19th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
March 8-10, 2020 • Kansas City, MO
3/09/2020 | 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Fostering JOY in Families with Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing | Chicago A
Fostering JOY in Families with Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing share many common experiences. The support that has been offered to parents has often been in the form of helping them to grow their child’s language skills or develop understanding of the child’s audiologic, communicative and developmental needs. Despite the importance of these, we argue for the need for professionals and parents themselves to focus on fostering joy involved in raising children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Rather than emphasize parental stress or challenges, in this session we will:
1. Contextualize the parenting experience in terms of strengths, such as maternal insightfulness (Feniger-Schaal, Oppenheim, & Koren-Karie, 2019), parental increases in confidence and ability to find meaning in life in parents raising children with disabilities (Beighton & Wills, 2017), and parents’ positive appraisals of the influence that raising a deaf or hard of hearing child has had on their lives (Szarkowski & Brice, 2016).
2. Provide Tip Sheets developed by the authors for direct use by or with parents. These Tip Sheets offer suggestions for living in the moment, honing in on the positive aspects of the parenting experience, and celebrating the “little victories” in raising a child.
3. Describe the role of Joy Ambassadors and seek audience feedback regarding how to further the Joy Movement.
- 1. Compare and contrast typical results obtained from “traditional” research focusing on the experience of parents of children with disabilities and “strengths based” research that explores the benefits and positive attributes of parenting children with disabilities or children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- 2. Review the Tip Sheets and generate a minimum of two ideas for how to put one of the suggestions into action in his/her own context as a parent or a professional.
- 3. Articulate, in their own words, the “Joy Movement” and the potential impact it might have on families.
Presentation:
21060_12813CandaceLindow-Davies.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Amy Szarkowski
(), Children's Center for Communication/Beverly School for the Deaf, Amy.Szarkowski@childrens.harvard.edu;
Amy Szarkowski, PhD, is the Director of The Institute and The Clinic at the Children's Center for Communication/ Beverly School for the Deaf (CCCBSD), and faculty for LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities), at Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Szarkowski holds an academic appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also an adjunct instructor for the Infants, Toddlers and Families (ITF) Interdisciplinary program at Gallaudet University.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Candace Lindow-Davies
(), Hands & Voices Headquarters, Candace@handsandvoices.org;
Candace is the mother of an adult son who is deaf plus other health concerns. For 16+ years, she developed and directed parent support services for MN Hands & Voices. May 2017, she became the Director of Outreach for Hands & Voices HQ and has served on the Core Management Team of the Family Leadership in Language in Learning or FL3 Center. She has developed materials for and provided technical assistance/training to family-based organizations in the US, US territories and China. She is passionate about supporting the needs of children/adults who are deaf/hh plus other health issues, creating health and employment equity, as well as ensuring families have access to adults who are deaf and hard of hearing. She is a Core Member of the Fostering Joy project, focusing on the joys of raising children who are D/HH.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Jennifer Clark
(), Hawaii Department of Health Early Intervention, Jennifer.Blohm@doh.hawaii.gov;
Jennifer Clark received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Disorders and Deaf Studies: Sign Language Interpreting, from California State University, Fresno and her Master’s Degree from Gallaudet University in Deaf Education: Family Centered Early Education. Since 2010, Jennifer has been working with D/HH/DB children (birth-3) as the Early Intervention Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Specialist for the Hawaii Department of Health.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Janet DesGeorges
(), Hands & Voices, janet@handsandvoices.org;
Janet DesGeorges lives in Boulder, Colorado and is Executive Director of Hands & Voices Headquarters. Janet has presented to groups worldwide about the experiences of families as they journey through life with a child with deafness or hearing loss. Ms. DesGeorges received a program certificate from the MCH Public Health Leadership Institute in 2011 at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
As an EHDI Systems advocate, Janet believes in the principles and guiding philosophies of Hands & Voices towards a parent-driven, professionally-collaborative approach when supporting families in the early years. Her areas of interest include Leadership Development for parents who participate in systemic improvement; Deaf Education Reform and Improvement; Children’s Safety and Success(preventing child abuse and neglect); Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Systems; and Parent/Professional partnerships in Quality Improvement processes.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Marilyn Sass-Lehrer
(), Gallaudet University, marilyn.sass-lehrer@gallaudet.edu;
Marilyn Sass-Lehrer is Professor Emerita at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She received a master’s degree in Deaf Education from New York University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in Early Childhood Education and Curriculum and Instruction. She is an adjunct professor in Gallaudet University's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and Their Families Interdisciplinary Program. She is editor of Early Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of- Hearing Infants, Toddlers and their Families: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2016), and has several other publications related to early intervention. Dr. Sass-Lehrer is actively involved in professional development and learning for early intervention providers.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.