Jason Paul
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2014
- Messages
- 67
- Reaction score
- 0
Hello, everyone!
I am fairly shy (even though I sometimes don’t seem to be so), which is the reason I have not posted yet, and have only been watching for the little bit of time that I have been registered, and have now decided to post an introductory about myself.
My name is Jason, a Canadian in my mid-teens. I am hard of hearing in both ears, a sensorineural bilateral loss, with my right ear being profound, while my left ear is moderate-severe. I was born a year before it became mandatory that hearing tests were performed on all babies after birth, so my hearing loss was missed by the doctors, although my parents had noticed fairly quickly, since I was not responding too much to noise. After a lot of persistence from my parents, the doctors had an audiologist give me a hearing test when I was three years old, through which it was found that I am hard of hearing, and so I got my first pair of hearing aids when I was four years old.
I’m going to fast forward a bit, because I could talk on and on about the first few years of my life. I went to a lot of schools, and got bullied quite a bit throughout those years, until I was 10. It was mostly verbal, but it still hurt.
Shortly after I turned seven years old, I went to my ENT doctor with my mom. The doctor had me take my hearing aids out as he did his check up, and told my mom that I was going to be deaf within a year, and that there was not much point in my wearing hearing aids anymore (looking back, I don’t get why he said that – the hearing aids were still helping, even if only minimally). Despite the ENT’s recommendation I wore my hearing aids, and my parents were (and still are) very supportive, and a year later, much to the ENT’s surprise my hearing had actually gotten better, instead of worsening as he had predicted.
Since then, I have moved to escape bullying (I’m much happier now), and not much else has changed, although my hearing has gotten worse, and I have developed tinnitus (I’m currently listening to a sound just like my lawn mower – a great lullaby for sleeping, haha). I’m super excited for my next year of high school with the courses I selected (mostly Math, English, and History based). I have been in mainstream school pretty much my whole life, just because all the Schools for the Deaf near the places I have lived kept closing down. At my current school, there are other d/Deaf/hard of hearing students, and so this year I am going to try to get over my social shyness and awkwardness and meet a few of them (right now, other than myself, I do not know of anyone who is d/Deaf/hard of hearing).
I am trying to learn American Sign Language, and I have some resources (my mom’s university textbook from a class she took, and websites), and I don’t know much but I would like to take a college or university course in which I could learn American Sign Language from an instructor though, because I worry I am not learning ASL right, and because I am finding it hard to learn signs from a book. The school I am going to is near a college that I think has courses in ASL, so I am thinking I could take evening ASL courses during high school. My family is learning some American Sign Language as well, which is great. If I go to an ASL class, one of my relatives would likely go with me, so I’ll have someone to practice with.
Anyways, those are the main parts of my life and my hearing history. My parents don’t really want me putting very personal information about myself on the internet, which I respect, so if there is something I have left out that you guys would like to know, I will answer unless my parents are uncomfortable with it.
I may not post too much in different topics, just every once in a while, but I just wanted to let you all know who I am, where I come from, and that I am here.
I hope you are all having a great day!
-Jason Paul
I am fairly shy (even though I sometimes don’t seem to be so), which is the reason I have not posted yet, and have only been watching for the little bit of time that I have been registered, and have now decided to post an introductory about myself.
My name is Jason, a Canadian in my mid-teens. I am hard of hearing in both ears, a sensorineural bilateral loss, with my right ear being profound, while my left ear is moderate-severe. I was born a year before it became mandatory that hearing tests were performed on all babies after birth, so my hearing loss was missed by the doctors, although my parents had noticed fairly quickly, since I was not responding too much to noise. After a lot of persistence from my parents, the doctors had an audiologist give me a hearing test when I was three years old, through which it was found that I am hard of hearing, and so I got my first pair of hearing aids when I was four years old.
I’m going to fast forward a bit, because I could talk on and on about the first few years of my life. I went to a lot of schools, and got bullied quite a bit throughout those years, until I was 10. It was mostly verbal, but it still hurt.
Shortly after I turned seven years old, I went to my ENT doctor with my mom. The doctor had me take my hearing aids out as he did his check up, and told my mom that I was going to be deaf within a year, and that there was not much point in my wearing hearing aids anymore (looking back, I don’t get why he said that – the hearing aids were still helping, even if only minimally). Despite the ENT’s recommendation I wore my hearing aids, and my parents were (and still are) very supportive, and a year later, much to the ENT’s surprise my hearing had actually gotten better, instead of worsening as he had predicted.
Since then, I have moved to escape bullying (I’m much happier now), and not much else has changed, although my hearing has gotten worse, and I have developed tinnitus (I’m currently listening to a sound just like my lawn mower – a great lullaby for sleeping, haha). I’m super excited for my next year of high school with the courses I selected (mostly Math, English, and History based). I have been in mainstream school pretty much my whole life, just because all the Schools for the Deaf near the places I have lived kept closing down. At my current school, there are other d/Deaf/hard of hearing students, and so this year I am going to try to get over my social shyness and awkwardness and meet a few of them (right now, other than myself, I do not know of anyone who is d/Deaf/hard of hearing).
I am trying to learn American Sign Language, and I have some resources (my mom’s university textbook from a class she took, and websites), and I don’t know much but I would like to take a college or university course in which I could learn American Sign Language from an instructor though, because I worry I am not learning ASL right, and because I am finding it hard to learn signs from a book. The school I am going to is near a college that I think has courses in ASL, so I am thinking I could take evening ASL courses during high school. My family is learning some American Sign Language as well, which is great. If I go to an ASL class, one of my relatives would likely go with me, so I’ll have someone to practice with.
Anyways, those are the main parts of my life and my hearing history. My parents don’t really want me putting very personal information about myself on the internet, which I respect, so if there is something I have left out that you guys would like to know, I will answer unless my parents are uncomfortable with it.
I may not post too much in different topics, just every once in a while, but I just wanted to let you all know who I am, where I come from, and that I am here.
I hope you are all having a great day!
-Jason Paul
to gossip center!
so... if you want to practise for someone or just gossip/chat ım here a lot of time