Hearing Aids for Bristol

This journey all started this summer, as I was picking up my 3 year old daughter from child care. Every parent knows the drill- check in, grab belongings and the kid and think about dinner, amongst other things. Bristol’s new teacher at the time pulled me to the side and told me that she thought that there was something wrong with Bristol. She told me that Bristol’s speech was garbled and it reminded her of a child that she had in her class previously that needed tubes in their ears. On that day, my life changed. I wasn’t prepared to HEAR her; I was in fact defensive, angry and dismissed everything that she said. Weeks later the child care center that Bristol attends had regularly scheduled hearing screenings where my daughter failed the hearing screening and was referred for additional testing. After several appointments, Bristol was diagnosed with permanent hearing loss in both ears. Looking back, I am fortunate that the teacher brought her concerns to my attention. As a parent, it is difficult to hear that there is something wrong with your child, let alone that your child has a disability.

If it hadn’t been for that teacher (who is no longer at Bristol’s school) who stopped me, I probably would not know the severity of Bristol’s hearing loss.

I truly believe that the people God places in your life are not there by accident. It’s not a coincidence. They are a gift from God.

If you know Bristol, you know that she is full of personality and nothing short of a genius! When Bristol was born, Dr. Amato spoke life into her and said that she would be a genius because she was born with her eyes open. So since birth, I believed nothing less than that of my child. Developmentally, Bristol is where she needs to be, so I did not have any concerns. I did notice that she had some issues with her speech, but I had no idea that her hearing was damaged.

Bristol is being evaluated by the A.G. Bell Huy Elementary School for the Hearing Impaired. Once she is enrolled, she will be in a school that has professional diagnosticians that work to establish learning goals for her.  The hearing aids will improve her hearing and speech.  

Bristol understands what’s going on and has remained her fun and energetic self, even through all of the testing and evaluations. I asked her if she could hear, she said “yes,” then I asked her if she needed help hearing and she said “yes.” Hearing Bristol say this, crushed my heart, I instantly was in tears and knew I needed to ask for help.

For all of you that either have children or are considering, please have your child’s hearing tested. Listen when being told by teachers and physicians that there is an issue with your child. They are here to help. The disability reflects nothing on you or what you have done. You need to move forward and do everything that you can for your child. The biggest thing is that you have to be open to listening to things that you don’t want to hear. Don’t take it personal, get over it, it’s time to move forward and get the help your child needs. I had people tell me “It’s not about you, it’s about Bristol!” I had to set my PRIDE aside and ASK FOR HELP! Yes I have insurance, but my insurance does not cover hearing devices, actually there are not many insurance plans that do. I’m not just asking for money, I’m asking for support, I’m doing this to raise awareness.

 

Life is hard enough, I just want my baby to be successful and have every advantage that every other hearing child has.

Thank you for your help.

Ciera

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 A time for everything