Any hard-of-hearing ppl raised in the hearing world?

Hear Again said:
i forgot to mention that another reason my ci audi and ci surgeon thought i was prelingually deaf was because i was born deafblind.

i guess it doesn't really matter one way or the other, but it's still something interesting to think about.
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Yes it is rather interesting to think about. I read a book today for my research paper that touched on the subject a bit on what is defined as deaf and hard of hearing.

According to the author there are 4 ways to classify a person as hearing, mild loss - hoh severe loss - hoh and then deaf in which hearing aids do not benefit the person as there is very little residual hearing left or present.

A majority of the deaf community in theUS are those that were born deaf or were pre-lingually deaf. Those who are postlingually deaf are often integrated into signing evironments and thus make a decision in their teens to join the deaf community. Often the 'leaders' in the deaf community are those who are postlingually deafened and still have the use of verbal language in which to communicate the desires of the deaf community to the hearing world.
 
Dixie said:
Yes it is rather interesting to think about. I read a book today for my research paper that touched on the subject a bit on what is defined as deaf and hard of hearing.

According to the author there are 4 ways to classify a person as hearing, mild loss - hoh severe loss - hoh and then deaf in which hearing aids do not benefit the person as there is very little residual hearing left or present.

A majority of the deaf community in theUS are those that were born deaf or were pre-lingually deaf. Those who are postlingually deaf are often integrated into signing evironments and thus make a decision in their teens to join the deaf community. Often the 'leaders' in the deaf community are those who are postlingually deafened and still have the use of verbal language in which to communicate the desires of the deaf community to the hearing world.
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i didn't know that. interesting.

on another note, i wonder why someone who has mild hearing loss isn't considered hoh? after all, according to the hearing aid audi who fitted me with my first pair of hearing aids, sometimes someone with mild hearing loss can have more difficulty understanding speech than someone who has a moderate loss. db numbers on an audiogram do not necessarily explain how well or poorly a person can understand speech. it varies from person to person since no two people with the same exact loss hear the same.
 
Hear Again said:
i didn't know that. interesting.

on another note, i wonder why someone who has mild hearing loss isn't considered hoh? after all, according to the hearing aid audi who fitted me with my first pair of hearing aids, sometimes someone with mild hearing loss can have more difficulty understanding speech than someone who has a moderate loss. db numbers on an audiogram do not necessarily explain how well or poorly a person can understand speech. it varies from person to person since no two people with the same exact loss hear the same.
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I didnt know this either until I read that in the book, but how accurate it is today is questionable however as the book was published in 1982, so I won't agree completely with the statement until further research backs up the statement, meaning I will need to include the question of "Are the 'leaders' within the deaf community often postlingually deafened?"

You are also correct that just because two people may have identical audiograms doesn't necessarily mean that they will also similarly be able to distinguish speech enough for it to be useful to them.
 
Dixie said:
Also adding to BassHunter and pek1:
I believe a term both could agree on would be postlingually deaf???
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I don't know if that would pertain to me, as the doctors and audiologists kept telling my parents that I didn't need hearing aids, from Kindergarten to almost fourth grade and earlier than that.

Sorry for the delay in response.

Also, other people find it difficult to think of me as deaf when my speech is very clear, so much so that I don't need speech therapy!
 
pek1 said:
I don't know if that would pertain to me, as the doctors and audiologists kept telling my parents that I didn't need hearing aids, from Kindergarten to almost fourth grade and earlier than that.

Sorry for the delay in response.

Also, other people find it difficult to think of me as deaf when my speech is very clear, so much so that I don't need speech therapy!
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actually pete, if you started losing your hearing around the time you were 10 or 11, that would make you postlingually deaf.

as for myself, my ci surgeon and audi think i'm prelingually deaf since my hearing loss is congenital because newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60s/early 70s.

however, even though hearing aids were recommended for me (in addition to ear surgery) when i was 3, i didn't receive them until i was 15.

so, when you look at it that way, i'm postlingually deaf.

also, i only had a mild hearing loss at birth (or at the very latest, age 3), so that doesn't qualify me as being "deaf" unless you're using deaf to refer to any degree of hearing loss.
 
Hear Again said:
actually pete, if you started losing your hearing around the time you were 10 or 11, that would make you postlingually deaf.

as for myself, my ci surgeon and audi think i'm prelingually deaf since my hearing loss is congenital because newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60s/early 70s.

however, even though hearing aids were recommended for me (in addition to ear surgery) when i was 3, i didn't receive them until i was 15.

so, when you look at it that way, i'm postlingually deaf.

also, i only had a mild hearing loss at birth (or at the very latest, age 3), so that doesn't qualify me as being "deaf" unless you're using deaf to refer to any degree of hearing loss.
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I know the doctors had screwed this up for many years because my hearing was tested every year when nobody elses was. Heck, like alot of other deafs, I was even diagnosed as MR. That's how it was in the 60s and 70s. Try that today and a doctor would be out of a job and sued up the wazoo!
 
I lost my hearing around 2.5 yrs old, but no one knew it until I was around 3. Grew up in a hearing world with one hearing aid. Didn't get a second aid until around 2001 or so. Love the "stereo" sound, but my hearing isn't perfect.

Hated being in between worlds, but didn't know any different. Still hate it. It's still a lonely feeling because my hearing is growing worse. Aggravating because my job duties call for me to use the phone a lot, but I don't. I have my employees speak for me.
 
DarrenD said:
I lost my hearing around 2.5 yrs old, but no one knew it until I was around 3. Grew up in a hearing world with one hearing aid. Didn't get a second aid until around 2001 or so. Love the "stereo" sound, but my hearing isn't perfect.

Hated being in between worlds, but didn't know any different. Still hate it. It's still a lonely feeling because my hearing is growing worse. Aggravating because my job duties call for me to use the phone a lot, but I don't. I have my employees speak for me.
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I am profoundly deaf in my left ear (no hearing whatsoever) and I am hoh in my right ear. What does the 'stereo' sound feel like? Far as I know Ive never been able to hear out of both ears, just the one.
 
pek1 said:
I don't know if that would pertain to me, as the doctors and audiologists kept telling my parents that I didn't need hearing aids, from Kindergarten to almost fourth grade and earlier than that.

Sorry for the delay in response.

Also, other people find it difficult to think of me as deaf when my speech is very clear, so much so that I don't need speech therapy!
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That's my problem. I lost all of my minimal hearing at 44 and they still think I am hearing no matter what I tell them.
 
KristinaB said:
That's my problem. I lost all of my minimal hearing at 44 and they still think I am hearing no matter what I tell them.
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Perhaps you need to not tell them anything anymore. Let them think what they want and let them feel like fools when something is said and you don't hear about it until later. When you do hear about it, say, "Well, that's news to me!" They'll get it sooner or later that you can't hear. Remember, too, that if you only hear part of the story, don't ask about the rest. Let them come to you. That way, you score and win the upper hand.

That's what I'd do if I were you.
 
I'm 14 now, and severely hoh.

I had perfectly normal hearing and a normal life until I was nearing my third birthday, when I was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the neck. It had already spread and was close to crushing my windpipe so it needed to be treated with an aggressive chemo that destroyed most of my hearing in both ears, and treatment continued for about another year until I was in remission, and then more months until I was finally taken off the drugs entirely. During that time I became a hardcore 3 year old videogame enthusiast.

I was outfitted with hearing aids in both ears shortly after I lost my hearing because it was expected, and they certainly helped a lot. Looking back those were rather tinny but they were loud enough and I learned to imitate other people and take context clues. My speech started to become slurry so as soon as I started kindergarten I had to start taking speech lessons. I rarely talked to other people and didn't even notice that talking to other people was an important part of life. I was reliant on teacher aid and was eventually placed in special ed so I could have 5 minutes of reading time while the teacher chased around manic bipolar kids and explained syllable by syllable how to read "Hop on Pop" for an hour and a half. (I don't have anything against these kids but damn if it wasn't a crappy set up for everyone involved)

During that summer my mom learned from a friend how to use closed captioning on the TV. Before I had shunned TV because I thought it was just a bunch of pictures and sound so I played videogames aimlessly wandering around and killing stuff. So I was introduced to pokemon and over the summer I learned how to read incredibly fast and was tossed out of special ed. Because of my reading skills my teacher had me tested for gifted programs and I surprisingly came out at 142 IQ. I was placed in an accelerated class where I learned ahead of most other students but I still rarely talked to people.

I stayed there for 6 years until I had to go to middle school (we moved too) which was an absolute helldump. Kids never physically attacked me or anything, but most of the redneck trailer trash you'll find in Mississippi decided to make fun of and ridicule me. They'd walk up to me and say something extremely quiet and they'd all laugh when I turned around and said what?. The few times that I could understand them it was always something like "Cody wants to **** you in the ass". Eventually I started automatically replying vulgar remarks (not just **** you but creative almost comical ones). I later realized this only made it all the more fun for them and just became absolutely silent. This threw them off eventually and I was just ignored completely for the rest of my time there unable to start a conversation or keep one.

My teaching in middle school was also horrible. My speech teacher was cruel and pedantic making fun of me and the other students she had to teach in a thirty minute period. Half of my teachers maintained that I didn't have a hearing loss and was just using it as an excuse to be lazy and not listen. As if to spite me, my english teacher decided it would be a good idea to make the entire class listen to her read a tale of two cities and told us all we'd get an F for the semester if we ever got our own copy. I got a C in that, which led to me being grounded by my perfectionist parents. The other half of teachers were just uninvolved and didn't care, it translated out to writing assignments on the board. I relied on reading my textbook and google for most of what I learned.

Just this year, we moved out of that dump to VA and the experience has been much better. The high school (freshman) is actually equipped for my problem having 4 students who are hoh. My teachers understand my loss and I have a good speech teacher. The other students are accepting of this but I still can't talk to them.

I've really given up on being succesful in oral communication besides one on one talking. Generally I can only understand someone if they're clear, loud, and facing me in a quiet situation. This is something that rarely happens in a noisy world of mumblers as I'm sure most hoh people here know. I'm planning to go to the NTID/RIT and hopefully embracing the deaf community. I feel it'll be a lot easier to go that way than to endlessly struggle in a hearing world.

Sorry about the long post, but I feel this is the only way to understand and explain it.
 
Commendable post Mockingbird, you remind me of myself in my childhood.
I just wanted to say, pull through, regardless of the turmoil sitting around waiting to brew up.

My experiences are similar to yours, if you were interested to read they're here.
 
I grew up in a hearing world...my biggest peeve is when my in-laws turns off the CC when they watch tv at my house. Oh man, making me fume. How would they like it if I muted the tv when I went to their place.
 
robro182 said:
I grew up in a hearing world...my biggest peeve is when my in-laws turns off the CC when they watch tv at my house. Oh man, making me fume. How would they like it if I muted the tv when I went to their place.
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Go ahead, report back to us.
 
robro182 said:
I grew up in a hearing world...my biggest peeve is when my in-laws turns off the CC when they watch tv at my house. Oh man, making me fume. How would they like it if I muted the tv when I went to their place.
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robro,

You're new here and my nieces used to do the same thing at their grandparents house (my parents). They didn't like it. Well, tough. How else can they (and me) understand what's being said on television? You need to tell your in-laws that the television is yours and they are not to touch it. If they disagree, put the volume down to zero. If that doesn't work, unplug tv when they come over and insist they don't watch it when they come over.
 
I was raised in a mixed-up world. Some would say it was a hearing world and others would say it was a deaf world.

I went to a deaf oral-only institute. So, I never learned sign language until my family moved to another state when I was five years old. Even though I was mainstreamed, I still communicated orally with my hearing family and relatives. The only time I was with deaf people was when I was in school or when I saw them after school. Other than that, it's just hearing for everything else. I did have a couple part-time jobs that were with one or two deaf people, but the rest of my jobs were with hearing people.
 
amazing...I had an accident when I was 3, grew up HOH. Never can use phone even today on right ear...I can hear, but I cannot understand. I use aids. My husband told the Dr he is no longer my hearing aid. I never realized how much my life revolved around my hearing. When walking in the mall, down the street, he was always on my left side. At a restuarant he would order for me because I had a hard time with the noise hearing the waitress. So many things I was missing due to hearing loss but now...new aids about 6 months now maybe, awesome...I can hear so much more.
 
i grew up in the hearing world. since i was born with a mild hearing loss (my former hearing aid audis think this is the case since newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60s/early 70s), there was no reason to place me in a d/hh program.

i was misdiagnosed as having a learning disability due to my total blindness and hearing loss from 3rd-12th grade. i was able to function well until the time i received my first pair of hearing aids at age 15.

by my junior year in high school, i had enough, so i fought the system and had several teacher recommendations for me to participate in honors courses. during the 11th and 12th grade i participated in honors courses and thought nothing more about my so-called "learning disability."

during my freshman year at university, i was given tests to determine whether or not i had a learning disability. the tests were negative and demonstrated that i was performing at least 3 years ahead in each subject. the test also categorized me as "gifted."

sometimes i can't help but feel a great deal of anger about being misdiagnosed, but at least i know the truth.

i also wished that when i received my first pair of hearing aids at age 15 and had moderately-severe loss that i would have been given the opportunity to learn asl. i'm sure that would have made my life so much easier -- especially after my loss became severe-profound approximately 9 years later.
 
In my life, in the hearing world, after high school graduation, I wasn't identified as a deaf or HoH person. They thought I was from another country. I did wear an aid for a long time, but just recently a year ago, my aid got smashed and it can't be used at all. So I've been deaf, but I'm still the same, no one sees me as a deaf person or HoH. They look at me like everyone else. Unless I say "I'm physically disabled" They won't believe me, or they'll ask for proofs. Which is why today, I stopped being "deaf" and started to accept everything, even tho being deaf has many disadvantages, I still am living as the person they thought that I am. Not deaf. It's not hard being "not deaf", all you have to do is be yourself and blend into the environment, bad or good. Anyways, living in the hearing world cannot be avoided, but it's possible. Why cant' it be avoided, cause it's the only world we're actually on. :P
 
I grew up in a hearing environment, my parent decided that they wanted me to be "normal" and be in regular classes, they decided that learning ASL would be a complete waste of my time (nice how they decide whats wasteful). In school my teachers did not believe I was hard-of-hearing, they would always tell me I should stop lying about it and just pay attention. For about 6 months in Elementary school the school district provided a wireless FM system for me to use with my hearing aids... they decided I didn't need it so I lost the ability to use that, but it really did help me tremendously when I did have it.

Other students on the other hand, were very vicious... on several occasions other children would say that requiring hearing aids meant I was mentally retarded and other mean jokes like that. Eventually I just stopped socializing with my peers and I decided to drop out of school... worse mistake ever.

Working, however, I found that my co-workers were much more supportive of my disability and helped me whenever they could. The only time I really ever ran into trouble was when I was working the drive-thru at Jack in the Crack, but thankfully I could turn the headset up loud and lip read most of what my customers at the pay window said (I'd run the whole drive-thru myself on a regular basis)

Now I'm working at UPS with two other deaf guys who are helping me learn ASL which is pretty cool.

So all in all, I think what the major problem is that the educational professionals that deal with hearing students lack the training necessary to help hard-of-hearing student achive their full potential... but thats just my opoinion :D
 
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