Helping your Deaf child cope with change

Recently, we have had some big life changes. The week before Christmas, we moved into a new home. This meant a new bedroom and a new bed for Olivia. We lost a close family member. Olivia started a new nursery. And we found out we are expecting a little sister for Olivia.

Most adults would find these changes difficult to manage, so when you’re 3 and your world as you know is changing from every angle, it’s a lot to process. So, to make sure Olivia didn’t become completely overwhelmed, we tried our best to prepare her as much as we could. All of these changes meant lots of extra input from us as parents.

Olivia has had many moments of uncertainty, and there have been some tears (from us too). But overall, Olivia has coped well as we persevered and found different ways to help her process these changes.

So here are our top 10 tips:

• Keep your routine as normal as possible. The stability and consistency will help with transitions.
• Both parents use the same approach to support your child (and each other).
• Use sign and visuals to aid understanding. We used pictures of her new home, new teachers, new nursery and often show her the baby’s scan.
• Read stories about these changes.
• Use play as the key to develop more awareness. We have lots of baby dolls and toys to support her acting out how to help care for a baby and how to be a big sister.
• Let them be as involved as possible. Olivia helped pack boxes for our big move. She chose which teddies would go in which box. We also took her to visit the new house a few times before the big move.
• Repetition and reminders of what’s coming next. Some children cope well with timelines.
• Celebrate success with lots of praise for coping with such big changes. Some chocolate buttons never hurt anyone.
• Give them time, patience and lots of extra reassurance.
• Finally, my favourite, lots and lots of cuddles.

These changes are also huge for us parents. So, don’t beat yourself up if you need to use some of these tips to cope too.