Ever feel like the unplanned moments of your (LSL) journey aren’t moving the needle or helping create strategic growth for your child with hearing loss? Learn why the unexpected situations or challenges we encounter can actually make for the best learning and sharing opportunities on the LSL journey.
Have you ever heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”? Well, we’ve got a tastier spin on that saying for parents of children with hearing loss learning to listen and talk. When life is bananas, make banana bread! Some of the moments on the LSL journey can seem unplanned or crazy. Let’s call those the ‘banana’ moments. At the time, these moments can seem like they’re unusable for our big picture strategies. However, it’s important to remember that sometimes it’s the situations that are off the perfect path that can produce the sweetest, fruitful learning opportunities and the best ‘banana bread’!
As a parent and your baby’s first teacher, you can take the situations you’re given, the good and the challenging, and produce intentional learning opportunities with each one. Your child is continually listening to the ‘incidental’ language occurring around them and naturally overhearing and attaching meaning to the events happening around them all day every day. There’s no such thing as a small step on this LSL journey, or a small gain in Listening and Spoken Language outcomes for your child. Embrace each one because they’re all significant!
The best part of being on this journey with your child is you’re not going it alone. In fact, Hearing First has a Family Support Community where families are sharing their LSL experiences. When you join the Family Support Community, you'll not only experience the support of other families, but you'll learn from others tried and true tips, lessons learned, and "banana" family moments that you can relate to. Each LSL story has the power to inspire, encourage and empower families to continue on the LSL journey.
We invite you to join others on the LSL journey to share your stories, even the ones that you consider bananas because sometimes those relatable posts can be the most powerful!