Hi, I’m Rosalind Perrin and have recently taken over the role of Committee Secretary from Rachel Walters. Thank you Rachel for your contribution to ESDCS.
I’m a mum of 2 young boys, Lowan (4y) is profoundly deaf and was cochlear implanted in April 2017 after hearing aids no longer benefitted him and Corran (2y) who is hearing. We live on the outskirts of Eastbourne.
I’ve been part of ESDCS since Lowan’s diagnosis in 2016 when he was around 18 months old. One of the first things I did when I found out of his hearing loss was to contact the society as my husband and I had so many questions and everything was a bit overwhelming. Someone from the committtee called me back within a few days and reassured me that everything would be fine. They were able to draw upon their experiences of having a deaf child themselves (until then, we’d never had experience of childhood deafness) that they can and will achieve anything they want to! We discussed the diagnosis and what we could expect from East Sussex County Council in terms of support but also what support the ESDCS could offer.
I also attended the NDCS newly diagnosed deaf children’s event. This was an amazing event, over 2 days and really does help to answer questions but also allows you to meet many other families who have just found out their child is deaf. I found I needed a sense of belonging with a group of people who could understand what I was going through at the same time as me.
Since that day I’ve often contacted the ESDCS with questions; particularly when we were considering moving house to get Lowan into a school with a hearing impairment unit or when looking for swim teachers who had experience with deaf children.
The reason I have joined ESDCS as Secretary is because I want to be able to make an impact and difference for other families who find themselves in a similar position as we were in 2016. I’ve recently asked the questions you may be asking, applied for DLA, sat for hours in London hospitals, fought for school places and EHCPs. Therefore I hope to be able to help guide others on their journey.
As a small society we need members to be active and share knowledge and experiences. We are always looking for new committee members to help support the organisation of events, but also to be willing to share their experience and knowledge with other members. We aim to put on events each year, tailored to our membership list but in order for these to be successful we ask for your participation to attend events and make them successful. By attending the events this allows our kids to meet and make friends with other children with hearing loss who might better understand them and the challengers they face in everyday life. It’s also the opportunity for parents and siblings (and even grandparents) of deaf children to meet and get to know each other and for family friendships to flourish.
