see faces more clearly. And that itself is an issue, as we are a group of 7-8! Arrghh! One thing we may do, though, is see the show first as a group wherever we land, and then go back later in smaller groups and see if we can sit in a better spot for her to see faces. How do they handle things like that, especially for the "slide-across-the-row" shows?

TIA

P.S. In terms of flying, has anybody had any issues with hearing aid paraphenalia? Screwdrivers for battery compartments, batteries, etc.? I'm presuming they should go in checked luggage.

 

[Talking Hands]

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[Val]

My youngest DD6 has been diagnosed with a mild hearing loss. She had the T tubes put in in December, but one has already fallen out. Her hearing in the right ear is back to about 30-40 dB level; her left ear is better- in the 20-30 dB range. The school plans on getting an FM unit for her for next year (we only have 28 days of school left this year, and the paper work won't be through yet).....my question: Would the assisted listening devices work for her when we are at WDW this summer? She doesn't wear hearing aides yet (that is still up in the air). Is the assisted listening device like a set of headphones my dear Grandmother uses at church? Lyssa seems to be missing much of the "speech" range- her therapist says it is like listening to the world talk with their hands tightly clamped over their mouths. Would an assisted listening device help her understand the words better? Any advice would be greatly appreciated- especially since we are so new at all this.