Weingarten Children’s Center is dedicated to supporting and empowering families on their child’s listening and spoken language development journey, as we know that caregivers are their child’s primary and best teacher. Through the Parent Education Community, we offer opportunities for families to learn together through bi-monthly live virtual learning sessions on topics related to the care, development, and education of children with hearing loss. Parent Education learning sessions are led by Listening and Spoken Language experts, including Speech-Language Pathologists/Auditory-Verbal Therapists, Teachers of the Deaf, and Audiologists.  

 Upcoming Parent Education Community Learning Sessions (virtual):  

Wednesday May 3, 2023 

Learning Topic: Executive Functioning and Hearing Loss: The Foundation for Learning, Thinking, and Doing 

Time: 7:00-8:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time)  

Presenters: Sara Cline, Eryn McHan, Shannon Sharma LSL Specialized SLPs  

 Join us to learn about a very important, but less often discussed, domain of child development: Executive Functioning, also referred to as the “self-regulatory system.” In this learning session, our specialized speech-language pathologists will teach you about this cluster of skills and their relevance to child development. They will summarize the current research on executive functioning and how hearing loss impacts these skills. By the end of this session, you will have some new tools in your parent toolbox for how to support and strengthen your child’s executive functioning for learning, thinking, and doing. This session is intended for families of children with hearing loss of any age. 

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 

Learning Topic: Looking Confidently Ahead: Transitioning to Mainstream 

Time: 7:00-8:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) 

Presenter: Ronda Rufsvold, PhD, LSLS Cert. AVEd, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialized Teacher and Speech-Language Pathology Assistant 

For our final learning session of the school year, join us to learn about preparing your child to make the leap to a mainstream education setting. Join us to learn about what to expect and ways to support your child in this new chapter of your lives, including building a partnership with your child’s teacher and other members of your school team, helping your child share about their hearing loss, and much more.  This session is intended for families of children with hearing loss ages 3-7. 

Click the Get in Touch button below for inquiries about our Parent Education Community, to RSVP to a learning session, or to request a learning topic. In your message, please include which Foundation for Hearing Research program your family receives (or will receive) services from: Weingarten Children’s Center, BabyTalk, TeachLSL™, or Talk2Me™. 

Parent Education Community recap: 

So far this year our families have learned about: auditory brain development, spoken language development, social skills and pragmatic language development, hearing aid and cochlear implant programming basics, early literacy skills, speech development in children with hearing loss, and developing self-advocacy skills for school, Love & Logic parenting approach, and DM and RM microphone systems.