New to hearing impairment-

tobin04

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 26, 2004
hello! My son is hearing impaired. He is mild/moderate in his right ear. It severe in his left. Aided in both ears. He is 5. This is new to us (not at all new to Disney though!). First trip with the aids. What do I need to know? I saw listening devices are available for him but how do they work? Can anyone give me the lowdown? He wears ReSound brand hearing aids.
 
I have the exact same profile of hearing impairment as your son. I also wear hearing aids in both ears. One of the reasons that I love traveling to WDW is that the audio in rides and shows is LOUD. I can hear and understand voices and song lyrics in a way that I can't elsewhere (I usually use captions to watch tv). I've never felt a need to seek out a listening device.

The most difficult thing for me is time in lines- especially single file lines. If my travel companions are ahead of me, so that I can't see their faces, I struggle to hear them. Be mindful of that and make sure you are facing your son when speaking to him. This is true anytime in crowds.

Other than that, I find Disney to be a great place to soak up wonderful sounds that I often miss out on!
 
hello! My son is hearing impaired. He is mild/moderate in his right ear. It severe in his left. Aided in both ears. He is 5. This is new to us (not at all new to Disney though!). First trip with the aids. What do I need to know? I saw listening devices are available for him but how do they work? Can anyone give me the lowdown? He wears ReSound brand hearing aids.
one thing to work with him is talking to or showing a card to CM if he gets separated from you. I dont know but can his aids get wet thinking wet rides or rain. haven't use devices at WDW but some places outside of WDW use an aid to get you the sound and other places use captions on a screen which you need to be able to read. thinking his age 5. not sure what WDW uses. I second make sure he is looking at you when you talk to him as it is hard to hear esp in lines. I have small loss and even I have trouble hearing in lines
 
Be sure he is looking at you when speaking.
Get the interpreter schedule and try to go to the shows they interpret even if he does not use ASL. They tend to mouth the words so he has speech reading as a support.
At other shows request to sit in the front.
Rides are very visual so focus on riding and enjoying that not language.
have a small container to put the aids in for any wet rides or sudden rain. Wet aids are not good.
Honestly I rarely where my aids at Disney because it is so loud. I prefer to rely on ASL interpretation as a support for the diminished hearing I have. I have a moderate loss in both ears. I alo use ReSound Brand aids.
 
One other tip: be prepared for your kiddo to be more tired than you might expect - and for it to hit *suddenly.*. My son is completely deaf in his left ear with overly sensitive hearing in his right - and there were times during our first trip that all of the noise was just too much for him to take, and his brain went into overload (think of how your head feels if you’ve been driving into the sun for a while).

Also: how does your son do with fireworks? Disney fireworks are *amazing*, but they are **loud**. We finally got smart and brought Thing 1’s noise cancelling headphones with us if we planned to be in the parks during fireworks, and life was much more pleasant for everyone than the time we got caught unawares and couldn’t escape the noise.

Good luck!
 
I'm sorry I missed some of these replies! All of this is new to us as of March. We had no idea he had any loss! His sever in left and mild/moderate in right. He is aided in both ears. He doesn't do ASL. But sitting near the interpretor would make sense, b/c he absolutely reads lips. Thank you for all the tips! I appreciate them!
 
WDW also offers assistive listening devices. I don’t know how helpful it might be. We didn’t have a very good experience with it when DD was 5 yrs old; we found it didn’t pull in the correct audio or the audio wasn’t aligned correctly with the attraction (think of CoP with mis-matched generations visual vs audio). So we just gave up on it because she seemed fine without it. But maybe we were doing something wrong or got a defective device, plus that was several years ago so possibly improvements have been made. I haven’t read many reviews of the assistive listening devices. It’s essentially free (refundable deposit to borrow the device), so it may be worth a try.

ETA: I meant to include this link: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/hearing-disabilities-services/

Enjoy your vacation!
 
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