Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host Dr. Lilach Saperstein and this is the All About You episode. We have- in every other episode- we have a content, a topic and then it’s all about you, where I hear from you guys, the listeners, what you guys are going through, what your experiences are, and how you are resonating with what we are talking about on the podcast.

So this episode is going to be focused on music therapy and how to use music therapy with children who have hearing loss to give them access to language and communication and connection. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a bit of a theme. The episode with Kimberly Sanzo where we talked all about sign language and how important it is for children to have a means of communication, access to language. That episode was very well received by many of you and I really appreciate Kimberly’s advocacy on this front about language access.

The episode after that we spoke with Toby to hear all about her experience from childhood, from getting implanted as a child, to building identity around her deafness and what it means to communicate with her cochlear implant and be part of both the deaf world and the hearing world. And from that episode I heard from some of you how you resonated with the way that the worlds actually overlap and interconnect and having family members who are deaf or hard of hearing or for being children of deaf adults, CODAS. I heard from some of you about that and I really appreciate all of your comments on that.

AND, I want to wish a hearty Mazal Tov and congratulations to Toby and her husband on the birth of their son. Congratulations and we are so happy for you!!!!

Then the episode after that was a conversation with Valli Gideons from mybattlecall.com and she shared with us about the mother’s perspective, her journey as a mother, getting the diagnosis for her children, what becoming an advocate has looked like a little bit throughout her life being a mother to two children with cochlear implants. I so appreciate all of you listening and all of your feedback and comments. We’ve been connecting on Instagram and we also have the Facebook group, All About Audiology, and I love the way we can just connect. We can be on totally different sides of the world, different time zones, but when we are talking about these important issues, we are in the same time and place and connecting across the internet and it’s amazing.

So I got a comment from Chloe Tompkins. Chloe is an amazing musician. https://www.instagram.com/chloeskids/

She does music programs for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. She does it in libraries, in schools, and in private groups in Westchester, NY. I invited Chloe to come and have a little chat with me about her work and what the podcast has meant for her. How the episodes that I just spoke about have been resonating for her. So here’s a little bit from Chloe.

Chloe: “Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m Chloe Tompkins and I own a small