In this issue

• New articles on our website
• Hearing Awareness Week - 23-29 August
• Parent perspectives and newborn hearing screening
• Global Coalition of Parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children
• Changes to Australian Hearing FM range
• Support our City2Surf fundraising hero
• Signed stories
• Become a parent mentor
• My silent world
• In the journals...
• Join our online parent forums
• Make a donation

This is our first ADK newsletter. We hope it will keep parents up-to-date and informed. If you have any event or news which you think will be of interest to families, please let us know.

Mr Rudd's recent announcement about universal newborn hearing screening is an exciting development. Newborn hearing screening is an issue that parents feel passionately about. We have advocated for many years for universal screening at state level and have represented the parent perspective on state government working parties. Parents are the core stakeholders in ensuring optimal long-term outcomes for our deaf and hearing impaired children.

We need to ensure that parents of deaf and hearing impaired children in Australia have the same opportunities to be involved in the development of national standards and protocols for newborn hearing screening as parents in other countries with successful hearing screening programs. Read about the ANZPOD initiative below - giving parents a voice.

Happy reading

info@aussiedeafkids.org.au

We have added a few interesting articles to the website this month. How do migrant families negotiate the complex business of language choice? How can families make informed choices? How do you tell if a book or website is any good?

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Hearing Awareness Week is an annual event held in the last week of August. It provides an opportunity to raise community awareness of hearing impairment and ways to protect your hearing. This week is a key event for Deafness Forum which is the national coordinating body. Deafness Forum's Hearing Awareness Week theme for 2009 is "At Home, At Work, At Play - One in Six" which serves as a reminder that one in six Australians suffers from some form of hearing loss.

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A coalition of parent groups has welcomed the introduction of newborn hearing screening for all Australian babies announced by the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd. Parents have advocated for newborn hearing screening for many years and, as the core stakeholders in this initiative, they want to ensure that any programs within Australia, reflect world's best practice.

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The Global Coalition of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (GPOD) is an international collaboration of parent groups dedicated to promoting improved systemic protocols and practices which encourage informed choice and the empowerment of families with a deaf or hard of hearing child throughout the world. Add your voice to hundreds of other parents around the world by completing the GPOD survey.

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Australian Hearing has introduced a new FM range and also made several changes to its range of Top Up FM systems (those that require a client contribution) due to changes in Phonak's FM range.

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Malcolm Cox is running in his first City2Surf and he is hoping to raise $1,000 for Aussie Deaf Kids. Please visit Malcolm's Fundraising Page at Everyday Hero and support Mal and Aussie Deaf Kids. Every dollar helps us to provide information to families raising a deaf child. Thank you for your support!

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www.signedstories.com is a free, fully accessible online library of children's stories presented with British Sign Language, animation, text and sound.

Signed Stories has been designed primarily as a website for deaf children in the UK, but deaf and hearing children everywhere will enjoy it too. It's a fun, busy space which encourages children to explore and offers easy access to a wide range of the best of British books.

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Due to the continued demand for parent to parent mentoring, PCDE and the Deaf Society of NSW are running another training day and we are asking for parents to attend on Saturday 12th September at PCDE offices at North Rocks.

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The world is a very different place when you are deaf. The power of sight and the beauty of colours and textures are heightened, as sounds are removed or reduced from everyday life. But for one deaf child, her silent world is about to disappear. My Silent World is a story about disability and difference by author Nette Hilton with illustrations by Vincent Agostino.

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We have a chosen a selection of recent journal articles which may be of interest to parents.

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You can help Aussie Deaf Kids by donating online. We use the Our Community secure online donations facility. Your donation will go directly into the research and development of content for the website which will assist parents to make informed choices about raising their deaf child.

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