A grade 9 student recently asked a very interesting question, "What is it like to take care of children as a parent who is Deaf/ hearing?". To answer this question, we asked PDSB Teacher of the Deaf/ hard of hearing Emily Walsh, who is also a mother of three, what her experience has been like as a parent who is hard of hearing. Special thanks to Ms. Walsh for lending her thoughtful perspective to this post. 

Any parent expecting a baby will have a lot of questions and anxiety about caring for a newborn. A deaf or hard of hearing parent will have a different set of challenges to consider when welcoming their newest addition. Fortunately, we live in a technologically advanced world where there are many options available. 

For days when my husband was away on a work trip, or when the power went out, I used a cry alert notification system called Sonic Alert Home Aware Baby Cry Transmitter from Diglo (www.diglo.com). The receiver was a battery-operated accessory that connected to my old home alert system. That alert system was something that I purchased for University and it helped me during the first few years of living on my own. The old home alert system either flashed or activated the bed shaker whenever the phone rang, smoke detector went off, or any noise that persisted for more than 1 minute. It worked every single time, and gave me peace of mind knowing if one alert system stopped working, the other would still be there as a back up.

Technology is constantly evolving and changing. Between the late 1990’s to now, there are more and more options available. By the time I had my third child, Smartphones and accessibility apps became readily available. Someday someone will develop an app to alert parents when their baby cries. Until then, I’ll be over here patiently waiting to see if someone could develop the technology to help make a child sleep through the night!