Blind in one eye, deaf in one ear?

Question

When my sister's daughter, Elenore was born, the found out she's completely deaf in her left ear, and has about 50 decibels of hearing loss in her right ear. My sister just found out her 6 month old is completely blind in her right eye to go along with that. What kind of special challenges will my niece face as a result of her blindness, deafness?

Answer 1

Might have a lower depth perception with the blindness. With the deafness she will have a harder time hearing and may have to have things repeated or get a hearing aid. She may also have trouble learning how to talk.

Answer 2

Depending on where you guys are, there are a variety of services.  But in general, you should be able to find a school near you.  Get the school district to find out where children with hearing losses are tested (free).  Any child with about a 30db+ loss will qualify for something.  Since you know she has a profound loss on one side and a moderate to severe loss on the other, she will qualify for a program.  You, as the guardian will decide if you want her to go into the oral or Total Communication (TC) track for school.  This needs to be decided before you place her.  You can determine this by observing both sites.  Do you want her to use American Sign Language and speaking to communicate or just her voice?  I would recommend a TC program since she has such a significant loss.  BUT the teacher must voice too.  If it is only a signing program, go oral.  The reason is, she might lose more hearing as she gets older.  Get her into a school because they will provide you parenting classes immediately.  You can also ask the district for hearing aides to use at home.  If they will not provide them, many insurances will cover this.  It is extremely important to aide your niece.  With aides, she will be able to hear almost all of the sounds of speech on her right side.  You might bring up sound on the left as well.  This will help her localize sound and help her brain process language more.  The free parenting classes will teach you how to communicate with, and expand your niece's vocabulary.  Her secondary disability is her vision and speech.  She will qualify for services under those as well.  As you can see, you niece will face many challenges.  Language delay being the most significant.  The earlier you start the programs, the better off Elenore will be.  She's missing out on SO much language that her hearing peers just naturally hear.  Good luck with your new found responsibility.  Bless you, for taking her in too!

Answer 3

I'm blind/deaf almost completly blind and have 60% (left) and 70%(right) of hearing. I used to where hearing aides (don't anymore) which right now i think is your best bet. try your best to approch her on the side she can see. but if you forget don't ever freak out. talk to her even if she can't here you she might be able to see your lips. does she have pretty good vission in her good eye? if so, start teaching the basics of sign language. you can teach a baby as early a 8 months to sign things like "food".  I'm not going to lie she's going to need a lot of help. the biggest fear right now is moving and motavation. try to see if she can see color lights. try to get her to crawl for it. somehow this has got to happen. other than that I don't know what else to tell you but see if you can get a hearing aid. because blindness is the most debilatating physical handycape when it comes to development. so if you can use sound by all means do it. or at least try

Answer 4

Well she will have all sorts of challenges, but most of those will be because of lack of education of her care providers. I'm not saying that anyone involved in her care is uneducated, but they don't know about those specific disablities, other than what the doctors tell them. I would recommend for whom ever will be  her care provider to get in contact with a deaf club in the area. Talk to deaf people in the area, if possible with the aid of an interpreter. There may be someone from the RID in your area (registry of interpreters for the deaf) that may be able to give you some information about deafness, or lead you to resources helping you out with information. Please understand that who ever is in charge of her would be best off to learn sign language so as to be able to communicate with her. Many deaf children are left to their own devices and don't gain any language experience until they are in kindergarten. I have a wealth of information about deafness, and the blindness, i'm not as certain about, but since she does have sight in her other eye, i'm sure there will be a few less issues with that. Feel free to contact me with your questions!