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Sheri Romblad: A Voice for the Special Needs Community

Sheri Romblad is a Madison mom of two boys. She’s also a self-taught expert on hearing loss who has driven legislation to strengthen hearing screening programs for children in Connecticut—and she could tell you the whole story in sign language.

Health professionals may take decades to achieve in their career what Sheri has accomplished in just six years, but according to her, it’s just what you do when you’re a mother of a child with special needs.

“I never expected this would be my life’s path, but yes, it’s changed my life. I love connecting families to the resources they need and helping other people with their challenges. It’s very motivating and I learn something new every day,” she says.

Last year, Sheri was honored at the annual American Society for Deaf Children Conference, receiving its Lee Katz Award for her work as a leader, mentor, and advocate to families in Connecticut.

“It was an amazing moment,” she says. “I want to be an advocate for children, to be a voice for them. I want to bring awareness to our community, to awaken people to the challenge of hearing loss and to realize that it can happen to anyone.”

Sheri’s many advocacy roles include serving on the State of Connecticut Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Task Force, co-chairing the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities Community of Practice Family Mentoring and Leadership Committee, membership on the American School for the Deaf Parent Advisory Committee, and serving as a Family Liaison to the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

Like most parents of children with special needs, Sheri’s new world opened up the day her family received the diagnosis. After her youngest son, Owen, passed a regular hearing test at the local pediatrician, Sheri asked if her older son, Luke, could be tested, too. The verdict was bilateral, progressive sensorineural hearing loss.

“When you get a diagnosis like this for your child, it’s life-changing. Luke was eight years old so it was a late diagnosis and, of course you think ‘What did I miss?’ Like many children with special needs, Luke had been diagnosed with other labels that masked his issue and what it boiled down to was his hearing loss,” she says.

“From the diagnosis, it all moved very quickly and the next day we’re at the kitchen table with Luke’s new hearing aids and not knowing what to do with them. For parents with special needs, it can be an isolating experience—it’s challenging and it’s difficult, and you feel like you’re navigating it alone.”

Sheri got to work, researching hearing loss programs in every state and found that Connecticut had good guidelines, though there was room for improvement. Some of the statistics are surprising: one in seven school-aged children have hearing loss, according to a 2011 American Academy of Audiology study, with further studies indicating that number increases to one in five adolescents aged 12 to 19.

“Hearing loss can happen at any time in life, to anyone. If young children don’t get early intervention, they can have problems socially and academically. All research shows that the earlier the intervention, the better the outcomes,” she says.

“Noise-induced hearing loss has reached epidemic proportions and this includes the noise from tablets, computer games, and television. It’s important that parents are aware of the levels of noise their children are exposed to and keep noise to an acceptable decibel. You might not see the effects now, but it can have a significant impact on hearing later, even as adults.”

In 2014, Sheri met with State Representative Noreen Kokoruda (R-101) and together they developed new state legislation the following year to strengthen critical hearing screening programs for school-aged children.

“The bills we passed tighten the process of hearing screenings in the birth to three years’ services and increase hearing screenings for school-aged children. There is a new regulation that if a child misses a hearing screening, the parents are sent paperwork about the importance of a screening with an audiologist. It’s about building awareness and having a conversation with parents,” she says.

Last year, Sheri joined with a dedicated group of local parents of children with special needs to form the Madison Special Education Parent and Teachers Organization (SEPTO).

“Madison SEPTO organizes events and bring parents together to share resources and support. It’s a grassroots effort started by local moms to get parents involved and connected to better resources,” she says.

“Special needs children have a different set of challenges and so their parents have different challenges raising them. It’s about what others go through to get up the mountain, and when parents of special needs children come together, we can move the mountain.”

Sheri says that all families, not just those with children with special needs, are welcome to get involved.

“We want to bring everyone together to help all children in Madison. You never know what life will throw in your path and what you’ll have to navigate.”

In 2017, Sheri was recognized with a Connecticut Special Education PTO Alliance Spirit of SEPTO Award. Madison SEPTO’s Outreach Consultant Lisa Nee says Sheri has been a driving force in the local non-profit group.

“Sheri is probably the most tenacious person I know when it comes to serving special needs kids. If she sees a kid with special needs and if she knows how to help them, she won’t stop. Sheri takes a very creative approach to problem solving with very current solutions. Plus, she’s a lot of fun to work with!” Nee says.

The Madison SEPTO has organized a special event with speaker Scarlett Lewis of the Choose Love Movement at the Madison Senior Center on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Sheri says that Lewis, the mother of six-year-old Jesse, who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, is an inspiring presenter.

“Scarlett could be the angriest mom in the world, but instead she has created the Choose Love Movement—it’s a remarkable story. It’s a program not just geared at students and teachers, but at parents. It’s about changing mindsets and turning anger into love; changing from within to create better outcomes,” she says.

Sheri grew up in Shelton and has lived in Madison with her husband Lance for 19 years. After graduating from Southern Connecticut State University, she commuted to Manhattan for her job in the advertising industry before taking on the full-time role as mother of Luke and Owen, 11 years.

“I’m committed to helping both my sons be successful in life, and that’s the toughest job around. Like any parent, I want them to take the path to a good education, college, and a good job. I want them to find their ‘happily ever after.’ I say I’m the CEO of human development at the Romblad Foundation,” she laughs.

Now 14, Luke is a student at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford.

“The deaf and hard of hearing community is just wonderful and we wanted to give Luke that opportunity to be a part of that. There are so many impressive, successful people in this community and they are wonderful role models,” she says.

“Luke is a very ambitious boy. He sees things so differently and that’s the unique gift that comes with his challenges. The staff and teachers at his school are experts in training the deaf brain and are the best people to help him succeed in life.”

Sheri is dedicated in continuing her work with families of children with special needs.

“It’s changed my life and I’m so motivated to help other people,” she says. “We haven’t done enough for this community and we need to think about how we can better help them. All that people with disabilities want is to be equal members of society and I want to change perceptions and break down the barriers.”