This upcoming Parent Chat will help families understand how hearing aids and cochlear implants provide access to sound, and how students use these technologies to listen and learn. Parents will explore how classroom noise, distance, reverberation, and competing speakers can affect a child’s ability to understand instruction. The presentation will share practical strategies and accommodations that families can discuss with teachers to improve their child’s access to learning and classroom participation. Participants will learn about remote microphone systems, daily technology checks, listening fatigue, and communication strategies that support their child’s success. The session will also emphasize self-advocacy and collaboration among families, students, teachers, audiologists, and other school professionals to ensure individualized support.
By the end of this Parent Chat, participants will be able to:
- Describe how hearing aids and cochlear implants provide access to sound and identify key differences in how the two technologies work.
- Identify classroom listening challenges, including background noise, distance, reverberation, and competing speakers that may affect their child’s understanding.
- Recognize and discuss accommodations and strategies that support educational access, including remote microphone systems, visual supports, daily technology checks, and listening breaks.
- Identify ways to promote their child’s self-advocacy and collaborate with school staff and hearing professionals to support individualized educational needs.
About Marti Bleidt
Marti Bleidt is AG Bell’s Parent Support Consultant, providing guidance and support to families at every stage of their child’s hearing loss journey. A parent of four grown children, two of whom have hearing loss, Marti brings both personal and professional experience to her role. She spent nearly 40 years as a teacher of the deaf in Denver’s public school system and continues to support young children and their families as an early intervention provider with EI Colorado.
