Abby’s Story as Told by Her Mom
“This is my oldest. Her name is Abby. She is pretty amazing (when she isn’t being too much of a 7 year old diva.) She has had to work very hard for things many of us take for granted. Abby was born with moderate to severe hearing loss and things were mishandled almost from the beginning. We had very little information to work with, so we didn’t know just how bad things were.
Nothing really prepares you for having a kid with a problem. You not only don’t know what to do, but you don’t even know what questions to ask. I remember feeling so lost at first and so overwhelmed. We got very little help through this until Abby had already lost a LOT of ground due to being under diagnosed. When she went for evaluation before entering preschool at age 3, she was functionally non-verbal. They could not even give her a true baseline because she could not effectively communicate. No family should have to go through that. Because of our experience, I am pretty passionate about that kind of thing not happening to other families and their kids.
Beginnings SC has been a part of our lives for only a year, but I already find them invaluable. These people are absolutely wonderful and have helped us SO much since we met them. If I’d been connected with Beginnings SC at this point, I would have known what to do. Cara would have been helping us track her development and know what questions to ask our BabyNet service coordinator, making sure we saw the appropriate Pediatric professionals to manage her needs, we would have known what questions to ask. If Cara had gone to that first IEP meeting, it would have been completely different—I felt so overwhelmed and I didn’t even know how to help my own kid. And so I cried. Beginnings SC is there—for ME—to inform, counsel, listen, and cheer families until these kids are 22! Beginnings SC is there for the families with newly diagnosed babies and kids. Beginnings SC is there when a family needs to know their rights when fighting for equal access for their child’s education. Beginnings SC is there when questions come up that you didn’t ever see coming. Beginnings SC is there. Beginnings SC is working to make sure that every child who is deaf or hard of hearing has the chance to achieve their potential. I cannot thank them enough for what they do!”