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Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host Dr. Lilach Saperstein and this is episode 20, the end of season one of the all about audiology podcast. But don’t worry, season two is coming and is packed with some amazing upcoming topics. Thank you so much for being a listener and for coming to the all about audiology community. I’ve heard your requests and some of the topics that you have been asking me for will be coming up in season two, like an episode of tinnitus and an episode on balance disorders. I have an expert coming to talk about auditory processing disorder and another episode I’m really looking forward to is about bullying and how to deal with developing a positive self-concept when a child has a hearing loss. So all of those topics and lots more are coming up in season two, so stay tuned!

Last week we talked about speech language pathologists and had a great conversation with MariLouise Nichols. We all learned so much about what speech therapists do and all the different places they can work, and the different kinds of work that they do.

I got a comment from Grace, who wrote in saying:

“It made me realize the problems that people go through like swallowing after having a stroke. It made me appreciate more what I have to be grateful for every day. That we can consume food without having to worry. I was inspired by your episode.”

Grace is a friend and she told me that she listens to the podcast, even though her children have normal hearing and don’t have any hearing issues. She loves listening to the podcast because she’s learning so much about all different kinds of topics. That’s why I’m so inspired to do this to get information out there. But really it is you guys, parents of children with hearing loss, you are the driving force behind why I’m doing this. And also the reason why I created “The Five Step Guide To Navigating Your Child’s Hearing Loss”. It is a guide I put together and you can download it for free at allaboutaudiology.com/guide. The show notes will also have a link. The guide is meant to help you organize the journey and get a sense of what you know and what you don’t know. I told you all about it in the previous episode and so many of you went to download it which makes me so happy.

And I got responses from some of you. I heard from one mom to an 11 week old who told me how there is different conflicting information from different doctors and how challenging it is when you don’t have a firm and final diagnosis. And that’s the first question in the guide. Helping you know. Have you gotten to the point where you have a formal diagnosis? Because that process in itself can take a long time. In the meantime, trying to figure out treatment options and are we going to use sign language or do we need a speech therapist, what early intervention do we need? All while having this tiny tiny sweet baby and so I answered some of her questions and gave her a couple of resources and also talked to her about how it’s really early in the journey. But at the same time when you have a road map and you have a way to map out what are all the pieces that you need, the guide is something that you can keep coming back to throughout your journey and filling in every time you have new informat...