Deaf & HoH Family Connections - Bathurst & Surrounds

29/12/2025

Deaf children don’t have the opportunity to overhear conversations the way hearing children do, which is how much vocabulary and language are naturally built. For deaf and HoH children language development is reinforced through hours and hours of intentional work, practice, and learning. Speech therapy doesn’t end at the appointment, it teaches us what to focus on and carry into the home every day.
It truly takes of supports around us. Supporting speech and language development requires significant time, effort, and energy. It’s far more than a one hour speech appointment; it’s all day, every day. It’s talking through every interaction from a knock at the door to the sound of a kettle switching on and off. Every moment of speech and language throughout the day is emphasized, modeled, and reinforced for our deaf and hard of hearing children.
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29/11/2025

CI Families •Ear infections - Risks•
Must watch…

22/11/2025

Couldn’t have said it better!
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07/11/2025

A perfect way to describe the reality when you get the diagnosis for your child.🌿✨💚

07/11/2025

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Fun fact about hearing loss

Aussie Deaf Kids aims to empower parents and families raising a child with hearing loss through online support, information and advocacy. Here are some interesting facts about hearing loss in children:

Hearing loss occurs in 1 to 2 babies per 1000 born.
The tests used to diagnose a baby with hearing loss are reliable.
Babies who are diagnosed early and start wearing hearing aids and attending early intervention by 6 months of age have similar speech and language outcomes as hearing children when they start school.
Most children born with a hearing loss will benefit from hearing aids.
Around 10 percent of children with a severe to profound loss will benefit from a cochlear implant.
Hearing aids and cochlear implants are not like glasses – they don’t simply "correct" hearing in the way glasses correct vision. They assist the child to hear and develop speech and language.
Many families whose child has a hearing loss learn to sign to their child.
Young babies can start to communicate their needs using sign.
The main priority for parents is usually to communicate with their child by whatever means best suits their child and family. Communication options can include spoken language, sign language, or a mix of both.

06/11/2025

The BAHA - a different type of hearing device used for children with hearing loss.

You don’t hear with your ears... you hear with your brain.
Most people don’t realise that.

For some people, sound doesn’t travel the “normal” way through the ear.
It travels through bone… straight to the hearing brain.

That’s where bone-conduction hearing devices (BAHAs) come in.
They’re designed for people with:

🦻 Chronic ear infections
🦻 Malformed or missing ear canals
🦻 Microtia / atresia
🦻 Conductive hearing loss
🦻 Single-sided deafness

When most people hear “BAHA,” they picture a device clipped to a headband…
and their understanding stops right there.

But here’s what they don’t know:

A BAHA bypasses the outer and middle ear and sends vibration directly to the inner ear.
Not magic ... science.
And life-changing science at that.

Some people don’t struggle to hear.
They struggle to get sound where it needs to go.

The pathway may be damaged, blocked, or never formed…
but the hearing brain is ready.

So sound takes another route.
A smart one.
Through bone.
Straight to the brain.

A BAHA isn't a shortcut.
It isn’t a “workaround.”
It’s a gateway... opening a world that always belonged to them.

For babies.
For kids.
For adults.
For anyone whose hearing journey looks different…

Your path isn’t less.
It’s uniquely wired.

© Talking Deaf Kid, 2025

04/11/2025

Our Journey with the MYO15A Gene ✨

Many of you know our family’s hearing journey, but I wanted to share a little more about the cause behind it, something called the MYO15A gene.
This gene helps tiny hair cells inside the inner ear grow and work properly, those little cells are what let us hear sound. When there’s a change (or mutation) in this gene, those hair cells don’t form the way they should, and sound can’t be processed clearly.

For our family, this change in the MYO15A gene is the reason our children were born with a profound hearing loss. 💛

For babies with this type of hearing loss, hearing aids often don’t provide enough benefit because the ear itself can’t make sense of the sound, no matter how loud it is. That’s why many children, including ours, access sound through cochlear implants, which send sound straight to the hearing nerve instead of relying on the damaged hair cells.💚

Every family’s story looks a little different, and that’s what makes this community so special 🌿✨

03/11/2025

The Babies Behind the Page 🤍

Hi,
It’s Courtney here,
I just wanted to share a little about my family and my babies that are my drive for this community. 😁
I am a mum to five beautiful children, including three amazing Deaf little ones, Kydan (10) Jaylan (8), Tyson (6), Ariella-Rose (5), and our newest addition, baby Ambria (8 weeks).

Our journey with deafness began when Jaylan was born profoundly Deaf, followed by his sister Ariella-Rose, and now our youngest, Ambria. Each of their journeys began with hearing aids and led to cochlear implants, and through it all, we’ve learned so much about resilience, connection, and the beauty of Deaf identity.

Living in Bathurst, we haven’t always had other families nearby who share similar experiences, and that’s why I created Deaf & HOH Family Connections – Bathurst and Surrounds. 🌿💛

We’d love for you to share our page and join us on this journey, helping us connect more families and create a supportive space for our Deaf and HOH little ones. 🌿💞

02/11/2025

📚 Book sharing with all children is important but with deaf children, it’s essential. 💚✨🌿

Through book sharing, children learn so much from body language and facial expressions to vocabulary, rhyming, sequencing, auditory memory skills, and emotional understanding.

But beyond all the learning, the most beautiful part is the connection it creates those precious moments of togetherness, communication, and shared joy between you and your child. 🌿💫

02/11/2025

My Top 5 Free Auslan Apps on the Apple App Store! 💚

If you’re starting your Auslan journey or looking for fun ways to support your deaf or hard of hearing child, or even want to learn some basic key word Auslan signs for general use , these apps are perfect! 🙌

Each one offers something a little different, from learning key signs and to making storytime fun.
My family love them and find these apps so handy. 📱✨

🌿 Apps featured:
1️⃣ Auslan Tutor Key Signs
2️⃣ Auslan Dictionary
3️⃣ Auslan Storytime
4️⃣ Auslan Tutor 2
5️⃣ Sally & Possum (Season 1) - (only on iPad)
They’re all free to download on the Apple App

💬 What are your favourite Auslan apps? Share them below! 👇

02/11/2025

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“Sorry, can you say that again?”

It sounds like a small question.
But for many deaf people, it carries a whole world inside.

Not hearing doesn’t mean not listening.
Sometimes the sound drops.
Sometimes lips turn away mid-sentence.
Sometimes the brain needs just one extra moment to process.

And in that moment… courage rises.

Because asking again isn’t easy.

Yet the response they get is often:

“I already said it.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“It wasn’t important.”

And just like that, the conversation moves on without them.

Not because they weren’t trying.
But because asking again felt like asking too much.

What many people don’t realise is this:

🦻 Repetition isn’t inconvenience.
🦻 Repetition is access.
🦻 Repetition is dignity.

Repeating yourself isn’t a burden.
It’s how you keep someone in the room with you ...
not outside the conversation looking in.

When someone asks again, it’s not because they weren’t listening.

It’s because they were.

It’s because they’re trying to stay in the moment ...
instead of quietly falling out of it.

Asking again isn’t confusion.
It’s commitment.
It’s effort.
It’s choosing connection when silence would be easier.

So the next time someone says,
“Can you repeat that?”

Try again ... kindly.
Not louder. Not annoyed.

Just present.
Just human.

Every repeat is a bridge.
A moment of belonging.
A reminder that communication isn’t hearing perfectly…

It’s showing up for each other.

Repeat with patience.
Repeat with kindness.
It costs nothing.
But it gives someone the world.

Sometimes, saying it one more time
is how you make someone feel like they belong.

© Talking Deaf Kid, 2025