Being different (hearing loss only)

Frisky Feline

Frisky Feline

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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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Good question..... since I went to a deaf school so they was all like me. But I guess 5/6. As in Reception/Year 1 me and 3 deaf classmates went over the road(mainstream primary school) for an hour or two, being involved in classes. So obviously there was hearing children and I could tell then. On my statement it did say that when I went over the school I used to pester my CSW where the other children was(meaning deaf friends) and when we'd go back. Also having a hearing brother and sister, my parents used to always make sure I knew I was deaf and could not hear like everybody else.
 
I think I may have been 9. That's so long ago for me it is hard to remember. I may have been a little slow.
 
I asked my mother and she said that I mentioned being totally upset at not being able to hear my friends at church or my brothers at home when I was 4.
 
When I was 7, I think, never told my mom "hey, mom, I can't hear" but I'm still feeling different, I'm 18 now and keep telling my mom I'm not lying about my ear! Life is weird when you get older... :dunno:
 
When I was younger, about 6-8 years old, I told my mum when I grew up I was not going to be deaf anymore :giggle: I was a weird child due to other things I told my parents
 
I don't know. I never actually really thought about it. I always used to forget that I was HOH. I don't think that there was ever a time where it kicked in that I was different because I've always known, but have forgotten. People never treated me any differently... well except for maybe a few (but I didn't realize that they were until I got older).
 
I was about 8 years old when I went to the audiologist to be tested and then tried to put hearing aids on my ears. I rejected the right ear as it was making funny vibration. But I was shocked and surpised to hear some sounds on my left ear. So I had to live with one hearing aid. :roll: Then when I went to mainstream elementary school (first grade) and realized there were hearing children talking and tried to tell me. But I could not hear very well with my hearing aid and I had not talk yet until speech thearpy helped me to talk. It was a new experience at that time. That was in 1954 when I found out that I was different. :(
 
I think I felt different when I was 5 or 6 , because I was the ONLY one who had to take off my hearing aids, and put on a bodyworn FM system at school every morning. This wasn't the type of bodyworn where you could hide under your shirt. It was big and bulky. No one else in my school was deaf or had to wear it. But the more I think about it, I probably was a lot younger because I remember my preschool and wearing it (I even remember my preschool songs).NO one else wore it although I do remember my preschool classmate who couldn't walk so I didn't feel too left out and different.
 
I think it was a slow realization after getting pulled out constantly to work with a teacher for the deaf during classes, going to the audiologists every year, and wearing hearing aids. I think by the time I was 4th grade, I fully understood how different I was from my friends. That was when the problems started..
 
Hm, my gene pool is crowded with deafies so I never noticed (or cared about) my hearing loss until I was a preteen. The discovery slapped me across the face when I was a new student at CSDF... whoa mama, I don't belong to either world! I'm a "hearing deafie" for those who chant for deaf poowwah and I am the clueless HOH gal in a crowd of yabbering hearies.

Even to this day, I am still trying to figure out where I belong. Fortunately, I don't mind having a foot in both worlds. I am able to help hearing and deaf folks converse with one another so hey, why not make my identity dilemma a productive experience for others? ;)
 
I was older

I was 20 when my friends - my English teacher from 8th grade and her husband sat with me at their kitchen table and told me that I could not hear their kids and they could. What a nice way to break the news to me. They were very clear about what they were saying. I did not really understand at first what they were telling me. They had planned it out in advance though and were fully focussed on making sure they got through to me and that I understood it was now up to me to sort out what was going on and deal with it. I did not know I was hard of hearing, how can that be?
 
I am not sure how old i am was. Like some of you who have come slowly dawning realization in our deafness. I would say about 10. But I wasn't upset about it but like I was like oh! I said to myself, "no wonder I was different since I was a kid." Then I have move on until I hit my late teen years. I started to discover how ignorant hearing people are. I think these ignorant people have no common senses like they had no clue how to talk to small deaf kids. I wasn't mad but disappointed with them. Now I do not care if they dont get it or not. i keep going on my life.
 
I'm deaf since birth but i realised when i was about 5

Not being able to hear and then with no speech either school life was very dull, lonely and boring :(
 
inspirabull said:
I was 20 when my friends - my English teacher from 8th grade and her husband sat with me at their kitchen table and told me that I could not hear their kids and they could. What a nice way to break the news to me. They were very clear about what they were saying. I did not really understand at first what they were telling me. They had planned it out in advance though and were fully focussed on making sure they got through to me and that I understood it was now up to me to sort out what was going on and deal with it. I did not know I was hard of hearing, how can that be?
Click to expand...

ok, that was awkward.
 
First grade when I was mainstreamed. I was in a self contained preschool program for about four and a half years.
because I was the ONLY one who had to take off my hearing aids, and put on a bodyworn FM system at school every morning. This wasn't the type of bodyworn where you could hide under your shirt. It was big and bulky
Click to expand...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Oh yeah that oh so lovely FM with the S&M harness!
 
I knew I was different when my momma said "You have to do the best with what God gave you."

No wait, that was Forrest Gump's mother. :D

Seriously, it really never occurred to me one day. It was just something that I always kind of knew. As I grew up, I learned how being different affects me in various situations.
 
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