When it is determined that a child has a hearing loss much attention is drawn to the child as well as to his/her parents. However, it is important to remember that the hearing loss also impacts the rest of the family including grandparents and siblings.

Just as parents need to go through various stages of adjustment to come to terms with their child’s hearing loss and related communication difficulties, siblings and grandparents need to change their concepts about the child. Everyone needs to learn how to deal with the child who has a hearing problem.

Oticon is dedicated to providing information that leads to greater knowledge and better adjustment to hearing loss for all persons affected.

The following pages describe how hearing loss impacts grandparents and siblings.

We would like to thank Dr. Jay R. Lucker, Ed.D and Anne T Molloy, M.S.Ed. for helping us write the section about grandparents and siblings.