School can be difficult for many kids but those who are hearing impaired have a difficult road to travel in order to have a successful school career and beyond. Even though hearing loss is one of the biggest disabilities, it often comes with bullying in school and the feeling of isolation due to the communication barrier.
Recently I met a 17-year-old Ryan Brady, who knows that all too well. Ryan’s older sister Regan Brady was born with bilateral severe- profound hearing loss that wasn’t detected until she was over a year old. This late discovery caused some delays in speech, language development which opened her up to bullying and all sorts of social issues, not to mention educational delays. Ryan watched her older sister struggle with some of those issues and knew there had to be a way to help her and those in her predicament. Ryan came up with an idea that would help those with hearing impairment improve their communication skills, help with language skills, reading, building relationships, and connecting kids to kids in fun inclusive way as they share their experiences with each other, finding that they’re not alone out there in this great big world. Something her sister never had.
A few years ago, Ryan developed a world-wide pen pal system, she calls Hippkids, where she connects kids’ world- wide into a pen pal program, Hippkids is a program that has children and teens actually writing a physical letter to each other. This is a pencil and paper program, one that requires a stamp and is totally technology -free except for signing up. The idea is to help not only kids with hearing impairments improve skill, but to help them make connections with kids that are in the same boat as they are and build life-long relationships.
Ryan learned and watched her parents navigate and advocate for her older sister. Her family helped get mandatory newborn hearing screening on all newborns in Ohio in 2002; she saw firsthand how mentoring and advocacy worked. Seeing firsthand how the power of community, advocacy and mentorship has changed lives, growing up in the atmosphere of advocacy, it became a way of life for her. Ryan was all too familiar with being a part of a community and was ready to take a leap of her own.
Growing up alongside her sister, she saw the daily challenges she faced. Even with cochlear implants, navigating the road in the educational system wasn’t an easy feat. Her sister had audiologists and professionals that helped her along the way but having peers her own age was lacking. She watched her sister struggle to meet friends, and develop friendships etc. due to isolation that usually comes with hearing loss. She saw how the loneliness and isolation had some effect on their educational successes as language development and social skills for many with hearing impairments were inapt for today’s society.
This is where the idea was birthed. She came up with a program that connects kids to kids in a fun and inclusive way, a program that encourages kids to write and share experiences they are having or had, good or bad. Being able to reach out and make connections, also helped alleviate the loneliness and isolation. HippKids is designed for children and teenagers who have a form of hearing impairment and want to meet other kids that are in the same predicament.
This is how it works. One can go to the website and register and Ryan will pair them up with a pen pal. She will get you the address and then it’s up to you. To register, go to www.hippkids.com and register. You will also find valuable information on the website. The program was designed to form a world-wide community of children and teens with hearing loss, a support system and a community of resources to help them reach their full potential in life. They currently have 230 kids in the program in nine different countries.
As Ryan puts it, hearing impaired kids are different, but so are teachers, you, I, and kids in general. We are all different and we all deserve to reach our fullest potential and dream big.
Ryan is currently working on an adult program for hearing impaired. She is gathering resources on how to get transcripts, enroll in college, career plans, how to navigate IEP’s at high school and college level and more.
For information on hearing impairment resources one can visit www.hippkids.com .Ryan can be reached at info@hippkids.com and can be followed on twitter @ hippkids.
