Raising children is an experience like no other:  feelings of profound connection, pride and love entwined with periods of being overwhelmed or worried, right?  Add to that the identification of your child being deaf or hard of hearing or deaf or hard of hearing plus other health challenges, and that experience can intensify those highs and lows. With added responsibilities such as developing effective communication, the pressure of becoming your child’s teacher and maximizing their learning environment, advocating for your child’s needs, and now with the added stress of COVID and online learning, parents understandably can, at times, become bogged down in their role. While many of these additional responsibilities are clearly necessary and vital to your child’s success, it is also critical to focus on your own emotional well-being, to bond with your child, and to encourage your child’s healthy social-emotional development.

With an interest to help parents focus attention to this area, several professionals and parents in the field of deafness came together and created what is now called the “Fostering Joy” Project. Fostering Joy is the intentional practice of looking for and encouraging joyful moments between caregivers and their child who is deaf or hard of hearing. But how does this work exactly?  Well, think of this example:  breathing and meditation/mindfulness are two very different things. Everyone breathes. Not everyone meditates or practices mindfulness. However, meditation or mindfulness adds intention and purpose when done with purposeful breathing and this practice has been proven helpful for psychological well-being. Here are some ideas to consider to foster more joy:

• Deliberately schedule time with your child. Just like you put a reminder for a doctor’s visit in your phone or on your planner, make an appointment with your child and do something that brings them joy.
• Connect joyful activity to an existing routine. Sometimes finding extra time is tough so combining a trip to the audiologist with a stop for ice cream can make it joyful! 
• Get outside!  Nature is proven to be therapeutic!  And sometimes nature can be exploring the backyard and finding a tree to build a fairy house and putting sparkly objects that are sure to attract fairies there.
• Take “respite” time for just you – fill your cup. To be truly present for your child may mean ensuring you have the emotional and physical reserves. So, a little self-care can go a long way.
• Find a “joy buddy” or someone to commit to your “joy habit.”  Might be a sister or brother with kids the same age, might be another parent of a child who is Deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) or has special health needs. Helps to have someone to check in with maybe once a week for ideas and successes.
• Journal frequently– expressing gratitude rewires your brain to be more positive.

The Fostering Joy Core Team hopes families who engage in Fostering Joy will experience the same benefits, and so the team created resources to help parents celebrate their child’s strengths and accomplishments. The team is also developing resources to serve as tools for professionals who work with families.

Some examples of Fostering Joy resources are:

• Fostering Joy Family Tip Sheet (English) and Las Alegrías de Criar a Niños Sordos o Hipoacusicos (the Spanish version), which are lists of suggestions for how to create joyful moments and expand on the tips shared above. More translations are underway!
• A Fostering Joy Professional Tip Sheet will include suggestions for how professionals can help families develop the habit of positive, practical, and loving social-emotional bonding experiences.
• Ask to join the Hands & Voices Fostering Joy Facebook group. (Must be a parent/family member of a D/HH child.)
• Follow Fostering Joy on Instagram, open to parents and professionals.
• The newly released The Fostering Joy Journal, a book for parents/caregivers to capture joyful moments and respond to prompts reflecting on their parenting experience. Sprinkled throughout the journal is whimsical art by a young person who is D/HH.
• “What a wonderful tool to foster joy! I would’ve loved to have gifted this to my parents when I was younger and be able to read now and remember how much joy I brought to their lives. This will be a book full of happy memories to treasure forever!” Heidy L. Nazario, DHH Adult, D/HH Guide Supervisor, Minnesota H&V
• “A great tool to remind us to look at life through the lens of JOY when it comes to raising a DHH child.”Mariana Barquet, parent, Guide By Your Side Program Coordinator – Indiana H&V

Become a Joy Ambassador

Founded in the belief that Fostering Joy is larger than just the core group of people creating resources, we would like to think Fostering Joy has become a movement, a call to action. And parents, parent leaders and professionals are strongly encouraged to join in and spread the idea by becoming “Joy Ambassadors.”  What does a “Joy Ambassador” do?  Here are some ideas:

• Share:  Commit to ensuring your parent story incorporate the joys of raising a child(ren) who are deaf and hard of hearing. Practice introducing yourself and your child highlighting a strength of your child that brings you joy.
• Inspire:  Write and/or share articles that reinforce the importance of infusing joy and focusing on positive and joyful experiences. Consider submitting your story and writing an article for the Hands & Voices HQ newspaper, “Communicator,” or Hands & Voices HQ blog.
• Spread:  Share the posts on the Fostering Joy Instagram account on your social media platforms. Invite other parents to join the Hands & Voices Fostering Joy Facebook group.
• Promote: Download the Fostering Joy logo from our webpage to create your own materials or giveaways (buttons, mugs, t-shirts, etc.)
• Demonstrate:  Share the Fostering Joy videos with people you know.Consider making your own “joy” video with your child. The full video is 7 minutes long and the short version (square format) is 1 minute long. Feel free to share from our webpage.
• Infuse:  Incorporate a focus on joy in parent-to-parent support activities and events, advisory groups, work plans, educational advocacy, etc. We are already hearing reports of programs and chapters doing just this and quite frankly, that brings the Core Team great joy!  Thank you!
• Get creative: Take these ideas and run with them in your own way!  We’d just love to hear about how you have used Fostering Joy so that others can learn from the ideas you have generated.
• Help us show the impact of joy: We invite you to visit a link to an impact survey on our Fostering Joy webpage so we can capture your feedback and ideas at http://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/fostering-joy-survey.htm

We hope parents and professionals will join the movement and help spread the joy. We believe by publicly sharing how our children who are D/HH are not just capable, but powerful and inspirational, we can build better understanding of their value in the community, the workplace, and beyond. Please visit the Fostering Joy webpage at for more information or to reach one of our Core Team members.   ~

Editor’s note: See the webpage at http://www.handsandvoices.org/resources/fostering-joy.htm for all resources mentioned.

H&V Communicator – Winter 2021