Lilach Saperstein 0:05 Welcome back to The All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. I’m so excited that you’re here. You’re going to love this episode because it combines everything that I’m all about. It is about audiology but also about the specific challenges of parenting a child with a hearing loss. I have a special guest for you today. Her name is Avivah Werner and she has a lot of experience and knowledge and expertise in parenting and a lot of wisdom to share with us. I really am excited for you guys to hear the conversation that I had with her and I definitely would like to send you over to avivahwerner.com to learn about her parenting leadership services. You’ll also have the link in the description. In a transcript. There’s always full transcripts of every episode at allaboutaudiology.com. So, let’s jump right into the interview and welcome Avivah!
Welcome back to The All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. And today on the podcast we are talking about parents and the importance of parents’ intuition when it comes to anything having to do, I mean in general medically, but specifically in audiology, and I have a special guest with me today, mother par excellence and she will introduce herself. Welcome Avivah!
Avivah Werner 1:29 Hi, Lilach, thank you so much for having me. So, I’m Avivah Warner. I am-I didn’t know about the mother par excellence part but I am a mother. And like all mothers, I’m just trying to do my best every day and I’ve been blessed with a number of children, my youngest two do have special needs. And in regards to the hearing issue, I have a seven year old who we’ve been dealing with, a seven year old with down syndrome specifically. And I also have a three year old who has Down syndrome. So, we have been dealing with hearing issues.
Lilach Saperstein 1:59
Okay. So, can I ask you, before either of them were dealing with any of this, what did you know about audiology? Had you heard of Audiology at all? Like, what was? What did you know before all this became a big part of your life?
Avivah Werner 2:15 Very theoretically, I’m a pretty well educated person. So of course, I knew about audiology, but about the specifics, I didn’t have any reason to know about anything more specifically, because none of my kids needed that kind of help and because it’s not my specific area of specialty.
Lilach Saperstein 2:31
So, yeah, I mean, that speaks to a greater point. That’s why I’m asking because a lot of people they never had to deal with it. They really don’t know, unless maybe they have a grandparent who has hearing loss, someone in the family or something like that. But audiology is really not front and center in people’s minds until it has to be.
Avivah Werner 2:49 until you need it, you don’t need it.
Lilach Saperstein 2:52
Yeah. Okay. So, tell us, when did it come up? What’s the timeline?
Avivah Werner 3:00 Well, because my baby had Down syndrome right away, he was tested at birth. And then it was recommended to continue testing him, because children with Down syndrome often have hearing loss. And this I knew was going to be very important to me because hearing clearly is very important to speaking clearly, and speaking clearly is a sign of intelligence. And if you speak unclearly,
