"i'm a little bit deaf"....

DeafNerdMommy said:
What I find funny is when I tell people I am hoh, they always tell me that they have some kind of hearing loss also. So I offer to hook them up with my audie to see if they need ha and rhey always tell me "Oh it's not that bad, I'm just a little bit hoh." (Or something along those lines.) Why did they bring it up if it was a none issue?!?!
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I have an answer for you. People say this some times conscious sometimes Unconsiously. Its a bit a way to make people think the understand when they don't. I have looked into things like this quite recently and it seems to be a human act to make either the person speaking feel better or themselves feel better.
people do this ALOT in the hearing world. "Oh i understand, I have the same issue" its a fake thing for people to say when they don't know what to say.
"little bit deaf" in the hearing world does mean less can still hear 10-20 dp Can have a conversation, might struggle slightly, But not enough to need Aids or other.
Is a false sympathy also. I want some to say 'there, there everything going to be alright' even though the other person suffers worse than the person stating 'i am a little deaf'
basically translates in simple terms to 'I struggle some times but I cope'
 
zeefour said:
OMG that's awful!!! I hated middle school, when I talked I was called retarded by the mean girls. I was 6' tall at age 11 and looked like a stick. I grew up in the poor condos near the trailer park with two little brothers and played on a guys ice hockey team and was a tomboy when my teammates ganged up and made fun of me (eventually a handful became my best friends to this day) and brought their GFs the cute little blonde hearing girls who made my life hell. middle school was when the kids who lived near me (they all spoke Spanish I was excluded so at least they were nice enough to me) had to join up with the super rich awful kids who lived up valley near the ski resort.

I tried to join drama . I tried out for the wizard of oz and practiced my try out speech for weeks. they made me be a tree. they said it was "so inspiring" I tried out and they "wanted to include me" so they made me be a god forsaken tree. I was mortified I got made fun of endlessly. I did sports because I didn't have to talk and I was tall and that's how I got a scholarship. it was nice enough to be known for something besides being the "poor hearing impaired girl"

We need to have a support group!!
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I was shut down, too. The school said I wasn't smart enough to enroll in algebra a year earlier than it was standard to take. I wound up acing my math scores on my ACT and SAT so they wanted me in precalc. I had not taken anything close to that.
When I wanted to join chorus since the whole school was in it, they said since my speech was not perfect i could not join it. When I wanted to learn French they said that I could not take it because of my partial deafness -- excuse me we had it on in my elementary classrooms for the last 2 years!

It is very, very frustrating trying to find our own spot in the hearing world when we have partial deafness!
 
Jane B. said:
And how are the supposed to get to know what you say they should do?
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Hearing parents need to get their deaf or partially deaf child enrolled in all the different things that are available so the child learns it's okay to be deaf. They must learn ASL and lip reading. They should attend camps that are available for the deaf children. The biggest hurdle is feeling that they are so imperfect that they cannot succeed, even today with so many resources out there.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
What I find funny is when I tell people I am hoh, they always tell me that they have some kind of hearing loss also. So I offer to hook them up with my audie to see if they need ha and rhey always tell me "Oh it's not that bad, I'm just a little bit hoh." (Or something along those lines.) Why did they bring it up if it was a none issue?!?!
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I totally get what you mean! There are so many people at my school that say “I have a little bit of hearing loss too” once I explain my situation. But they don’t realize that no matter how hard they try, they’ll won’t understand what it’s like to have enough hearing loss to need ha ...if that makes sense. I’ve recently just started calling myself deaf, even though I’m HOH, because I’m almost fully deaf and they never understand what HOH means.
 
rockin'robin said:
Huh?...never taught what hard of hearing is?...
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Well, in a ways, it makes sense what he’s saying because as a child when I got my ha I called myself hearing impaired and I knew no other term for it until my deaf father told me I should say HOH because he explained that I am not impaired.
 
Nita Thomas said:
Hearing parents need to get their deaf or partially deaf child enrolled in all the different things that are available so the child learns it's okay to be deaf. They must learn ASL and lip reading. They should attend camps that are available for the deaf children. The biggest hurdle is feeling that they are so imperfect that they cannot succeed, even today with so many resources out there.
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Once again we have a post that says "Hearing parents need to get their deaf or partially deaf child . . . . . " but does not say anything about how those hearing parents are supposed to know they need to do that.
 
Jane B. said:
Once again we have a post that says "Hearing parents need to get their deaf or partially deaf child . . . . . " but does not say anything about how those hearing parents are supposed to know they need to do that.
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Well one way would be for the doctor's and audiologist to stop being audists and to advise parents of EVERYTHING that is available to children with hearing loss. Another is, in this day of easy access to info, the parents should be doing their research on how to help their child.
 
Jane B. said:
Once again we have a post that says "Hearing parents need to get their deaf or partially deaf child . . . . . " but does not say anything about how those hearing parents are supposed to know they need to do that.
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LoveBlue said:
Well one way would be for the doctor's and audiologist to stop being audists and to advise parents of EVERYTHING that is available to children with hearing loss. Another is, in this day of easy access to info, the parents should be doing their research on how to help their child.
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I have no argument with what you mention as was to find out. But what I have been bring up is how many say what hearing parents should do but don't offer anything about how those hearing parents are supposed to know about those things. Like they should just know because their child is deaf or HOH!
 
Boot up computer/laptop
Connect to the internet
Open a browser
Type in google.com
type in search box one of the following:
education for deaf hard of hearing
what do I do now that I have a deaf child?
resources for deaf and hard of hearing (add your state if you want to narrow it down)
Where can I learn ASL
where can i find information on sign language
schools for the deaf / programs for the deaf

Ask on forums focused on deafness/HOH... most of us don't bite
Ask on Facebook groups (though many are secret or hidden and/or are not that friendly)
Ask doctors (do so with a grain of salt... most have zero clue or idea what info is out there... it's not taught in medical school- it should be... though any students with relatives or friends who are deaf will have a bit better understanding...)
Look in the phone book if they still exist. Pretty sure that's how my parents found their way along with pediatrician help (they don't talk much about those days...)

Yes many of us do say "Parents should do x, y and z" but doesn't mean we must then also lay out everything- if parents ASK then sure we can help them find the right direction in their research/journey.

Yes I'm being semi sarcastic but honestly.... parents should not be afraid to ask if they want to know something. I don't volunteer or give information unless either I'm asked or it affects me directly (aka "HEY! we need to work together in setting up an interpreter for DPL" (recent experience in Utah. I didn't exactly ask around but did a ton of research online and asking my VR counselor for his viewpoint.
 
I was not trying to say that those that say parents should do X, Y & Z need to write a lot about how to find out about those things. My point was that so many say they should do certain things but give no suggestions at all of how to find out about those things.
 
Ahh.. so.. one must provide suggestions along with their opinions every time? I think that's all it is with many people's posts on "They should do X, Y and Z"- it's their opinion. I see the same with other topics- like coding practices or ahh my favorite "the proper way to code this or that" yet many times they leave out resources or suggestions.. 'rants' or opinions but no suggestions on better ways to do something.

And as I said...most times the opinions/comments of "What they should be doing is...." is not really directed to anyone. On the other had if someone in the conversation asks, "What can I do?" Then I'm sure others will be more than happy to provide suggestions or assistance.

My point was that not every opinion or "rant" if you will has to have a rider attached with resources or suggestions.


Something we'll have to agree to disagree on I suppose.
 
Jane B. said:
But . . .yet I remember seeing so many posts here suggesting to refer to your self as deaf even if you can hear some.
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I think each person should address themselves with however they feel comfortable doing. Sometimes, when I get bored and feel like mixing things up just to see reactions, I will be like.... "Hi, Im Kim and I am hearing challenged."
 
Tetracyclone said:
I too have a profound and progressive hearing loss. As others mention, I shifted to using the words "deaf" or "almost deaf" to get people's attention better. "Hard of hearing" elicits less cooperation.
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I agree with this. Progressive loss and everyone is used to when I was “hearing” before the loss affected me. It’s now profound and I can’t hear anything without the aids. I compensate with lip reading but we all know that isn’t too helpful. I fully developed speech before my hearing loss began and therefore my speech is good so people don’t understand how I can’t hear them. It’s unfortunate that in the “hearing world” I have to say I’m deaf but in the “deaf world” I have to say HoH because I’ve been looked down upon for functioning well in the “hearing world”. I don’t know many deaf people in my area. I always see events but I’m too scared to attend.
 
Bear said:
I think each person should address themselves with however they feel comfortable doing. Sometimes, when I get bored and feel like mixing things up just to see reactions, I will be like.... "Hi, Im Kim and I am hearing challenged."
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For people I don't know or people who would have no way of knowing my situation I generally say something like, "Sorry, I'm pretty much deaf, but if you speak up a bit I can probably hear you OK."

For people who already know that I'm "pretty much deaf" but insist on speaking quietly (or worse, whispering) I say, "Yo dude. You know I can't hear for &#!%. If you're looking for a response from me you gonna have to speak the %*#@ up!"

I never refer to myself as simply deaf. With a 110dB loss I'm deaf. But since I can converse with aides if just confuses people when I say I'm deaf but still can hear what they're saying. Inversely Hearing. That may be a phrase I'll start using.
 
I get that too. I tell people that I’m deaf, and then I surprise them by understanding (lipreading) them and speaking, they’re totally confused!
 
I feel sorry for the sods who are a "little bit deaf" because they'll never get along as well as I can in the hearing world being severely-profoundly deaf from the get-go. I know plenty of sods who are a "little bit deaf" and envy me because I can read lips and sign circles around all of them. They ask me how do you learn how to lip read.... a lifetime of practice, that's how.

That being said... there's a wide spectrum of hearing loss out there... from mildly hard of hearing to totally deaf. I call myself hard of hearing and I am NOT deaf.... even though the difference between the two is putting my hearing aids on and off. I don't care for Deaf culture as I'm not a part of that world and never will be... I'm a hard of hearing country boy not a big city deaf with my own "culture".
 
rockin'robin said:
What's a "little bit"?...find it odd some people do say that...either you're Deaf or HOH...unless you want to explain about ur CI or HA....Many times I've been conversing with people and letting them know that I'm Deaf...and they say..."I'm a little bit Deaf in this ear"...
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when I say I'm deaf, people stop talking to me
 
rockin'robin said:
What's a "little bit"?...find it odd some people do say that...either you're Deaf or HOH...unless you want to explain about ur CI or HA....Many times I've been conversing with people and letting them know that I'm Deaf...and they say..."I'm a little bit Deaf in this ear"...
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