The first day of preschool is such an exciting life moment! Not just for those children, but parents feel it too! We all know it can feel a little nerve-wracking to watch those little feet and that tiny backpack step into a new place and explore this new phase in their lives.

For parents who have a child with hearing loss, it can be a little more daunting to send your child to preschool for the very first time. Here are several things you can do to ease those first-day jitters. Use these tips to prepare you, your child, and their teacher for what’s sure to be a terrific school year. 

Getting Ready

Preparing for preschool is more than just buying crayons and scissors or that cute little backpack, especially if your child happens to have hearing loss.

• Prepare yourself by making sure that you feel comfortable and confident, and that you have all the answers to any questions you may have by talking with your child's intervention team.
• Prepare teachers, coaches, school personnel, and anyone who will be interacting with your child to ensure they know about your child and their hearing loss. Remember, your child's teacher may not have ever met a child with hearing loss or know much about hearing loss, but in the past few years, you have become an expert. Share your expertise with them!
• Prepare your child so that they feel ready for their very first day of school. Good communication and preparation will help the transition go smoothly. Spend the weeks before telling them all about preschool so they know what to expect. There are lots of great books about heading to preschool that can help too!

Make a Plan 

Before your child’s first day, there are a couple of things that you're going to need to pull together. 

• Gather information about your child and put it together in a binder or a folder so that it's ready to share with your child's teacher. This could be as simple as an index card with steps on how a teacher can troubleshoot your child's hearing device.
• Complete the All About Me worksheet that we offer! It's a great way for you to communicate about your child in a quick and succinct way so your teacher can get to know all about your child.
• Make sure your teacher has important numbers. Having your telephone number will allow them to reach you quickly if they should have any difficulty troubleshooting your child's device during their school day.
• Create a device kit for their backpack. This could include extra batteries or hearing aid check systems, whatever is needed for your child's specific device. 

After you've gathered these things, you're ready to schedule a time to talk with your child's teacher. Ideally, you’ll schedule this before school starts so that you have an opportunity to sit down to talk with them and show them your child's hearing device and how to troubleshoot it. Ultimately the goal is for you to over-communicate with your child’s teacher and provide them with lots of information so that they can be best equipped to support your child.

Leading Up to the First Day 

Take an opportunity to snap pictures of the classroom or other rooms your child will be visiting like the music or art room. Work with the teacher to create labels so that your child has that vocabulary that they know what each room is for and what to do in them.

Take the pictures that you've taken in your child's classroom, in your child's school, or on the playground and make an experience book with them. Talk about what their school day might look like and what their schedule might look like. Your child might get some questions about their hearing technology, what it's for, and why they have it, so practicing that with them in advance and giving them those words lets them feel confident and lets you be assured that they will know how to handle that situation.

When you're meeting with the teacher, ask them if there's any special vocabulary or phrases that they may be using with their students so that you can familiarize your child with that in advance. Getting books about the first day of school and talking with your child beforehand can make their transition to learning in a new space easier. 

Starting school is such an exciting time! It's the beginning of your child's school career and you've been doing an amazing job to get them off to a great start. Your hard work has paid off and your child is going to continue to listen, learn, and grow. 

Preparing Children with Hearing Loss for Preschool