Resources for teens

Support advice for teens: As a teenager with hearing loss, you might feel like you have extra challenges that your peers don’t understand. To help you navigate the process of growing up as a teen with a cochlear implant, we’d like to introduce you to Cassidy. She’s a cochlear implant recipient from Sydney, Australia who thrived in high school and is now studying at university. We also share advice from other teens across the world on ways they’ve handled challenges at school and with their peers.

“It took a while for me to start talking about my hearing loss—it wasn’t until I met other people around my age who had a hearing loss too. Meeting others and realizing that I wasn’t the only one who had issues and challenges was a real turning point for me. I realized that I wasn’t alone, there are others with hearing loss who have similar experiences as me. My confidence to talk about my hearing loss and express my needs has grown over time. It stems from a mixture of community connection, having the support of friends and family and having parents that always had my best interests at heart.” – Cassidy, Nucleus System recipient

Explore more real-world stories and advice from teenagers with cochlear implants in this online resource.

 

Raising confident teens is a challenging journey that requires a lot of patience, understanding and resources. For parents of teenagers with cochlear implants, these resources can help you understand the unique journey your child is navigating and help you leverage resources, tools and information to give your child every opportunity to succeed. 

Support advice for parents: In this guide, we share the impact hearing loss can have on the emotional and social development of teenagers and how you can help your child navigate their new social landscape. We also share how you can begin to build confidence in your child from a young age, encourage them to find their voice and arm them with the tools to be their own best advocate. 

Webinars for parents and their teens:

• Teens to Adults Webinar: This webinar discusses the educational journey for teens with hearing loss. This resource was designed to help you and your teenager navigate educational transitions, including individualized educational plans, case studies, and resources available to help them progress in their education. 
• Self-Advocacy Social Emotional Learning for Tweens and Teens: This resource explains the unique challenges facing teens with hearing loss and cochlear implants. This presentation can help you and your teenager better understand the journey of adolescence and early adulthood with cochlear implants, and how their friends and teachers can learn to support them with their hearing. 
• Teens and Tech Webinar: This presentation focuses on technology for teens with cochlear implants. It reviews some technology options available through Cochlear for teenagers and introduces resources for parents and teens to explore. 

 

Practical advice for teachers: As a teacher, you’re probably familiar with the challenges facing students as they enter high school. For students with hearing loss, starting high school can cause teens to feel overwhelmed and scared about fitting in with their peers and succeeding academically. With some patience, understanding and support resources, you can help your students with hearing loss thrive in high school and beyond. This resource provides tips and tricks, real-world scenarios, and practical advice to help you navigate the unique educational needs of students with hearing loss.