Being different (hearing loss only)

Wow! I just ran up on this thread just now, but it is amazing how almost every one your stories all match up to what I am saying a child is developmentally capable of understanding about their deafness, and the age span at which they begin to understand it.:shock:
 
Some of my earliest memories have to do with a sound booth that the adui put me in. I remember it quite well because it was a very strange experience for me. This was shortly before I got my first HA.

I remember going to St. Paul's Oral school and every one in my class wore HAs like me but I don't think I was really aware of it.

I remember my teacher teaching me how to say ball. I remember seeing seat covers with names on them and soon I knew that K-r-i-s was the tiny black haired girl's name and that r-o-n-n-i-e belonged to the black haired boy.. I didn't connect the names with the sounds though. I must have been 2 o 3 then. More likely 3 or 4 now that I think about it. This was the year before I entered Kindegarten.

Although I've known that I could not hear like others since I was 7, I didn't really become aware of being different till 4 grade. I thought somehow I'd be hearing as adult cuz i didn't know any deaf adults; my dorm supervisor and my science teacher at VSDB were the first deaf adults that I ever met.
 
Well, I lost my hearing when I was 5 so I didn't really know I was different until 2nd or 3rd grade was when I started realizing I was different (mainstream throughout my school years) since thats when the bullying all started.
 
I first knew I was deaf the first time I had a crush on a hearing girl and tried to talk with her.
 
I think I was eight? Not sure. Eventually, I accepted my deafness when I was like ten or so.
 
I probably felt different when I went back to my local schools which is centerville city schools. Because I started doing band when I entered middle school, and I felt different because nobody else is deaf but me. And I felt like that makes me unique :D
 
I was about 7 when I noticed it outside of family. About 4 I think when I noticed it amongst famiy but didn't know to say anything then, nor did I know to say anything later until the school nurse called me out for not hearing during the stopwatch test.

Also, it was at 7 years, when I was reading the reader in class, that I realised I was pronouncing words differently to what I saw on the page.
 
It took me well into my adult years to finally figure out I was different. Growing up, I honestly never thought I was different than anyone else. I never even thought about my hearing loss other than that it was just another thing about me. I always felt that everyone was equal. I never even thought about putting people into different classes because I didn't believe in it. It was like a religion for me. When things happened I thought any troubles I had happened to everyone.

Today, I have a much different view of things.
 
when I was about 10 my brother told me all the cool things regular hearing people could do. Like filter sounds, and tell where sound was coming from. I remember telling him I though he had super hero powers because of his abilities. What he described, to me, was just as cool as x-ray vision.
 
GuidoSarducci said:
Well my hearing loss really hit hard when I was in my early 20s and substitute teaching. Long story short there was a situation arose that I didn't understand was whats going on because I couldn't comprehend. Afterwards one of the teachers commented to another teacher that I knew that I shouldn't be in teaching if I couldn't hear well.
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hmm.. yeah.
Subbing is a dangerous situation because the kids could feel like doing anything.
Things are a bit different when they're "your kids" but when you're subbing you have to get on top of them for everything :/ otherwise they think they can walk all over you.
 
The school district where I work holds the kids responsible for sub abuse, because they want subs to come back. Consequences I think are more serious for sub abuse.

Last year I subbed in a difficult classroom. One student was most of the problem. I called the office, and told them that student was being disruptive, to please page him to the office. I always write a detailed report.

I got called in to sub this year. The teacher said that one hour was going to be difficult. There was a student in the class who was excruciatingly polite, but did nothing other than call me Ms. Bacon instead of Baker. The class was not a problem. In my report I commented on the oddity. Then a few days later I realized why.

I generally work in the same building, so the kids know me. Middle school-- I know, I know. There is one elementary that calls sometimes. Some of the kids in both buildings are remarkably helpful. The elementary calls me particularly for classrooms that have a higher % special ed, since that is my area.

Hopefully they won't expect me to pick up phone calls this year, their phone system is crap.

As for hearing loss and realizing it was a problem, that is wound up in a more painful issue that I would rather not discuss.
 
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not sure how old i was, my grandma (who helped raise me) told me that when i was in elementry school, still very young, she was walking behind me in the hallway, making the s and r sounds and i didnt hear her. my older bro was diagnosed with hard of hearing around age 3
 
Frisky Feline said:
How old were you when you realize that you were different than others who can hear?

I know this question is kind of dull. But I am curious. :fruit:
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Nine years ago, when my mother and I visited my aunt in Sicily. It was nice to know I was a part of something special....:D

Never thought hearing or not made me different...but that's me....

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
Nine years ago, when my mother and I visited my aunt in Sicily. It was nice to know I was a part of something special....:D

Never thought hearing or not made me different...but that's me....

Laura
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That wasn't really the question. I doubt that you failed to realize that hearing and not hearing were not the same thing.
 
I am 61 mine happened in 2006 brain tumor.. so I have late deafness,, most people dont like to repeat or figure out how to talk to you. I was looseing hearing be fore that I guess maybe in the 80's but then the sudden blank came..
 
Jiro said:
both of my feet are in both worlds :aw:

I just hope it doesn't get split so far apart that my pants will rip from my rear end :giggle:
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I would like to stay in both worlds but sometimes you have no choice. You are shiped viva email with no return postage..:giggle::giggle:
 
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