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Read the full transcript here

Today on the All About Audiology Podcast, Dr. Saperstein spoke with Michelle Wagner, author of Mickey on the Move, the true story of a day in the life of Michelle’s son, Mickey. Mickey was born deaf and at the age of three, he was given an opportunity to get bilateral cochlear implants. Now, he is 13 and he is thriving! Michelle’s goal was just to make a simple children’s book and have pictures in it so it’s easy for anyone, including adults, to understand exactly what cochlear implant devices are. Michelle has already received four awards for the book.

5:25 – Michelle connected with a hospital that had a great audiology department with the hope of giving Mickey every opportunity possible for him to use language and communicate verbally.

8:45 – When COVID hit, Michelle was working from home and decided to write a book so that Mickey can use such literature to explain about his cochlear implants to others and also to bring a general awareness of cochlear implants to the public.

13:00 – Mickey, Michelle, and Michelle’s mother spent a month at the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles. While there, Michelle and her mother learned how to support Mickey to the best possible extent.

14:30 – She is also thankful for all the people that were able to talk to her about their own experiences using implants so that she could better understand the process.

To support the All About Audiology podcast, visit our Patreon website here: https://www.patreon.com/allaboutaudiology

And the Prodana pay-it-forward platform here: https://prodana.org/practioner/lilach-saperstein/audiology-counseling–dr–lilach-saperstein

For more resources and research visit:

All About Audiology Website 

All About Audiology Facebook group  

All About Audiology Instagram

Connect with Michelle on  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Find her book, Mickey on the Move, on Amazon. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Dr. Lindsay Cockburn from @listenwithlindsey who has an incredible, comprehensive list of books on hearing loss that keeps on getting updated 

Related Episodes: 

Children’s Books, Literature and Representation – Episode 69 with Katie Petruzziello

All About Supporting Your Child Unconditionally – Episode 66 – with Takniyan Debbie Dachi

All About The Parent Journey – Episode 62 – with Liba Lurie

All About Creating A Vision For Your Child’s Life -Episode 43 with Genia Stephen

Listen Next:

All About 2021 Reflections and Awaiting 2022 – Episode 79

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Transcript:

Dr. Lilach Saperstein:

Welcome back to the All About Audiology Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. I’m an audiologist and a parent coach, really passionate about exploring the topics that surround audiology and how it actually matters to your life and the lives of the people you love. We really focus here on connection, on communication and on what this journey really means to you. What are the challenges that you’re facing, and in what ways can you learn to advocate and really focus on the most important elements of your relationships and how that intersects with yes, the latest in hearing aid and cochlear implant technology, but we really focus on this show on your experiences with interviews, with professionals, with family all around these topics. So one of the things that has really been exciting about the show and about the All About Audiology platform on Instagram, on Facebook and now on TikTok, is that I get to connect with so many of you and I love talking to so many of you and learning about your stories, and once in a while, I would love to invite you to also share your story with everyone else.

So thank you to those of you who have been guests in the show. If you are interested in being a guest on the show, feel free to send me a DM and we’ll set something up. If you’d like to talk about an interesting element of your story or advice that you would like to share with our audience, whether that comes from your personal experiences or if you are a related professional. Absolutely send me a DM on Instagram or through Facebook, or a regular old email–those still work. Email address is in the website at allaboutaudiology.com, and you’ll find all the links along with a full transcript of every episode at allaboutaudiology.com. So thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your story.

Recently we’ve had some talks about books that are written and there’s so many fabulous, wonderful, wonderful books on the topic of preparing children for an audiology appointment, how to talk about the technology or the equipment and help children learn to advocate for themselves. I have to give kudos to Dr. Lindsay Cockburn from @listenwithlindsey who has an incredible, comprehensive list–well, she’s constantly updating it, I’m sure. It has a beautiful Amazon list, separated into category of lots and lots of books related to audiology technology stories representing deaf children, which is not only about their hearing loss and only making the story focused and centered on their devices, right? But about much bigger stories and just representation overall of deaf and hard of hearing people. So definitely check out her book list there. And I would love to invite you to listen to an interview with an author who’s writing about her personal story with her son, Michelle Wagner. I’m so excited to play this episode for you.

We recorded several months but just catching up on some amazing episodes. I cannot wait to get them live for you, and I want to just thank you so much for being a listener of the show, being part of the All About Audiology Podcast and thank you to the patrons of the show.

You can check out more about becoming a patron at allaboutaudiology.com, and stay tuned always before the upcoming retreats for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children that are all about learning to advocate and connect with your child. So you’ll see more about that on my social media and email list.

Thank you so much for listening. Without further ado, I’d love for you to hear my conversation with Michelle.

Michelle Wagner:

I am here today to talk about my book, Mickey on the Move, which is a true story and a day in the life of my son, Mickey, who was born deaf and at the age of three, he was given [an] opportunity to get bilateral cochlear implants, and that means he was able to get cochlear implants in both ears and hope that he would be a hearing and speaking child. And now, he is 13 and he is in school. Eighth grade, and he’s thriving. The beginning was a little rocky after he was first implanted and after they activated his cochlear implants, it was a whirlwind [for] all of us, but given all of the tools as far as a special school for hearing and speaking and signing children, and constant till this day, private speech lessons, he is able to have a normal life, be enrolled in school with other typical children. He plays all kinds of sports. Cochlear has now come out with about three or four years