On this mini episode of All Ears at Child’s Voice: A Hearing Loss Podcast, Wendy shares a brief update on the podcast and introduces the new co-host, Colleen Powell. Colleen is a podcast producer, a wife and mom to four, including a 12 year old boy with hearing loss named Liam. She is passionate about helping other families of deaf and hard of hearing kids.
You can find Colleen on Instagram or her website.
Episode Transcript:
Wendy: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of All Ears of Child’s Voice, a podcast discussing all things hearing loss. We aim to connect parents of children with hearing loss with the professionals who serve them. I’m your co-host Wendy Dieters, and I wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone on what is happening in the All Ears at Child’s Voice podcast. We have had some turnover in our staff. We’re sad to see Haley go, but excited for her working as a teacher of the deaf in a much warmer place than Chicago. So we’re a little jealous of her, but wishing her really well there. And in the meantime, we have brought on an alumni parent. An podcast producer named Colleen Powell.[00:01:00]
Wendy: I have had the pleasure of knowing Colleen since her son was in our early intervention program at Child’s Voice, and she is just an amazing mom and advocate. and support for other families. She’s a wealth of knowledge and I am so excited to have her participating in the All Ears of Child’s Voice podcast. So Colleen, welcome and thank you so much for being on this little journey with us. Why don’t you tell our listeners a bit about yourself.
Colleen: Hi. Well, I am very excited to be here. Child’s Voice is very near and dear to my heart. Many, many hours spent at Child’s voice in some form or another. And obviously my son, Liam, he’s my oldest. He was a student at Child’s voice. Liam is now 12. He was diagnosed with profound hearing. At the age of one, and we very quickly kind of [00:02:00] got plugged into child’s voice. He had an EI therapist come starting right away as soon as he was diagnosed. And then when he was 18 months, he started in the early intervention program and he was there twice a week.
Colleen: And then when he turned three, we actually moved so that he could continue to go to Child’s Voice and we could be in a district that supported his attend. And so he from age three until first grade, so I think. Six, maybe He was a student at Child’s voice and it just gave him all the foundation that he needed to really thrive in the mainstream classroom.
Colleen: He is now a seventh grader. We just had his IEP meeting today, actually, so it was really neat to kind of see how far he’s come, how well he’s doing academically. He’s just doing incredibly well and he’s still, and I think this is, thanks to Child’s voice, has one of the best vocabularies of any kid I know, because [00:03:00] from a very early age, he was learning words that I didn’t even know. I was like, oh, I’m learning vocabulary words thanks to child’s voice. So also, I also produce podcasts. That’s my job. And so, Really exciting when you guys were looking for help and I was able to come on board.
Wendy: we’re excited that it all worked out too. So, and tell us a little bit, or tell the listeners a little bit also about the support that you and Liam have provided to other families of kids with hearing.
Colleen: Sure. So I am a part of Liam’s Cochlear Implant Company is Medel and they have, it’s called here, peers Mentors. So I am a part of their senior mentor team and for a number of years now, uh, Liam and I have gotten really great opportunities to meet with candidates or other cochlear implant users to help. People who are in the process of deciding on [00:04:00] cochlear implants to help people who’ve just gotten cochlear implants and are looking to understand their devices more. I get to talk to parents on the phone. I’ve done some traveling to different places. I’ve even been fortunate enough to get to go to Innsbruck, Austria, where Liam’s cochlear implants are made and meet the people that made his particular cochlear implants.
Colleen: So we love the work we get to do. Supporting other families. My personal favorite is getting to talk to parents that are newly on the journey, because I just remember what those first months were like and how overwhelming it all was. And now 11, almost 12 years later, since Liam’s first diagnosis, it’s such a different world and he is. Doing and achieving, I think more than I thought was possible when he first got his diagnosis. So I love talking to new parents and getting to be like, there’s so much good stuff ahead and there’s so much hope for your kiddo.
Wendy:That’s so awesome. And, and that again, like, I think I’ve said this on [00:05:00] other episodes, it’s something that, It is a perspective that can only be shared from another parent,
Colleen: right?
Wendy: It just carries so much weight when you talk to someone else who’s had your similar shared experience. So it’s really so important to involve parents with other parents.
Colleen: Yeah, and the best is when Liam himself can show how great he’s doing. I’m always make a point to have him, if he’s around, to have him talk to the parents so they can see what a totally average, normal pre-teen boy he is, which means he’s also rolling his eyes and a little bit grumpy about having to talk to the grownups. But that’s all. It’s all good, right?
Wendy: I used to always say to. Not all families, but like if a, a family was having a particularly, you know, difficult time, especially with a really young baby, like I, I would say to them, like, I wish that I could take everything that I know and how I envision your child growing [00:06:00] up and, and dump all of that into your head because I know it’s gonna be okay. But it’s one thing for me to, to know that in my heart, but I can’t, I wish I could just give that to you. Meeting another child like Liam. It’s kind of a way of doing that.
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah, and I remember early on in our journey meeting parents and kids that were a little bit further ahead and how much it meant. There’s a, a man named Mike who I met right after Liam had gotten his first implant and he had a teenage son, like a high-school aged son. And I just remember being like, tell me everything. And then years later I would work with him. He was also a mentor in that same program, and so it was really great to just remember how important Mike was in our early journey and to get to do that for others.
Wendy: That’s really cool. Well, Colleen, I ‘m Excited for our listeners to learn more about you as we interview guests together. You may listeners also hear some other co-hosts [00:07:00] as we have people from Child’s voice and maybe even other organizations do some interviews with us just to give you a little variety, so look forward to that.
Colleen: I would just add that I think our hope is, Wendy and I, or with another staff person from Child’s Voice and I working together, you’re gonna get both a professional and a parent perspective on these topics. And so for anybody listening, I think having both of those is really helpful and important. And so we’re gonna strive to kind of give you a balanced perspective in all of our episodes between the two of us.
Wendy:Absolutely. We really want to hear from you as well. So if you have any feedback, suggestions for guests or just to tell us how you like the podcast, you can always rate us on iTunes. You can email us@podcastchildsvoice.org. You can communicate with us on social media. All right. Well everybody enjoy our [00:08:00] upcoming episodes.
Wendy: Stay tuned. We will do our best to get them out monthly and we look forward to having you right back here.
