Engaging Cooperation From Your Hearing Impaired Child

The Importance of Good Behavior

As parents, we all struggle to engage cooperation from our children. A search on the terms "child behavior" results in many different programs that claim to bring out good behavior from your children. But with your hearing impaired child, good behavior is not just a bonus. Your child's cooperative spirit and pleasant demeanor from the outset is crucial for your child to be successful in their development.

This is true for a number of reasons:

First, let's face it, your child does have a disability. In order for them to overcome it, they must struggle over many hurdles that other children don't have to. If they are well behaved, it is a lot easier for them to accomplish the hard work that is necessary for them to be successful.

Second, their good self-esteem is extra important when having to deal with a hearing impairment. When they are well-behaved, they are more likely to have a strong self-esteem from doing what is right. However, if they are always getting into trouble and constantly fighting with parents, siblings, and peers will result in a severe lack of confidence.

Third, your child will be sitting through countless therapy and mapping sessions. Their full cooperation is absolutely necessary for these sessions to be productive. In addition, your therapist needs to love your child. Your child's good behavior allows them to thoroughly enjoy the time spent together. If your child is mean spirited and uncooperative, your therapist will likely not enjoy the sessions, resulting in a tremendous decrease in their productivity.

Fourth, when your child is ultimately mainstreamed into an ordinary classroom, you will be needing extra care and special attention from the child's teachers and educators. In order to receive this care, the teachers have to be motivated to go the extra mile. Your child's first-rate behavior is, of course, a superb motivator.

Perri Hecht, a Speech Therapist and Audiologist from New York with many years of experience with cochlear implants and hearing impaired children, puts it this way. "Being a good parent and teaching your hearing impaired child to be well-behaved is just as important as good speech therapy for the child's success. The first thing I tell parents when I meet them for the first time is, ‘Your child better be well-behaved if he/she is to succeed."

How to Encourage Good Behavior

Now that we've discussed the importance of good behavior, what steps can you as a parent do to ensure that your child is well behaved?

According to Perri Hecht, parents should learn as much as they can on the subject, by reading books and taking parenting classes. If the parents are truly serious about the matter, they will invest the time and energy needed in order to learn how to become better parents, which will ultimately bring about the desired results.

Ultimately, good behavior comes your being good role models for your child, and from the way you interact with them. If you treat your child the right way, you will find the task a lot easier and smoother, and succeed in raising a well-behaved child, who will have the skills necessary to develop proper auditory and language skills.