Growing Stronger in Acceptance and Advocacy

[00:00:00] Announcer: Welcome to episode 41 of empowEAR Audiology with Dr. Carrie Spangler.
[00:00:15] Carrie: Welcome to the empowEAR Audiology podcast, which is part of the 3C Digital Media Network. My name is Dr. Carrie Spangler, and I am your host. I am a passionate audiologist with a lifelong journey of living with hearing challenges in this vibrant hearing world. This podcast is for professionals, parents, individuals, with your own challenges and those who want to be inspired.
[00:00:44] Thank you for listening, and I hope you will subscribe, invite others to listen and leave me a positive review. I also wanted to invite all of you to visit and engage in the conversation on the empowEAR Audiology Facebook group. Transcripts for each episode can be found at www three, the number three, C digital media network dot com under the empowEAR podcast tab.
[00:01:17] Now let's get started with today's episode. Okay, welcome to the empowEAR Audiology podcast. I am really excited to have a guest with me today. I have Sarah Robinson. She is a speech language pathologist and family consultant for Children's hospital in Colorado Springs. She has specialized in working with children who are deaf and hard of hearing, but over 13 years, She started at Boys Town, national research hospital, in Omaha, Nebraska, and then came to children's hospital in Colorado.
[00:01:54] And she enjoys writing with children of all ages and communication modalities to help each child and each family reach their full potential. Sarah also grew up hard of hearing and uses her experiences to help guide families along their own personal journeys. So Sarah, welcome to the empowEAR Audiology podcast
[00:02:17] Sara:
[00:02:18] Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Well, I
[00:02:22] Carrie: thought we would just add, maybe you start out with just, could you share a little bit about your current role at Colorado children's hospital?
[00:02:32] Sara: Yeah. So I'm, I'm a speech pathologist and I work on our deaf and hard of hearing team. So I work almost exclusively with deaf and hard of hearing kids.
[00:02:42] And that's kind of been my area of specialization since I started. So I, don't kind of a day to day. Look for me right now is just lots of individual therapy sessions. In the past we've done a lot of groups and that's kind of had to change with COVID of course. But all ages of kids, it tends to be primarily probably under five year olds.
[00:03:08] I have quite a few, two olds that I work with right now, so that keeps things spicy and fun. And yeah, I work on a great team. I get to work with our audiologists really closely. I'm on our cochlear implant team. But I work with kids of all types of hearing levels and devices. I work with ENT is we're a full therapy center as well.
[00:03:27] So we have occupational and physical therapists. So I've had some great opportunities to do some co-treat for kids who benefit from those kinds of therapies as well. So really part of a big multidisciplinary team, which is.
[00:03:43] Carrie: Yeah, that sounds amazing to have all of those different professionals working together to help all of the children that you have the opportunity to see on a daily basis.
[00:03:53] I'm really excited to have you. We're going to get back to some work stuff later on, but I'm excited to have you, because I have not had a speech language pathologist on my podcast who also has a hearing loss. So. Welcome be the first person that I have, and that, that fits that mold, I guess. But would you like to share a little bit about your childhood journey
[00:04:18] Carrie: and how you found out about your hearing and hearing loss and a little bit about that?
[00:04:24] Sara: Yeah, definitely. Before I jumped into that, though, it was just interesting that you mentioned that being hard of hearing SLP, because I feel like there's some of us, but not many, and I'm just barely starting to meet maybe one or two others that are also a hard of hearing SLP. So I think we're out there, but it's not a connected group.
[00:04:43] So it's kind of nice to start seeing some of those connections and meeting some more people in this area with some similar experiences to me, But yeah, in terms of my background and story I was first I identified when I was, I believe, six years old. My mom actually has saved the paperwork she got from school when I did not pass the hearing screening they did in kindergarten, first grade.
[00:05:10] And so that was the first indication that I had anything different with my hearing. And so my parents took me into the audiologist. And they, my dad was in the military, so we saw audiologists on the military base. And actually that was the only type of audiologist I saw as a child was through the military bases.
[00:05:31] And I was identified with a mild hearing loss. And I have kind of talked to my parents since then. And my mom has said, She was a little bit surprised, but then things made sense to her after she knew. And she said, yeah, you're just a little spacey sometimes kind of off in your own world. And you know, I'd had to really work at getting your attention if you were doing something.
[00:05:54] And she's like kinda made sense. We found out that there was some hearing loss involved. And at that time, the only recommendations they were given were to have me sit in the front of the classroom and just check in regularly with the audiologist. There wasn't any mention of doing hearing aids or getting involved with any sort of intervention or therapy services.
[00:06:18] My speech and language had actually developed without any sort of difficulties. So my parents didn't have concerns there. Although I was super shy in school actually all growing up and I feel like I still can be sometimes. But there was some comments that like, I didn't speak in preschool and.
[00:06:38] wouldn't raise my hand when my name was called for roll call. And so I think that, you know, that was prior to my parents knowing about my hearing and they think they kind of just chalked it up to me being pretty shy. And I wonder how much of my hearing difference kind of interplayed with how I was especially early on.
[00:06:57] But I think as a result of how things were presented to my parents, they kind of just figured it was not really a big deal. And so, as a result, I kind of just learned to cover up any hearing challenges I was having. So it wasn't really something that we ever talked about other than just going into see the audiologist every year.
[00:07:20] And they kind of be like, okay, things look okay. She's doing good in school. Yes. Okay. We'll see you again next year. And so. I don't know that I was consciously aware that I was doing that, but I kind of learned like, oh, you're just like everybody else. And so if I wasn't hearing things, I just kind of either ignored it or pretended that I knew what was going on.
[00:07:40] And just kind of learned to pass as somebody who was typically hearing. And you know, I don't feel like that was an intentional thing that happened on my parents' part. It's just, they really didn't know any different to. kind of talk me through strategies or even ask like, oh, have you ever had difficulty hearing in certain situations?
[00:08:01] Just kind of played out that way. And my hearing loss has been slowly progressive, so it's certainly changed since I was first identified and hearing aids were first mentioned when I was in high school. And at that point I was like umm no, thank you. I'm doing just fine.
[00:08:24] So I actually ended up not trying my first pair of hearing aids until college. And that kind of actually came about tied in with some changes in my major. Cause I was really into music. I played the clarinet in high school and was planning to major in music education. And my plan initially was to be a music teacher.
[00:08:48] And so I had been in several music classes and was taking music theory. And the music theory class I was in was a two-part grade. One part was written testing, and then the other part was ear training. So you can probably guess where this story is going. Although at the time I made no connection whatsoever with my hearing, but I was failing ear training miserably.
[00:09:12] And then doing just fine on the written portion. But my professor had kind of said, well, you're not going to pass the class. So this is the drop deadline, if you want to drop. So that way you're not, you know, having this impact your overall GPA and was like, I was just crushed. I was like, I don't know why I can't do this.
[00:09:30] And I ended up switching my major right around that time to communication disorders. Cause I'd been taking a general education class and was like Oh, audiology. I know all about this actually I've been going since I was a kid. So it was just like this weird random, like kind of things happened around the same time and ended up switching my major over and.
[00:09:55] I still wonder who this student audiologist was. I can't recall, but we had to do some hearing tests on each other as part of a class that I was in just to kind of get some experience, you know, running the audiometer what not. And I didn't think to tell this other student that I had a hearing loss and I think there's part of me that was probably embarrassed to bring it up.
[00:10:17] Cause I was so used to covering it up and like, I'm fine. I hear just fine. It's no big deal. But this poor student doing this hearing test and probably panicking or wondering if she's doing something wrong afterwards, she's kind of like so did you know that? And I'm like, oh, oh yeah, yeah. That's, that's the thing I've had that since I was a kid.
[00:10:39] And then of course, this gets turned into a professor with a like, oh, could we, we need to speak about this hearing loss that you have. And so things kind of unfolded from there. And realizing that like, you know, I had some pretty surprised reactions from my professors of like, you mean you've never worn hearing aids.
[00:10:57] How have you, how have you done this? Cause I had a pretty significant cookie bite hearing loss at that time. And so, you know, they, I started with first pair of hearing aids at that point. But I really did not like them. So, you know, I really only wore them for school and like when I felt like I had to and it honestly, probably wasn't until, probably right around the time that I moved back here to Colorado five years ago that I really was like, I have got to figure out this hearing aid thing after going back and forth for years on like wearing them a little bit and then not and feel free to stop me if you want to interject anything.
Carrie: No you are good
[00:11:46] But I was, I would say like for me, the, I, it was so deeply ingrained that I was just fine and passing and like not having any issues with my hearing, that it was pretty hard for me to kind of admit that. I really did need to have some help with hearing. And I was working really hard at looking like I was hearing just fine.
[00:12:08] And I had another pretty significant drop in hearing right around the time. I think that I moved from Omaha to Colorado and it took me a little while to put my finger on it. Cause I think I was starting a new job and had just moved. And so I was like, there's a lot of different things happening.
[00:12:25] But it's kind of like with one of my colleagues, like, so do you think you could maybe put me in the booth real quick and check? One of the great benefits of working in this profession is that all of my audiologists are my coworkers and like they're real audiologists, but I've not had like it's years since.
[00:12:44] made an appointment and gone to see somebody. I just, you know, we'll grab somebody and say like, Hey, I think I need a tweak here. So they, you know, we, we did a little check in kind of confirmed my hearing at this point. I have kind of borderline borderline normal pitches, low pitches sloping to just about a severe in the mid to high frequencies now.
[00:13:05] So you know, I really, especially being a speech therapist. My job is very requires a lot of very close listening for kids. And, you know, part of me thinks too, that may be why there. It's not as common to find SLP’s with hearing loss, because there are certain aspects of my job that require me to really focus and really be able to distinguish speech sounds.
[00:13:33] So I got upgraded, nice pair of hearing aids and was like,
[00:13:40] this is what I've been needing to what I've worn.
[00:13:42] Carrie: Yeah. Wow. Just think back a little bit about going through, you know, your elementary and high school years too. I think now with a lot of research and knowledge, we know that the impact of mild is not mild. Right. I hate that term because I know that it kind of gives everybody this misconception that it's really not that bad.
[00:14:09] And so some of the things you brought up like being shy or, you know, not responding to your name and even, you know, you said like you're paying them. They kind of saying, like, we just went to the audiologist and got checked up a year and that’s that right. And kind of moved on. When you think about it now, what are some of the biggest challenges?
[00:14:34] Like, did you feel like you have challenges socially too? I mean, I know you said you were shy, but with friends and things like that or something that really kind of stood out for you before you started wearing hearing aids a lot.
[00:14:47] Sara: Yeah, I think the thing that stands out to me most looking back is probably the social connections and experiences.
[00:14:55] Because academically and language and speech wise, I didn't really seem to have a lot of difficulties there. Although kind of knowing what I know now, even just professionally, I can see that I probably put a lot more effort into school in terms of listening effort. Then I was realizing. But I think especially like group situations have always been challenging for me in terms of hearing with background noise and multiple talkers.
[00:15:23] I have a few pretty distinct memories of some rather unfortunate misearings and then the, you know, awkward social encounters that happen after that. And I had had. A friend in middle school. And I had thought she had said that her dad had died and you know, of course like, oh my gosh, this is devastating.
[00:15:45] I wrote a card for her about how, sorry I was about her dad passing. And it turns out it was her dog and well, I mean, it's still sad, but it was like, so embarrassing as a middle schooler to like you know, then give somebody this card about how, sorry I am, that your dad passed away when it was her dog. And like, just, you know, I mean, like it's funny to look back, but I'm like, oh, my middle school self was really crushed when that happened.
[00:16:10] So embarrassed. So some things like that stick out in my mind in terms of you know, I often wonder what would have been different had I had some different supports and maybe, you know, had hearing aids or had a professional who could help coach my parents on like teaching me self-advocacy cause that's been really a big learning curve for me as an adult to be able to say like, oh, you know what, I'm actually having difficulty in this situation.
[00:16:40] and here's what I need in order to be successful is still a challenge for me to do.
[00:16:46] Carrie: Yeah. Well, I, I'm glad you're talking about it and being reflective about it because I think there's a lot of still families and teachers and professionals out there that hear mild or minimal or unilateral and like you said you got through.
[00:17:05] Okay. Right. I mean, you can kind of fake your way through and you did okay. Academically, but some of the social pieces and mishearings and things like that, that can really impact your probably self-esteem. And like you said, advocacy and not knowing what to, what to say or how to stand up for yourself.
[00:17:25] Sara: Right. And, you know, I really did off and on, especially when I first got my hearing aids was pretty, I felt pretty embarrassed about it and you know, we try to kind of keep my hair over my ears. And there's still a little bit now that I have to kind of fight against, depending on the day is like, it's okay.
[00:17:44] If people know that I am hard of hearing and you know, trying to be a good role model for the kids that I work with, two of, you know, pulling my hair up some days and like no big deal if people know that I have hearing aids and. You know, I think that's something, when you start early with kids to teach, you know, that you can be proud of who you are.
[00:18:04] Then you're not having to sort through that as, as an adult, too.
[00:18:08] Carrie: Yeah. Yeah. That agency and being okay with yourself, it takes a lot, but like you said, too, you have setbacks and then you move forward and that is part of life too. And then you said, what about five years ago you started consistently kind of wearing hearing aids.
[00:18:26] How has the, how has that helped? How have you noticed changes that way?
[00:18:33] Sara: Well, I think it's jarring to realize how much I wasn't hearing without them. And I had an experience. It was probably about a year ago where I needed to send these in for some repair work and I was going to be off work. So it was, you know, four or five days without them.
[00:18:52] And I was like, it's going to be fine. It's not that big of a deal. I'm not working, I'll just be hanging out, you know, with family, whatnot. But. I was so off kilter, like just to realize how much I like and depend on the sound that I have. And I didn't feel safe anywhere. I was like, people were scaring me left and right.
[00:19:10] I didn't know what was coming up behind me. Turn signals, went away for awhile, you know, so all kinds of things. And for me, it's not that I can't, I don't go from. hearing with my hearing aids to taking them out and hearing nothing. Like I'm still hearing actually quite a bit without them, but I lose a lot of clarity.
[00:19:33] I lose a lot of environmental sounds. Like I didn't realize that I hadn't heard birds that whole time until I put them back in and I was like, wait, I bet these birds didn't just reappear today. They've probably been here all week. So yeah, I think. Sometimes, I think what can be helpful for me to talk through some of my families with parents who have kids who have these kind of mid range, you know, they don't have severe to profound hearing losses.
[00:20:01] And it's hard for parents to wrap their minds around like what they hear and like I do without my hearing aids, but there's a lot that's missing. It's it's real muffly, muddled kind of sound without them. So I think that can be. A helpful thing to help describe sometimes. Cause it's, it's still even hard for my family to wrap their minds around.
[00:20:24] Like they're like, do you really have that hard time hearing? And I actually played a simulation of my hearing loss for my family. And it was like, their minds were totally blown. They're like, we actually had no idea. This was what you were experiencing.
[00:20:39] Carrie: And as a kid who hasn't heard before, they can't be like, oh, like the bird suddenly appeared when I put my hearing aids on.
[00:20:47] I mean, they don't have that knowledge or vocabulary to say that and think about all the little things that they're missing in their environment by not having that access all the time, too. Right. Yeah. Did you feel like your level of effort was a lot more when you didn't have your hearing aids too?
[00:21:10] Sara: I think so, especially, yeah, especially looking back although I would still say listening effort and listening fatigue is a pretty significant factor for me.
[00:21:19] And I'm not sure if part of that is. Just the type of job that I have that even with amplification and accommodations, I'm still having to be really on my toes for, especially for speech articulation, work with kids and unfortunately, timing kind of happened that, you know, I had a couple years of getting used to these hearing aids and then COVID happened and then like flipped all this stuff upside down there and added a whole host of new challenges to figure out you know, our audiologists are amazing.
[00:21:51] And the one that does my hearing new programming did some magic and helped me out majorly with masks and virtual things. And but it was really like, it was for all of us, like trying to figure things out right as it was happening. And a lot of challenges for a while before we could figure out what a good solution was going to be.
[00:22:13] Carrie: Yeah, for me, I know that was definitely a hard switch when all of a sudden you go to the grocery store and everybody has a mask on, and I felt so, I guess, anxious and didn't know, you know, what people were saying to me. And I just kind of went through an avoidance process
[00:22:32] Sara: to, yeah. And I think for me, that was a largely kind of a catalyst for.
[00:22:39] Kind of getting me to figure out my identity and who am I? Because I think even though I had already started wearing hearing aids prior to the start of COVID it was really the first time that I felt hard of hearing like really noticed it because I still could convince myself like, oh, I'm just going to wear these hearing aids, but I'm fine.
[00:22:57] Without them, it was like this little back thing in the back of my mind, like it's, it's, it's still. A convenience thing. I don't really need them. And with COVID it was like, oh no, you're hard of hearing you can't pretend. You're not. In fact this will be a little humorous story for you. I had gone to get my oil change done on my car and I would say it was probably, I don't know, three or four months in like, so still a lot of things were pretty shut down and it was one of those quick oil change places.
[00:23:28] And in the past you would drive your car in and then they'd have you get out and go into their little waiting area. But they're like, oh no, everybody stays in their car now. And so I'm sitting in my car with the window, rolled down and it's, you know, one of those garages. So the acoustics are terrible and there's a gentleman standing at the front of my car and he's wearing a mask and he's speaking to me and he's clearly asked me to do something.
[00:23:51] And I'm like, not even a single word that I could try to fill in the blanks. Like usually I'm like, okay, I got it. Half of it and I can sort it out, but I'm like, there's just nothing. And like, my anxiety is just like going like way up through the roof at this point. Cause he just keeps mumble, mumble, mumble, and then looking at me like, I don't know what's happening.
[00:24:11] And so finally somebody came up to my door and. You need to pop your hood. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And of course at that point I was so flustered. I couldn't figure out how to pop my hood. So they had to do it for me, but it's just like, you know, those situations where you can’t the context was unfamiliar. So I couldn't predict what he was going to ask me to do.
[00:24:33] And it was just like, okay. Yep. That was interesting. So but yeah, figuring out that identity piece has been important, but a challenging process, I would say for sure.
[00:24:49] Carrie: And how do you feel like you kind of sorted through the process? I know you said, you know, COVID kind of, jump-started some of this identity, but do you have any tips of how to kind of go through that and get to the point of, I don't want to say acceptance, but just kind of more certain of who you are and okay.
[00:25:09] With who you are.
[00:25:10] Sara: Yeah, well, I think it's still an evolving process. Cause I would say it's not a hundred percent there some days. But some things that have been really helpful for me is having some connections with some other people who are part of hearing and wear amplification and that was something I didn't really have until I've been, you know, mostly an adult which is
[00:25:35] interesting because I've worked with deaf, hard of hearing kids for most of my career. But it actually really wasn't until I was actually at Children's here in Colorado that I met another audiologist, my same age, she wears hearing aids and it was like, oh, you're going to be my best friend. And so just having some other people who can understand some of the challenges and
[00:25:59] difficulties that kind of can come along with being deaf hard of hearing, as well as the, somebody to laugh with me about not knowing to pop the hood of my car and just be like, yeah, I get to just turn you off when I come home. And so just to understand some of the unique things that we experience so I think having some community has been really, really helpful.
[00:26:24] And for me too I have been working with a counselor therapist for a couple of years now and having a place where there's some intentional processing that I'm able to do of some of these things has been really, really beneficial, too. So making some space to really be intentional about thinking through some of the patterns that I've sort of inherently developed around my hearing, which for me is to.
[00:26:50] To fake it to pretend like I'm just hearing everything and being more aware of when those things are happening and kind of working to go like, okay, like it's okay if I speak up and say, I didn't hear what you said, would you say that again for me? Or like for me, when I meet a new parent who's coming in for a therapy or evaluation appointment to ask the parent to switch out and wear a clear mask for me hurdle for me for a little while and still can be aware.
[00:27:19] Cause it's like right. When I first meet you, I need to go ahead and have this conversation and tell you, okay. I'm hard of hearing. I wear hearing aids. I really benefit from being able to see her lips. Would you mind switching your mask out while we're here today? And you know, it's easy to just say that right now, but it honestly still depends on the day whether I feel like I have the confidence to do that.
[00:27:38] Or I just kind of go well, okay for whatever reason, I'm not up for saying that today. So we're just going to do it this ws. So it's an evolving process, still learning for sure.
[00:27:50] Carrie: Now I am so glad you shared all that though, because when you going through it, there's so many things as someone else that is also hard of hearing.
[00:28:02] Feel that like having those connections was so critical for me too. And like you said, I didn't meet anyone else until I was closer to college age. That was like me. And so it was hard to navigate all of that and to not have anybody that understood you truly the different things. And I love your part about the humor too.
[00:28:27] And you know, like being able to laugh about the fact that, Hey, they said pop your head like 20 times, but until somebody comes over and says it, but I think it's funny, but we could, I would have done the same thing. So I can laugh with you and understand like, okay, this was totally embarrassing, but at the same time, we can laugh through it.
[00:28:49] Sara: Great.
[00:28:51] Carrie: I've got through it. But I also like your point of like the counseling part and being intentional and figuring out, okay. You know, I can't fake it until I make it all the time, but how can I kind of work through these habits that I've had all my life and try to go in a different direction too.
[00:29:12] Sara: Right. Yeah. And that was also helpful for me in just kind of wrapping my mind around the listening fatigue piece. Because I am still do put a lot of pressure on myself to be able to function at a level where a typical hearing person would and to have some grace and knowing that like there are going to be certain situations are just gonna be harder for me.
[00:29:34] And that's okay. And you know, again, it's one of those, like, I can just say that and I don't always believe that's what I'm supposed to believe and kind of knowing that, like I had to make some pretty significant changes work-wise kind of through COVID and like I said, kind of learning to advocate for myself and speak up and say, you know, I am not going to be a good virtual speech therapist.
[00:30:02] Like me doing virtual speech therapy is really, really difficult because I can't hear an S sound over the computer accurately to help, correct for speech articulation. And so that was difficult for me to have some of those conversations because it felt like it was, I was kind of judging myself professionally.
[00:30:27] Like I, maybe I'm not going to a good speech therapist because I can't hear all this stuff that I'm supposed to be able to hear. And my other colleagues can make this jump over and do teletherapy during that initial shutdown. And I did do that because that was the only choice that we had. But pretty quickly, you know, we had to start having some conversations about like, what is this going to look like for me in order to continue to be able to do my job and that that's not a reflection on my skills as a therapist, or even on who I am as a person.
[00:30:56] It's just a fact of what. What ability I have and the access that I have.
[00:31:04] Carrie: So, what are some of the accommodations and support that you currently use in your job? Whether it's virtual which we're kind of back to, but I know with the mask and you're probably still in a facility that uses mask right now. Yep.
[00:31:21] Sara: We sure are. Yeah, you have healthcare is all the way I feel like, which you know, is important from infection standpoint. So certainly not a statement to whether we should or shouldn't wear them. But yeah, some of my accommodations I have now access to asking parents to use clear masks when they come in.
[00:31:42] You know, my little ones don't wear a mask at all. If I work with older kids, you know, they'll wear a clear mask with me. I use my remote microphone, almost every therapy session, whether it's virtual or in-person. Because I just need that extra boost in volume for especially those high-frequency sounds.
[00:32:04] which of course for kids who are working on speech articulation, seems like it's always going to be S TH F like all those ones that are going to be super hard for me to hear. So I have that, I have the ability to be pretty selective about when I do virtual therapy. So it's not. I don't see any patient that's purely virtual therapy.
[00:32:27] So most all my patients come in person with the occasional switch to a virtual session. If we have bad weather or like a family member's ill and can't bring them in or something like that. But I I've come to realize, like I need that in-person work and then I can fill in with an occasional session over the computer, but I've got to do the bulk of it.
[00:32:47] Face-to-face and then. Probably this past year or so, I've actually started using a sign language interpreter for some of my therapy sessions. And this was kind of an interesting process for me to go about deciding if I wanted to do this or not. Because I've used and learn sign language for professionally, for working with kids.
[00:33:11] And I'm not fully fluent in ASL by any means I'm much more of a signed English signer. But. I kind of started having some conversations in my counseling session about this. And we kind of talked about, you know, I've, I know sign language and I use it for other kids. Would there be any benefit in considering using it for me?
[00:33:33] And cause I have noticed if there are sign language interpreters around, I do tend to check in with them. And. What I ended up deciding to ask for and what I use now is that I work with a couple of Spanish speaking families. And so when they come in for their therapy session, I have a Spanish interpreter.
[00:33:54] That's there for me to interpret between myself and the family. And I was really struggling with understanding the Spanish interpreter. They're wearing a mask and they have accented speech, which is. I mean, those are some of my biggest challenges and, you know, I wish I could understand accented speech better, and it's just something that's been difficult for me.
[00:34:16] And. So we're thinking through, and I'm like, you know, I can have the Spanish interpreter where a clear mask. But what I was noticing is that I was so focused on trying to understand what the Spanish interpreter was saying. That I really couldn't do therapy with the child, and I'm trying to keep the child quiet so I can listen to this spanosj interpreter.
[00:34:35] And I'm like, this is a kid who was like, speech therapy is not supposed to be quiet. I need you to feel like you can talk to me and we're, we're supposed to play. And like the flow was so clunky. And so we ended up, I ended up asking is that, that for that as an accommodation. And so the set up now works really nicely where I have an ASL interpreter that comes in, she sits on the floor, across the room for me.
[00:35:01] So she stays in my sight sight all, if I'm moving with the kid and then the Spanish interpreter actually sits behind me in the corner and it took a little bit. Adjustment for me to realize, like, I don't need to turn around and look at her. Cause I that's not, it she's not important anymore. I actually just need to look at the sign language interpreter.
[00:35:20] Cause she's just interpreting whatever the Spanish interpreter is relaying to me from the parent. So it took a little bit of figuring out and I have the same ASL interpreter for these two families that comes in every week with me. So she kind of knows the flow of what I need. And it's been really helpful.
[00:35:41] But again, that was a bit of a mental process for myself to be cause at first I was like, oh, we need a sign language on her part. That's for other people, that's not for me. And so there was still that kind of process of like I don't need to be embarrassed or feel like it's something that is saying that I'm, there's some weakness here.
[00:36:02] Like it's just what I need to be able to access and actually be able to do my job well. Rather than being so overly focused on what I'm not hearing in those sessions. Yeah.
[00:36:15] Carrie: And that's such a great point because I feel like every situation that we're in as someone that is deaf or hard of hearing it changes, right?
[00:36:24] There's so many differences. And to know what all of your options are, and to be able to mix and match depending on what your situation is, is really important. To be able to do and to be creative because when you got into the pandemic, nobody knew what to do, but by collaborating with other people and being creative and thinking, thinking outside of the box we're able to help ourselves be better advocates and get the access that is needed.
[00:36:58] Sara: Yep. And having the closed captions too is a big one for me as well. Cause of course now like staff meetings and everything is all done virtually. So yeah, that was, there's a lot of, I think, a lot more awareness. Just in general I think because you know, zoom didn't have captions automatically initially.
[00:37:19] Our virtual platform that our medical record system runs through still doesn't have captions. So there's just been some things of realizing like, yeah, there's a pretty broad need for access now that everybody's working virtually. And you know, I've even had parents who have typical hearing who've said like, wow, I didn't realize that it gets a lot harder to hear when people are wearing masks then like just kind of even help them realize like kind of maybe what their kid might be experiencing too.
[00:37:53] Carrie: Which is a great segue because I wanted to ask you a little bit kind of going back to you you speech language pathology role, or my first question is how did you decide? I mean, I know you kind of went from music, the speech, but did your hearing loss have anything to do with your major? And then my second part of the question is how do you feel.
[00:38:20] that your choice of major and working with kids and families who are deaf and hard of hearing has been helpful as a speech language pathologist with hearing loss
[00:38:32] Sara: So, yes, my hearing definitely influenced my career choice because as I mentioned, you know, kind of serendipitous moment that I was taking a course in communication disorders and realized, oh, this audiology thing I know about.
[00:38:46] And I had actually set out to be an audiologist initially when I was in undergrad and was actually wait-listed for the audiology grad program and didn't get in. And so I took a couple years off and took some time to, I worked as a speech language pathology assistant in a school district, worked at a hearing aid office for a little bit.
[00:39:09] And kind of found that the speech pathology side felt like it was a little bit of a better fit for me. I liked the creativity of therapy. I liked the play. I liked the consistent getting to see kids weekly. And I I'm really not a math person. And there was more math involved in audiology than I realized.
[00:39:32] I was like, maybe I should go with a place that I just really enjoyed. The creativity and that kind of thing. So ended up going then for my master's in speech pathology and because of my experience with hearing loss. I kind of felt like from the get go that I wanted to focus on this population of working with deaf and hard of hearing kids.
[00:39:54] And so that's what led me to actually pursuing doing my clinical fellowship year at Boys Town. I was like, well, this is just an amazing place. I really love to go learn from, from these wonderful people. And you know, through some amazing connections was able to, you know, get an interview and was hired and was like mind blown that I got to go and work out there.
[00:40:14] And ended up staying out there for eight years because it was such an incredible experience. And you know, I think part of me went into this field too, because I wanted to learn more about myself. Cause I was like, there's a lot here that I didn't know about in terms of hearing loss and impacts on speech and language and social and all this stuff.
[00:40:34] So there's been a lot that I think I've learned about myself through this career too. And then I think there's just, used it to being able to have some connections with the kids on my caseload. And I don't, they don't come about intentionally a lot of the times. You know, just this week, my hearing aid battery started to chime right in the middle of a therapy session.
[00:41:00] I mean, that says all the time. So I don't have fancy rechargeables right now, you know, I'm like, oops, I need to change my batteries and my hearing aid. And then the kids will be like, oh yeah, you got one of those two. I'm like, I do. I'm like my are purple will color yours. And you know, so even just some of those little moments of connection, I think with kids.
[00:41:19] Yeah. You know, can really stand out for them, for their families. So I think that's a huge benefit to being in this career too,
[00:41:28] Carrie: And do you feel like the parents, view you as almost like a deaf or hard of hearing role model for them, do they ask you a lot of questions?
[00:41:39] Sara: Some do some don't. So but yeah, I feel like some of them have, and I forgot to put this in my bio, but we actually have a deaf hard of hearing mentor role model program in Colorado that just started in the last year through EHDI.
[00:41:55] That I'm a part of. So I've been able to go to kind of some of our community events as a role model and meet with a couple of families under that program, it's called the ESENT program. So it's just for birth to three families since it's funded through EHDI, but that's been a cool experience for me as well, too.
[00:42:14] Cause it's kind of still takes a mind shift for me to think of myself as a role model for other kids with hearing loss. Cause I'm like, Hmm, I don't have this figured out very well. I don't know if I shouldn't be modeling. But I think that's exactly the kind of thing that is helpful. Sometimes parents to see, like, to know the reality and the truth there that like, you know, you don't always have to have this sorted out and it is a process of figuring that out.
[00:42:41] Carrie: Yeah, I think being authentic about it and realizing that everybody's journey is a little bit different and how you get there is going to be a little bit different and families do appreciate hearing other people's stories and journeys along the way, too. So is there anything that I didn't ask you today that you wanted to share with our listeners?
[00:43:08] Sara: The only thing that's coming to mind and this was something that we shared a colleague and I did a presentation for EHDI conference just a couple months ago. That I think is just a nice analogy for what it feels like for me sometimes with being hard of hearing as just kind of being a duck paddling under the water, like, you know, they look like they're sitting so happily on the surface and then you look underneath them.
[00:43:29] Their little feet are just going like crazy. And so it seems like an apt metaphor sometimes for, especially for my journey in terms of like, wanting to feel like I've got it all sorted out and put together but you know what it looks like under the surfaces often a lot different than what you see right at the beginning with at face value.
[00:43:49] And I think that can be fitting for even where families are in their journeys too sometimes. Is that, you know, even in when they're years down the road and it's like, okay, we've got it all together at this point, but maybe not, you know, looking under the surface and asking some more questions about how are things really going.
[00:44:07] And sometimes you can get some different answers, especially if there's that connection with a provider and a family to.
[00:44:16] Carrie: Yeah and what you shared about the different posts of your journey and how they've changed over the years, that's going to happen for families too. They're going to go through different transitions and the little feet might be paddling a little faster during some of these transitions and to be able to check back in with families and ask those important questions again, because different things will come up, but along the journey to.
[00:44:42] Sara: Yup. Yup. And I had mentioned having some community with some good friends and we occasionally find some really funny duck pictures to send. We have a little text chain that goes back and forth and there's been days where we get, I get, we get pictures of like a duck who's like flipped upside down in the water.
[00:44:59] I'm like, yeah, I get that. I feel that sometimes, especially in the middle of COVID I'm like, Ugh, The duck is not swimming anymore
[00:45:11] Carrie: We have a lame duck today. Huh?
[00:45:14] Sara: Yeah. And knowing that there's that brace too for like, I think about for like hearing aid use with families and how we emphasize, like, as much as you can, when your kids are, are awake, having their hearing needs in. But I also know that there have been days and. Frequently that I come home after a heavy day of therapy.
[00:45:33] And you know, it's six 30, the hearing aids are going out. As soon as I walk in the door.
[00:45:43] Carrie: Yes. A benefit to be able to just kinda check out, but a little
[00:45:48] Sara: while. Yep. And knowing kids need that sometimes, like we know that there's still language that happens at the end of the day, but sometimes we just know that you know, our brains are just at their capacity and trying to push for more isn't necessarily helpful.
[00:46:04] And that's a good time to say like, okay, like we can take a break and how else can we communicate and make sure we're connecting during this time. But.
[00:46:14] Carrie: No, that is all really good. Good advice. Well, Sarah I just want to say thank you so much for being a guest on the empowEAR audiology podcast. I think your story, I love your.
[00:46:28] Getting to acceptance with some of for you and your advice about the connections and being able to have different people in your shoes and using humor and giving yourself grace are so powerful advice for, for families. For professionals who may not be in our shoes that need to maybe communicate with their families and others who are experiencing the, hearing the challenges along the way and your
[00:47:00] Advice about being flexible with different accommodation, and creative I think is important for individuals and families and professionals to know as well. So I want to thank you for sharing all of your experiences and your knowledge and with all of us today. And if people would want to get a hold of you, do you have a way that or any kind of social links that I might be able to link to the show notes to.
[00:47:28] Sara: Yeah, I'll have you put my email in there. I'm not super social media active, so you probably won't get anything by finding me on social media, unfortunately. But yeah, my work email's great. I'll have you put it in there, but it's Sarah S a R a dot Robinson, R O B I N S O N. At children's colorado.org.
[00:47:51] And welcome to people are welcome to email any questions or anything that's just great. I've enjoyed kind of just expanding my network a little bit and getting to know more people. So I'm happy to, to have people reach out and yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This is a little nervous.
[00:48:08] I've never done this before, but it was fun.
[00:48:11] Carrie: Well, thank you again for being a part of this. And I just want to thank all of our listeners are listening to the empowEAR Audiology podcast. Be sure to share it with others and wherever you listen, and come back to the next episode.
[00:48:27] Announcer: This has been a production of the 3C Digital Media Network.