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I want you to tell a little bit about
um...yourself and your child and with
My name is Kristy and my husband and I
have two daughters
and our oldest daughter Tessa
has a moderate-severe hearing loss
We found out she had a hearing loss
when she was a little older than two
she has two behind-the-ear hearing aids
um....that good?
I am Joanne Gundburg and my husband
and I have two daughters as well and our
21 has a hearing loss. She went to
We noticed it more because she was
on the phone talking with my mother
and my mom was saying, "I'm shouting
and she still can't hear me!"
And I think that's when we first realized
something wrong
She has a mild to moderate sensorineural
loss and she wears hearing aids as well
she is 21 and she is in her 4th year
at Eau Claire right now, so..
Hi, I'm Cheri Thomford and I have 4 children
and my youngest child,
my youngest daughter has a mild
to moderate hearing loss
and we did not discover this until quite
late. She was 4 when she went through
pre-school screening, I think, and it wasn't
until she was 5 she was diagnosed, and we
were devastated, we were shocked
and we could not believe that this little
girl got to be age 5 and we did not detect.
I'm a teacher also at Deerwood Elementary,
and the first thing that the audiologist
said to me was, "you talk really loud".
'right Danny?'
And clearly and maybe that's why she was
able to speak so well, but we did not
have very many indications. She had a lot
of, um, ear infections. Like all the other kids.
So, yet, when I look back, now
When we looked back then, we
realized she studied our faces
really closely.
Um, in the back of the van, I would say, "Haley!"
And she wouldn't always turn around.
So her brother or sister would compensate
and find out what she wanted or whatever
So it was a big learning experience for me
I am very thankful, like Joanne, because
I teach in the district, I've had many
students with hearing loss, and
that has helped me, I think, understand
it a little better.
And one of my former students is right
here, Danny Blasberg.
Um, well, my name is Dan.
and I'm hard of hearing in both ears
I have a moderate-severe hearing loss
Um, I'm 24. I graduated from UW-River Falls
two December's ago.
And, right now, I work at Wells Fargo.
Oh, and I was diagnosed with my hearing loss
when I was a couple years old...3.
I'm Dan's mom. (laughing)
(laughing) I don't know what to add. (laughing)
Um, Dan's story of getting diagnosed
was hard too. We had, I remember, he
was at daycare and one of his daycare teachers
said something to me about his hearing.
that she was suspicious, and I remember
we were clapping behind his back really
loudly to see if he would turn around,
and he didn't and that was my first
indication that something was wrong,
so we took him to an audiologist
and he said there was fluid in his ears
and so we had tubes put in and he was tested
again and they said he was fine.
So, we spent about another year thinking
he was fine, and probably in denial too.
you know, not wanting to see what was there
so it took another year before we got him
finally diagnosed and found out he had
this hearing loss.
And like Cheri, we were devastated,
it's like, well, fix it. You know
there's got to be a way to fix it.
And of course there wasn't. I remember
coming to a meeting like this when Dan was
a little boy and seeing a young man
about Dan's age and seeing other parents there
and it really was a life line for me,
so I am really happy to be here for you
tonight.