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44: Billie BAHA Author Jessica Hogan on Representation & Self-Advocacy
457 Plays1 year ago
Jessica talks about the importance of representation in children’s media, self-advocacy activities, and ideas for supporting students with microtia.
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Transcript
Introduction to Jessica Hogan
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the top on a podcast to support itinerant teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing SLPs and other deaf education professionals. I'm Deanna Barlow from listening fun. And today we're talking with the author of the Billy Baja books, Jessica Hogan. Thanks so much for being here today, Jessica. Thank you for having me. So excited to be here. Yeah, I'm happy
Transition to Deaf Education
00:00:25
Speaker
you're here too. Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and your background? Yes, my name is Jessica Hogan. I am a
00:00:33
Speaker
teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing. I have worked across various backgrounds, but my initial intro into education actually was in the general education setting. And I taught middle school and high school. And what kind of got me into deaf education was having a lot of students who had different needs, and I did not have the tools to be able to support them at all.
00:00:59
Speaker
And I ended up going back into school and just falling into deaf education. I had no clue about it to be completely honest. And I went to this amazing program with Dr. Christina Perigo and I got to study at Johns Hopkins and work out of
00:01:16
Speaker
a small school in Mississippi and then here I am. I had a similar experience where I didn't go into college as a deaf ed major, but when I got there, I realized they had that and I was like, hmm, that feels like it could be interesting. Let me just feel around in there. Yeah. It's funny how you fall into it because it's not a big field, so everyone has a funny story, I think, of how they got into it.
00:01:43
Speaker
I know. And most people I know, it's like, oh, I had a deaf friend or I knew somebody and I had nobody. But when I fell into it, I fell, I found home.
Media Representation and Empowerment
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah. Like it filled up my toolbox and it has allowed me like the opportunity to get back to teaching and not focused on standards and all the overwhelming stuff.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, I've always said my favorite part about itinerant teaching specifically is that it's all individual. You really get to focus one-on-one, and I feel like that's a luxury not a lot of teachers have, so I really love that. Yeah, exactly. What led you to start creating the Billy Baja books then?
00:02:24
Speaker
I guess my biggest push, well, two, two things I would say. One is my kids and then both at home and then my kids at school. I always conflate the two because they're all mine. My kids at school, I'm huge into representation just across the board. People need to see themselves. In fact, I just had this conversation with my daughter not too long ago that in order to feel empowered to be able to take on the world,
00:02:53
Speaker
you need to see yourself everywhere in books, in media, just every space that you can encounter.
Creation of Billy Baja Books
00:03:00
Speaker
And when I'm teaching, I didn't have anything from my students. And so what do all teachers do when we don't have something? We make it ourselves. And of course, like I wanted my kids to be a part of that process, my kids at home, to be a part of that process as well. And so Billy is kind of,
00:03:42
Speaker
I love that no because it's nice because I always try when I create resources to have like a lot of representation but I can't get every variable like I have a boy with a hearing aid and then I have a girl with a cochlear implant and I have like I try to mix it up so I kind of cover everything but then I'll get messages and be like can you make this with a girl with red hair with a hearing aid and I'm like
00:03:45
Speaker
in the image of my daughters.
00:04:05
Speaker
I'm sorry, but like, I can't, but I really feel like every, I mean, most of the types of hearing loss I've encountered are covered in your Billy Baja books. And that's really nice that all of my kids can see themselves and see others. And that's kind of, and it's funny though, because that was one of the things that was talked about in like my schooling was
00:04:28
Speaker
Oh, you know, and then there's the Baja. You won't see much of those when you're out in the, you know, school setting. So we'll talk about it a little bit. You know, and I'm like, I rule it out there and there's Baja's everywhere. Right. Every year I've had students with Baja's and it's funny because where I'm working now, my students have
00:04:53
Speaker
a lot of them are just pushed in the mainstream. So they don't have a lot of friends that have hearing loss. And so we read the book together. That's the first thing we talked about, about me, you know, and one of the questions was, what's your favorite book? And so I said, of course, bye, you know, a little bias, but my favorite, you know, rightly so rightly so, you know, a little bit had to do a little plug in.
00:05:20
Speaker
And so they kept asking to read it and I'm like, okay, when we have time, when we have time. So finally we had time. And one of my students who never really talks was like, there's me, there's me.
Impact on Students and Parents
00:05:31
Speaker
And so like, I know it just made my heart melt. And one of my students was like, well, how come I have to wear hearing aids and I'm the only one in my family. And how come I don't get to be in a class like in your book?
00:05:42
Speaker
So we got to really start to have conversations that these kids have never had before. So that was a lot of fun and also a little bit sad. I always have that, too, because I only really work with kids who are in the mainstream for the most part. We do have a continuum, a program with a teacher that I have in a class of children with hearing loss, but that's not my job. I'm in the mainstream. Right.
00:06:09
Speaker
I am often in that situation where they're the only kid with hearing loss either in their class or sometimes in the building even and I always want to give them like
00:06:19
Speaker
peer role models or adult role models. And it's like, okay, if there's none available in person, like I think going through media, whether it be books or shows or whatever is kind of the next best option. Obviously you try your best to arrange real life role models when you can, but I love that we have more and more options now for books, for showing more pictures. And it's not just like one book, there's like options. Yes.
00:06:49
Speaker
Is there a reason you decided to pick a girl with a Baha as the main character? My babies with my crochet, they used to break my heart because oftentimes when, you know, most of my work in the deaf field was in a self contained pre K classroom. So, you know, I had my classroom literally looked like the class in my book. And
00:07:15
Speaker
But my babies with my crochet often had the longer hair to cover their right crochet ears and they felt kind of embarrassed by it. So I wanted them to feel empowered. Yeah. And when we found out about my crochet awareness day, we would do like a whole year day. We'd make elephant ears like.
00:07:35
Speaker
ears of corn and just do ear activities that were fun on a pre-K level. But I wanted to highlight that in the book for them. That makes sense. Did you have, when you were working with those kids, any strategies or tips that you could share about building up their self-esteem in addition to those fun events or other self-advocacy skills that you think are specifically important to kids with microtia? I did.
00:08:04
Speaker
talking with parents and families a lot as well, because a lot of the times how, as parents, our fears and our concerns kind of will rub off on our kids. So making sure those kids wear their equipment in their picture days, not being afraid to show it off and mention it and not trying to hide it and talking about it and having conversations around it and recognizing feelings.
00:08:32
Speaker
because those feelings are going to change. As kids go through different stages of development, they're going to change. But I will tell you, after ear day, all of my kids wanted my crotia. So I cannot create that for you. But we have the power with our words in how we affirm ourselves, but also as adults to continue that with our kids.
00:08:59
Speaker
our students, so constantly kind of putting that out there. And then of course books.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. I had a situation once where a family had a child who was wearing a ponto or a baja. And they were just kind of struggling with it a little bit, like how to make it look cute. They were just struggling with the concept of their child needing to wear a hearing device, which is very understandable. A lot of parents go through that kind of process.
00:09:31
Speaker
So I had another child on my case, another little girl. Her mom always did the cutest hairstyles, little pink tails, little half a path down, and incorporated the headband of the Baja in a few ways. So I asked her one day, I was like, can I just take a picture of her hair because she looks so cute today and I want to show this other family? And she was like, yeah, yeah, of course.
00:09:52
Speaker
So I took a picture and I showed it to them at the next time I saw them, and oh my god, the turnaround that one little picture had for them. They were like, oh my gosh, she's so cute. Seeing a different kid with the same thing, all they saw was how cute that kid was. They didn't even faze them. They were wearing a headband with a ponto on it. So the next time I saw them, the little girl had her hair just in the picture, and they were like, look how cute.
00:10:18
Speaker
I was like oh my god like I can't believe that's all it took like I was like months I've been trying to help them and like all like that seeing it on someone else who was rocking it and was happy and like that that was all it took so I feel like representation matters like I can't I cannot say it loud enough representation matters you know so yeah
00:10:43
Speaker
It just gives me all the feels. I know. Can you tell me more about the activities you did for ear day in case people want to try them? What did you do with the corn or with the elephant? Did it have to do with having a little ear, that sort of thing? Now, anything that had the word ear in it, we were making. It's like a little pastry elephant ears.
00:11:10
Speaker
And I would get the pastry dough so the kids got the opportunity to make it. And because some came out smaller than others when we would bake it. I didn't know it was a pastry. I thought it was like a literal elephant. I'm like, oh, tell me about these elephants. No, I cooked a lot in my classroom.
00:11:29
Speaker
I had like a little toaster oven, so we would bake it up all the time. But no, and then I would also make ears of corn out of kicks, the cereal. Yeah. And had like green napkins to tie it around to make it look like the leaf that we'd put in a bag. And again, they'd end up looking different sizes based on how much kicks the kids wanted to put in it. And again, we talk about the different sizes and how the size does not impact the quality and
00:11:59
Speaker
how it's still yours and it's still valuable. Cute. I like that messaging. I feel like that's really helpful because the crafts naturally will all come out different and it really lends itself well to that conversation. And they taste good. And they taste good. It's a positive association.
00:12:17
Speaker
I've seen in a lot of parents, they've told me when they join parent groups and stuff, there's a lot of Finding Nemo imagery also they find helpful because Nemo has the little fin. So it's like they're my crotia fin, their little ear. And I thought that was so cute when I first heard it. I was like, oh, what a positive
00:12:36
Speaker
Spin on it. When I heard it, I was like, oh, duh, that makes so much sense. But sometimes I tell parents that, and sometimes that's the thing, that it's like, oh, I never thought anything of Nemo having a little fin. I never thought Nemo was anything less because he had a little fin. I know he's an imaginary fish, but still, no negative association at all with Nemo. Why can't I carry that energy
Parental Support and Acceptance
00:13:01
Speaker
forward? Exactly.
00:13:02
Speaker
And I think you're right that it starts with the parents. Like if you can get the parents on board, sometimes that does half your work with the kid. It does. And parents usually it's not that they that they don't like it. It's their fear of how the child's going to be received in or perceived out in public and in trying to peel that away, you know, and
00:13:24
Speaker
being able to support them through that process, because it's a lot for a parent, you're always afraid to send your kid out into the world. So when you know that your kid looks different, you already know they're going to face unnecessary obstacles. So I get it. But when we can break down that wall and that barrier, that also helps too. And then the rocking hairdos with their
00:13:46
Speaker
with their headbands. Right. So circling back to the first Billy Baja book, when TODs, I was telling Jessica earlier, like I use the books all the time with my students because I love them and I think they're great and I love using books with, you know, representation in them. But when TODs like read your book with their students, like what kind of skills do you think it lends itself to? Like what can we focus on? Do you have any suggestions as a person who created it on how we can use it as a teaching tool?
00:14:16
Speaker
I literally could have a whole separate podcast on that alone. Make me through it. I got time. With the first one, instantly, I threw that in there, how we talk about stopping somebody when you don't understand what they're saying, when you notice somebody is talking, and how to mitigate that situation, telling somebody to stop assessing the situation.
00:14:46
Speaker
Why can I not hear? You know, in Billie's circumstance, it's because she wasn't wearing her bahas. But could it be that your batteries are dead? Is there too much background noise? Is it that the speaker's too far away? They're not facing you and you need a visual model. You know, there is plethora of problems that could be stopping that communication from happening. And being able to assess that is a huge step to me that
00:15:15
Speaker
as teachers of the deaf that we should be working on for our students is being able to assess what those problems are, those communication problems. So that way the kids can learn how to mitigate them also and solve their own problems because we can't be there all the time, especially those that are out in the mainstream.
00:15:34
Speaker
And that's just on the first page. Yeah. Oh. It's always nice to have examples of kids realizing that they can't hear, because that's such a hard thing to teach, how to know what you don't know or how to know that you didn't hear something, how to identify that kind of breakdown has occurred. So I feel examples like that are super helpful. Exactly. And that's one of the things that I teach my students now. If you see somebody's mouth moving and nothing is coming in your brain, that's key indicator one.
00:16:04
Speaker
You know, if you see people around you moving and you didn't hear anything, that's another indicator. You missed information. And instead of trying to figure out and piecemeal it all together, just stop and ask somebody to repeat it. And that's such a hard thing to do and to teach, but I also like try to show them and teach them that, listen, everybody has to advocate for their needs, whether it's, I need to go to the bathroom and need a drink of water.
00:16:30
Speaker
you know, so they have to do the same. There's just might be a little bit different sometimes. And then, of course, throughout the rest of the book, there's Miss Jessica checking for their listening equipment, doing their listening checks in the morning. One of the things that I used to teach even like my three year old babies was how to like
00:16:49
Speaker
check the functionality of their batteries. Every morning we would do the listening check with each of their equipments one at a time and assess, you know, whether or not they're working with them, not just, you know, as individual pieces and having that in the book. So teaching that strategy is important. I wanted to put that in there. And then of course I wanted to teach about like the varying exceptionalities and
00:17:15
Speaker
we all know that 40% of kids with a hearing loss usually have something else going on with them. So throwing that mix in there with all of our other friends, I thought was like a huge topic to be able to touch on. And I didn't
00:17:31
Speaker
try to delve too much in it because I wanted teachers to be able to kind of play around with that and be able to explore that in the best way that they felt that they could, as well as obviously, like you said, like the different amplification styles as well. And then we also have the different languages and then also different religions. So throw in all of that in the mix, because honestly, that's literally how my class looked.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah, I know I've seen it too, especially because when you're when you're itinerant, at least for me, like I might enter it in like far enough places that like I go to a lot of different towns, you know what I mean? Like a lot of different socioeconomic levels, like in one day, a lot of different, like some urban, some rural, like New Jersey is very dense. So like you can go to a lot of different places without covering a lot of distance.
00:18:19
Speaker
So I really feel like you see the whole thing and it's nice to be able to like it's like that windows mirrors thing like you want people to see themselves but you also want them to know what other people different from them exist and then that's valuable also. Well and it's funny because and why I wanted to try to include everybody as much as possible too every year I would always have a Muslim kid in my class and
00:18:46
Speaker
they would not be able to eat like the pepperonis on the pizza in the cafeteria. And so my kids would always hear like, oh, why can't such and such have the pepperonis or whatever pork product was available in the cafeteria. And so we'd always circle back to that whole conversation and start explaining it. And of course we would celebrate different holidays in my class too, because I just love doing that with them anyway, because that just teaches so much language.
00:19:13
Speaker
So we'd always have to have like that explanation and stuff. So I wanted to make sure that I tucked all that stuff up in there as best as possible.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah, and I kind of feel like, especially as kids get older too, just like when you have, sometimes it's easier to talk about self-advocacy and like self-esteem when you separate it from disability like a little bit.
Embracing Differences
00:19:36
Speaker
Like everybody has things about them that they like, that they don't like, that there are strengths that are weaknesses that make them them and then make them part of their community. Like everybody has like those attributes to them. And sometimes it's easier
00:19:50
Speaker
to talk about that with other people when when there are differences to discuss because then you can point it out like, Oh, like that person speaks these languages and celebrates these holidays and is really friendly and outgoing. And I, you know, speak this language and use a hearing aid and like to read and like all of those things are attributes and none of them are given any more particular weight than any other one is just
00:20:14
Speaker
part of who I am. And it's just like not everyone has a hearing loss and not everybody has you know such like I don't know like clear differences but everyone does have differences so like when you were have a more diverse group or a more diverse group depicted in media it's easier to talk about that and just fold hearing loss into one of those things as opposed to it being
00:20:41
Speaker
the only thing, because especially for our kids that are mainstreamed, they have so much going on. They have so many other interests in other parts of their life. And I have found it they're more likely to accept their hearing loss as part of who they are, if we kind of treat it that way as just like, this is one of those things, you know, like, I'm left handed, like, you know, it just is who you are. Yeah, like you said, well, and it's also funny, too, because what a lot of my kids even
00:21:10
Speaker
you know, on the younger level started recognizing and realizing was, well, there was so much difference. They were still so much alike. Yeah. So one year we were celebrating Eid in my classroom, which is a Muslim holiday and I like obviously break it down to like the simplest
00:21:29
Speaker
of terms without trying to get too religious. And one of my students was like, well, am I Muslim? Because I do something like that. And I'm like, no, like, your family is when they go, you're Christian, you know, in
00:21:52
Speaker
So what we ended up doing was celebrating Eid as like a classroom. I always had really supportive parents too, but they knew and they would always come in for a lot of our celebrations and stuff too. But we ended up celebrating Eid by using the Christian kids. They were supporting a family in another country, right? As part of something through their church.
00:22:18
Speaker
But we ended up using that family to celebrate Eid and just combining it all together. And all the kids were raiding their piggy banks and stuff to bring in money to send over. And it was just such a cool thing because, again, it was just they're all so different. And yet we're all the same because ultimately we want to celebrate.
00:22:40
Speaker
share with one another and we're just, we're just people. I love that. That's so sweet. I know. All right. So moving on to the Billy Baja book two, which is relatively new.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yes, it is. That one is about them going to the movies.
Advocating for Public Accommodations
00:23:02
Speaker
Yes. When I read that, I was like, yes, finally. I need more stuff about the community because it is not the easiest thing to teach about, but very important. Well, it's funny you say that. I would take my students on field trips at least probably once a month. Honestly, going to the movies was one of the things that we would do. Yeah.
00:23:24
Speaker
And it's important for that reason to get out in the community and learn about your rights, how to know how to navigate spaces utilizing your equipment and being able to advocate for your needs.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah. And just like for anyone who hasn't gotten the second book yet, just basically they go out to the movies on like a field trip and they have to like advocate with like a cashier to make sure they understand them. And then one of the kids loses a hearing device and then they use that. The name of it escapes me, that captioning device. The closed captioning. Yeah, that goes in the cup holder and it's like a little screen and they can watch the captions of the movie. And like some of my kids don't even know that exists.
00:24:06
Speaker
like big kids like you know because their parents don't know they exist they never thought to advocate for it especially you know the kids maybe who have used hearing devices their whole lives and just rely on their listening and just never thought to to use accommodations in like a public space but
00:24:25
Speaker
it's so helpful to just like show them like look at this isn't this cool you could use this if you want they have them at the movie theater like how where would you have to go to get one of these like it was it was it opened up a lot of really good conversations about what accommodations are available
00:24:40
Speaker
out in the community and I use it with bigger kids like I know it's like a preschool class that's depicted but it doesn't it's not a babyish book at all like the it's written high enough that I use it with my older like elementary school kids and uh you get a lot out of it about what it looks like to advocate outside of school well thank you for that
00:24:58
Speaker
Sorry, I just like went on a tirade on how much I like your book. No, I, listen, I- You said yesterday. That's why it's like really fresh in my mind. And I actually like, I scheduled, we scheduled these interviews so far in advance. I like didn't do that on purpose. I just like, I just happened to read it yesterday with a kid. No, it, listen, that is like perfect because trying to find the balance of where those needs are in between, you know, we always want to like overload those kids and those families, young, young, young, young, young.
00:25:27
Speaker
So that way they're set up because, you know, there's less support when they get older. So, you know, you being able to be out there and still utilize those materials is awesome too. So, no, I appreciate that. Especially because I'm an itinerant, I can't take my kids on field trips. So that's like not accessible to me. So I like to have a book do it. Like really, it's helpful. Well, there's actually more to come, so.
00:25:53
Speaker
Exciting. Yeah, no, and it's so important because we would go on like I said, my kids had to bring cash so they could interact with the cashier and get their needs met. And again, same as like that first book, knowing how to troubleshoot like those breakdowns in those communications with lay people that they don't know. And that is nerve wracking for little people.
00:26:19
Speaker
It's nerve-wracking for anybody, but in particular those little people, and they would kill it like a boss.
00:26:27
Speaker
They're like, I want my popcorn, you know? So like, OK, can we throw in a please? Let's work on some pragmatic skills perhaps. Are there any other like out in the community self advocacy skills you would focus on besides like the Co's caption at the movie theater, but like other community things?
Using Tools in Public Settings
00:26:51
Speaker
Were there other accommodations that you found helpful to like prepare them that they were going to have to ask for?
00:26:56
Speaker
Yes, and using knowing how to use the Roger Mike and the conference setting, we would go out to eat and sit at a booth together. So the kids learning how to use that in an environment together.
00:27:13
Speaker
where we're all talking and sharing, sitting in a closed setting, but still having background noise going on and knowing how to try to isolate and focus on the speakers at your table has been something that we have worked on and used, knowing how to prevent losing equipment when we go out. It's been a thing that we work on because I worked
00:27:40
Speaker
mostly, like I said, when we would go on field trips with the littles. So we would go to places that had water play. So that's always exciting and fun. Yeah, no daring of you. Tens of thousands of dollars of equipment strapped to your head. But we never lost anything or even came close to it because again, we practice before we would even leave and learning about before we went.
00:28:09
Speaker
what we're going to be kind of up against and how to strategize and plan before we left. And I'm trying to think of other things.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah, with some of my older children who have different programs on their hearing aids, just making sure they're aware of the different programs and what they're for. Most definitely. Some kids have a wind program for being outside. Some have background noise programs for the lunchroom or the mall or places like that. And I've heard mixed reviews, basically, of the programs. Some kids are like, I don't like that it dulls the sound because then I can't hear my friends as well.
00:28:47
Speaker
they like, oh, I really, I really like the wind one, but not the background noise one. So like, just being able to like articulate that and that there are different programs and that there's different times to use them, I think is like a helpful thing to go over before you go out and about. No, and that is huge. And it's funny you say that because with the younger kids, we tell them don't touch your programs.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, well, they're disabled. Like the button is disabled. I mean, like, not the children. I know what you read. I just feel like I had to correct myself on that. The button doesn't work. But yeah, as I get older, just being able, once it is enabled, you want to make sure they're using it correctly. That's actually excellent.
00:29:35
Speaker
And one of the things actually for the older kids too is as they transition, teaching them how to go to their next schools and how to acclimate around their schools and know what services are already on their campus and for those transitioning to college, knowing what services are provided.
00:29:52
Speaker
already on campus and how to access the whatever college they go to, they all call them different things, but basically the special ed department that's on campus. Yeah. We have a whole, actually our first episode ever is all about college transition.
00:30:07
Speaker
If you feel like listening to more information about that, go back to episode one. It was real far in the beginning. So yeah, I didn't feel like just while they're in school, like I find it really helpful for them to know what my name is and what my role is.
00:30:26
Speaker
what the speech therapist's name is and what her role is, who the educational audiologist is and what her role is. I am not a speech therapist and neither is the educational audiologist. We're not all speech therapists. Why we're there and how we each individually can help them. If you're having a problem, obviously, you can go to any of us, but why am I here versus why is speech here versus why is educational audiology here? I feel like it's really helpful because then as they get older, they can explain what specific problem they're having and who the best person to ask for help is.
00:30:56
Speaker
Well, it's funny you say that because I didn't ever know that was a thing until I started working with older kids. Because I had innately started teaching the babies that by taking them to the audiologist was literally right next door to us, the booth and everything. So we were over there all the time getting equipment checked. So of course, we're giving language, right? So we were teaching all of that stuff anyway.
00:31:20
Speaker
And it wasn't until I started working with the older kids that weren't going to the audiologist as often and they were mainstreamed. And I was like, oh, you don't know the difference between me and them.
00:31:31
Speaker
So yeah, no, that's a good point. And as they get older, I always make sure they know who their clinical audiologist is. They should know who their educational audiologist is also if they have one, but they don't have to necessarily be able to reach them. They can just reach me and I can reach
Maintaining Hearing Equipment
00:31:48
Speaker
them. But their clinical audiologist, they should know because when they turn 18, theoretically, it's on them to make that next appointment. I know most people's parents support them past 18.
00:31:59
Speaker
But not everybody. That's true. They really need to have that written down somewhere that they can find it again because or at least know what when they need to know kind of like what insurance they have and what audiologist they go to. And like that's scary to have to like talk about that with somebody. But like just knowing that like you knew you need access to this in order to continue to listen for a lot of these kids. And so therefore like you have to be able to maintain this equipment in adulthood.
00:32:27
Speaker
So let's get that figured out now. No, that's actually very valid. And I never thought about that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And I learned to some people like I always say like they need to know the name of their audiologist because where I live, you have like one, you have an audiologist that's like your audiologist. But I know a lot of other places they have like a clinic. So you'd have to know your clinic. You don't have to know the name of a doctor. You just have to know where you go. So I feel like as long as they can name that, they're like,
00:32:54
Speaker
They can get to where they need to go. You can Google it and get there, you know? But that's a big part of self-advocacy as they get older is just being able to access the community resources that they need. And even though your book is about younger kids, you start it then and then they grow up and it evolves into who is your audiologist and how do you contact them? No, yes. And it's funny that you say that too in reference to contacting, and I know cell phones have evolved so much.
00:33:23
Speaker
But one of the other things that we worked on in schools too was learning about how to get like the free flashing smoke detectors and all the safety equipment in their homes as well and teaching the parents how to get in contact with
00:33:42
Speaker
the departments in order to get that set up for them. So that was also something that a lot of the kids and the families didn't know about, just so that they could be safe in their homes, not just out in the communities too.
Vocational Rehabilitation Guidance
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah. And if you're looking for resources about this, especially for kids transitioning out of high school, I always talked about this briefly on the podcast before, but if you look into your state's vocational rehabilitation,
00:34:06
Speaker
Most states have one, it's like a government, it's like a state program, vocational rehabilitation, that's what it's called. Like at least New Jersey, we have a department, like a deaf and hard of hearing department within that.
00:34:16
Speaker
they'll specialize in getting resources and connecting people to things that they need, things like that. And also accommodations in the community. Sometimes I think they're more relevant to kids who are going straight into the workforce as opposed to going to college. However, people going to college can also benefit from those resources sometimes too. So if you're feeling overwhelmed with not knowing where to start with that, if you Google your state vocational rehabilitation, deaf and hard of hearing.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yes, you will. And even if you like just find a flyer with information, sometimes that'll put you in the right direction of who to talk to. Yeah. Awesome. I feel like there's a lot of good
00:34:58
Speaker
bits and pieces in this episode already so far, but are there any other resources or links or anything that you want to share?
Educational YouTube Channel
00:35:06
Speaker
Oh, yes. I have started a YouTube channel. Oh, fun. YouTube channel. It is with my husband and my daughters, and it is utilizing the characters from the book. Nice. And they are singing kid songs, and some of them are signed, some are in English and Spanish.
00:35:29
Speaker
Definitely check it out. It's youtube slash Billy Baja. Definitely subscribe, like and share so we can keep making more content. So that way we also have representation for young educational content. Yeah, absolutely. I'll link the YouTube channel. I'll link the books on Amazon. Do you have an estimated idea of when you think the third one will be out yet or not yet? Not yet. I just got like the copyright back.
00:35:56
Speaker
Got it. I'm excited for that one to come out. So all that will be linked. Transcript will be linked. Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed it. Of course, I'll talk to everyone next week. Have a good day. Bye. Bye bye.