For Hearing Aid or CI Users: Music Links for Your Ipod

This product may not be new to many, but it is the first time I've seen it, so I'm blogging on it for other latecomers like myself. Apparently, Music Links works well with hearing aids and Cochlear Implants and is an alternative to ugly headphones that don't really provide good sound quality. Since Music Links has been working its way through my support groups and the moms are raving about it, because happy iPod teens are happy Moms, I'm posting a couple of reviews.

But first...
Music Link benefits
Stereo sound
T-coil/Telecoil compatible - BTE, ITE and ITC aids
Replaces headphones and ear buds
Replaces conventional neck loop
Louder - Stronger signal than non-powered neck loops
Simple - No batteries to charge or replace
No feedback or distracting background noise
One-year manufacturer warranty

A gentleman named Robert who is a frequent poster to all groups, posted this about Music Links:
Hi folks,

I was given a set of the stereo Music Links long ago for evaluation ( surely
with the hope that I would write a positive report on the product)
I did better than that - I raved about them - and spread the word
accordingly!

Technically speaking, the Music Links (silhouettes) are far superior to any
neckloop for two primary reasons:
a: The proximity to the hearing instrument results in a much stronger
electromagnetic field for the telecoil/s.
b: They provide true stereo, as opposed to binaural mono - the case with all
neckloops. ( No wonder the boys love them! )

For older kids and folks using the phone, with the Music Links plugged into
the headphone jack of an amplified phone, the results are truly amazing!
Nothing beats binaural listening on the phone - say nothing of excluding (or
minimizing) ambient noise.

Music Links are compatible with any hearing instrument equipped with telecoils, For the Harmony,they're built-in, of course. For the Auria, the accessory T-Coil will be required..
The Music Links create no audio - just the magnetic field for the telecoil
in the processor.

Note on the Music Links used with telephones:
Some phones are equipped with a stereo output jack, which is what the Music
Links require.

Some phones, however, use a mono jack. And the makers are not clear at all
on the matter.
Bottom line, if there is no output on one side of the Music Links you likely
have a phone with a mono output jack.
Inexpensive adapters from Radio Shack will cure the problem.

This is a great product that works well, and I can't sat enough good about
it!

BTW, for any Brits of interest, the Music Links, which are a product of
England, are available there from Connevans Limited for Lb. 18.50

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in any entity related to hearing
loss products.

Just a writer on the topic.

Bob

*Thanks Bob!*

One mom of two teenage iPod obsessed sons with bilateral cis purchased the white version and said that her kids haven't stopped raving about the sound quality.


FYI: If you haven't seen Val's Blog today: DEAF CHILD ELUDES JAIL TIME! GO IMMEDIATELY! THE VIDEO IS HILARIOUS! Okay, I'll give you a hint: Adorable Gage just may have called 911 for the second time...Uh-Oh!

MACK ATTACK?

Nope...let the dialogue begin. I originally entitled the blog, "NO NEED TO HEAR TO LISTEN," this does not imply that those people who can hear automatically know how to listen. Italian is a profound language and there is one verb - sentire that can be used for three of our English verbs to feel, to hear and to touch. (my husband used to say, "Can I hear..." instead of "Can I touch..." so funny-took me a while to get why that was:))I hear and feel what Aidan has commented as this experience with my son has touched my life profoundly. Having lived what I have experienced with Jordan, some of Aidan's comments are too familiar and I can accept what she says as personal failures -we went through the period of temper tantrums and frustration together- that my son and I will one day deal with in a mother-son heart to heart...maybe.

Aidan commented:
This statement of yours is in fact a judgmental statement itself. If you weren't being judgmental, you would be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see what we see. You don't have to agree but you should want to be able to see where we are coming from and know we have very valid points of concern.

The only thing I can't accept is being called judgemental, having lived through the pain of consciously deciding to concentrate on an oral approach despite acknowledging, respecting and loving his deaf identity and all of the incredible history associated with it. Mine: There are too many judgmental voices unwilling to take a liberal stance in regard to the cochlear implant and hearing parents...was merely an observation based on other parents' experiences, blogs read and vlogs viewed.

As I've said before, the families' experiences told on this blog are to be respected and protected, but anyone can feel free to question my experience, and I will be totally honest in my response. I have only met one other individual as sensitive as my son and this guy is deaf as well. Lorenzo wears hearing aids and all of Jordan's life, people have compared him to Lorenzo. (the character, Luca, in RALLY CAPS is actually a combination of Jordan and Lorenzo)
This afternoon, (I've been out all day and the comments are just too deep for me to address right now with my dysfunctional brain) I scheduled a meeting with the man who has been responsible for paving our journey here in Italy. Lorenzo's grandfather established a precedent for the oral approach to deafness in Grosseto to help his grandson, and he is currently the President of our Association. Earlier this morning a woman called me to tell me that the BANCA DI VOLTERRA is offering funds for non-profit organizations trying to get some initiatives off the ground. I had spoken to this woman about trying to organize a website with information on all approaches to deafness, a forum and support groups. I would also like to organize a mini-convention to inform and provide information to pediatricians, child psychiatrists, psychologists, speech therapists, audiologists, etc. regarding the cochlear implant, not just regarding medical aspects, but the role of the family as the primary advocate for the child within the process.
The Italian Health Care System works as far as covering medical expenses, but it is seriously lacking in regard to moral support and resources. Anyway, the whole point of this is that I went to talk to Lorenzo's grandfather and Lorenzo happened to stop by for an extended visit. We got deep for something like two hours, talking about his experience growing up as a deaf child. He has so much in common with my son, he is sensitive to the point of exasperation. He told me that he considers himself lucky to have been born deaf because his experiences in overcoming all of the problems, ridicule, difficulties in school have led him to view the world on another level. When his friends were having problems at home, with school or with other friends, he was the one who helped them through their issues- who could really hear what they were feeling. He was given the gift of sensitivity and human compassion together with the ability to make people laugh and is truly one of the most remarkably mature people I have ever met...yes, I'm in love with him too - but he's just way too young. He is happy walking in his shoes. He is also the first deaf person who speaks to host a television program in Italy. He is twenty-two years old.
I hope that the inspired parents of deaf children with cis who are speaking through this blog will help eliminate the most disgusting, despicable and repulsive statement ever left on this blog: "The people who support those methods are still struggling to find a system by which they hope to "fix" Deaf children" because we are just not about that.
And you, Aidan Mack, are all about listening-feeling-and-trying to touch the soul, so I have no doubt you are beginning to realize this fact.
Colbie Caillat's lyrics for BUBBLY

LIVE*LAUGH*LOVE...AND LEARN

Christian's Mom blogged this video yesterday and I couldn't wait to wake up this morning to post it...she said,
It's hard to describe the anticipation I had leading up to this Christmas. I felt like I was 5 years old, only this time, I wasn't asking Santa for Cabbage Patch Dolls. I've been dreaming of our first Christmas with Christian since the day he was born. I was anxiously preparing for the holiday by learning how to sign "Silent Night" (it is MY FAVORITE CAROL)so I could sing it to him at the Christmas Eve Mass. I even learned a whole slew of Christmas signs, thanks to this amazing book I found at DeafResources.com.
Remember Christian? Well, here's his first Christmas video, forget the kleenex, go for the roll of toilet paper...


Trying to compose myself. You know there are so many things I'd like to say about this video, but there is just no point. If you've been there, you get it, and if you haven't been there, accepted it and chosen to Live*Laugh*Love and LEARN, then you will never get it.

Note: I first heard the song on the blog from Christina's blog and fell in love with this song...Per request, here are the lyrics to Colbie Caillat's song Bubbly (my latest obsession)

AN INSPIRATIONAL MOM BLOGS HER NEW JOURNEY

(Note:copied with permission from Christina's blog)
MEET CHRISTIAN'S MOMMY

I'm a 29 year old first-time Mommy to my gorgeous baby boy, Christian. Christian has severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss in his right ear and moderate-severe in his left, and we learn more about his loss everyday. I've been married to my fabulous husband, Chuck for 2 years. He's an amazing husband and father. I'm making the transition from working full-time as an Event Planner to working 24 hours a day as a Stay-at-Home Mom.

CHRISTIAN'S MOMMY'S BLOG 3 DAYS BEFORE HE RECEIVED HIS HEARING AIDS

FINALLY! We are only 3 more days away from getting Christian's hearing aids. It's hard to believe that it has taken us THIS long to finally get him aided, but it's almost here. I can't even begin to describe how excited we are as a family to get the little guy his ears. Christian's aids will be set low, and gradually increased to high settings as the weeks go by. I JUST CAN'T WAIT!

I know that I want the first words he hears out of his aids to be "I Love You Christian", but I can't decide what the first SONG I want him to hear. Right now, it's a toss-up between Lie in Our Graves by DMB and In My Life by The Beatles.

We've been working on A LOT of ASL, and Christian has definitely picked up the sign for "Milk" and is almost there for "More". I know over the past couple of years, many folks with hearing babies have used signs as a way to communicate with their kids. I think that is AWESOME and a wonderful bonding experience for the parents and child. I will say though, as a Mommy to HOH baby, signing has taken on a whole new meaning for us. Right now, without his aids, signing is the only way that Christian can "hear" us. Even when he gets his aids, we still will have to rely on his signs.

AND NOW FOR CHRISTIAN'S BIG DAY...



TO FOLLOW THIS INSPIRATIONAL FAMILY'S JOURNEY IN DEAFNESS, READ THEIR BLOG! LIVE*LAUGH*LOVE (Christina, could ya tell me how to play music on my blog like you do???)

REALLY GOOD VIDEO ON GETTING HEARING AIDS FOR THE FIRST TIME

I stumbled on this video on youtube.com, this one is not posted with parental permission, but the embedding code was listed by the video so I'm assuming that I can post this video. I know a couple of people whose children are getting hearing aids in the next week. They have a million questions just like I did before we got Jordan's aids the first time. This video talks about feedback, earmolds and how to talk to a person with hearing aids...in a normal voice - there's no need to scream, that's why the child is wearing the hearing aids, so he can hear. I have been going from group to group begging for videos to put on this blog because I know that our kids will help the next generation of kids just by being themselves in a video. So, PLEASE SEND ME A VIDEO OR A PHOTO WITH A LITTLE HISTORY OF YOUR JOURNEY IN DEAFNESS with your child or children, because everyone's story is unique and extraordinary. Thanks, Jodi

INTRODUCING...HAILEY!!!!

Selena and Hailey, please accept my most heartfelt thank you for sharing yourselves and your story with anyone reading this blog. The beginning of this video is very emotional for me because I know how frustrating it is for Jordan to try to communicate without his processor on...he can't hear, so processing a verbal message is more difficult. Seeing Hailey struggle the first minute, seems like it lasts an hour. People viewing this, consider that this a realistic glance into our family lives and how we help our kids understand that deafness is a part of who they are and that they need to speak up for themselves, using words to explain their needs. We teach them that it is okay to ask for help. Lovin' the bling-bling on the aids! Believe it or not, this is my first time viewing a child with hearing aids signing...GO HAILEY!!



Hailey was born on March 22, 2002. She was tested while at the hospital and passed her newborn hearing screen. Hailey is the youngest of 4 children: she has a sister Ashley who is 10, and two brothers Derek, 8 and Andrew,6. Both of Hailey's brothers as well as Hailey were diagnosed at a young age with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Sensory Integration Dysfunction has been known to be the cause of speech delays in many children. Like her brothers, Hailey had many speech delays which were attributed to her sensory issues; it wasn't until November of 2004, that a Speech Therapist suggested to us that Hailey's speech issues might be something more then just a manifestation of her sensory issues. On December 6, 2004, after a sedated ABR, we were informed that Hailey had a bilateral Sensory Neural hearing loss. At that point in time she was considered to have a mild to moderate hearing loss. On March 4, 2005, eighteen days before she turned 3, Hailey was bilaterally aided.
At that time Hailey had only about 4 words in her vocabulary that were understandable, Mama, Dada, cup, and no, so we chose a Total Communication approach. We've spoken, signed, gestured, pointed at pictures, anything we could do to help build communication. In April of that same year, Hailey started attending a hearing impaired preschool 3 times a week and went to a special speech class the other 2 days of the week. Now at almost 6 yrs old, Hailey attends a General Education Kindergarten Classroom in the morning where she is with 2 other deaf students she knows and has an interpreter in her classroom at all times. Hailey stays at school, eats lunch with her peers and then attends an intensive Hearing Impaired program in the afternoons, where she gets extra help with reading. They also work on her speech and signing skills.
Today Hailey is a very normal 5 yr old girl, she has deaf, as well as hearing friends, and has age appropriate skills in school. She's mainly a verbal kid, choosing to use her voice most of the time to communicate, but still relies on American Sign Language to help fill in when she doesn't understand what she hears.
Since her original diagnosis, it has been confirmed that Hailey suffers from an autoimmune disorder known as Auto-Immune Inner Ear Disease. If you know who Rush Limbaugh is, this is the same thing he has. Currently Hailey's hearing loss is classified as moderate to severe. It is not known to us how fast she will lose the rest of her hearing but we know and expect that there will come a day when Hailey is profoundly deaf. For this reason we chose to say that she is deaf, because for her and our family that is the reality of it, Hailey is deaf. Without her aides she doesn't hear much, and what she can hear she can't make much sense of.
Hailey is an amazing child, she's grown by leaps and bounds. She surprises us everyday with the things she says, especially since we were told by many doctors and therapists not to get our hopes up when it came to her speech. We've put no limits on Hailey when it comes to her deafness and I think it shows, and I believe that this is only the beginning for her.

Many Thanks,
Selena
mom to
Hailey Elizabeth
age 5
Indiana, USA

THE MOST AMAZING SPIDERMAN

Look at this video: For Mamaw Tina & Papaw Jeff

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Evan's mom sent me this rockin' video of the finest looking Spiderman I've seen yet! Evan is four years old and wears hearing aids. GO EVAN!!!! I SEE A FUTURE IN FILM!!!!!

Thank goodness for hearing aids! As I stated in a previous blog, Jordan has a profound hearing loss and our audiologist immediately fitted him for hearing aids ten years ago upon his diagnosis. Jordan wore hearing aids for eight years before we decided to go ahead with cochlear implant surgery. Cochlear implant surgery is not an option for all children as there are varying degrees of hearing loss, and according to FDA guidelines:
Children between 12 months and 4 years who get
little or no benefit from appropriately fitted hearing
aids and do not reach developmentally-appropriate
auditory milestones are candidates for cochlear
implants, as are children 4 years and older with
severe-profound hearing loss who score < 12% on a
difficult open-set word recognition test or < 30 % on
an open set sentence test.*
*These are FDA guidelines in the US. Parents should consult a
cochlear implant center well before their child reaches 12 months
of age to begin candidacy determination and insurance pre-approval. (Copied from the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Circle Brochure - PARENTS TO PARENTS:COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR KIDS...IF YOUR AUDIOLOGIST OR EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAM WOULD BE INTERESTED IN OFFERING COPIES OF THIS BROCHURE, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT jodi@rallycaps.net)
Regarding the various degrees of hearing loss (see http://deafness.about.com/cs/earbasics/a/typesofloss.htm for more information) There are basically four degrees (countries outside of the United States may not use the same terms):
Mild - At 26-45 db, a little difficulty hearing speech. Even a mild hearing loss can be serious for children still learning to talk.
Moderate - At 46-65 db, more difficulty hearing speech.
Severe - At 66-85 db, a lot of difficulty hearing speech. It is at this level that we begin to use the term "deaf."
Profound - Anything over 85 db. With this level of hearing loss, hearing aids may or may not help; cochlear implants are often an option.

Parents choose whatever approach to deafness they find works best for their families and this depends greatly on the child's degree of hearing loss...