Were you lied by schools and/or parents that you were "hearing?"

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O*I*C said:
31, Ohio and no special accomadations were made for me. Not even front row seating in school. I was led to believe that I was just slightly hard of hearing my whole life until recently when I became active in the Deaf community and began to learn sign and realized that a profound/severe loss is not even close to being equal to a slight hearing loss like I grew up thinking.

I am still amazed that there is a much easier way for me to communicate with other individuals by using ASL. The impact it made on my life when I found this out was tremendous. Going to events, meeting other people like myself and not struggling to communicate with them, now I finally feel "normal".
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My story is exactly like O.I.C (except I was given front row seating for most of my school years - that was my only accomodation) One year, even that was not given to me. In addition to that it was a new school for me and the teacher kept making a ridicule of me in front of the whole class stirring mockery. I am now using sign language advocating voice off.
 
Wirelessly posted

For those of you not in the U.S., even if this is a regional stasticial study let's not hestitate to share our stories. Audism is not just limited to one country, it's global.
 
Yuppers. 29 Colorado.

I was very very fortunate to have loving parents that acknowledged that I needed to have visual language and education. They sent me off to a Deaf school after the mainstream schools tried to tell them what to do with me that didn't jive with them too well. I know this was hard on them but it was the best decision overall.
 
Ummm I dont think I should have to say please stay on TOPIC.. Please and Thank you
 
jillio said:
I am a user of statistics, and I always thought the "statistical" part of your hyphenated word was implied by the context.:P I think some people just don't bother to take context into consideration when deciding on the definition of a word.:P
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There goes my dream of convincing the world, I can't even convince everyone on this thread! :P:D

It's OK, I predict I'll live. I'm new to the forum and I'm really enjoying reading the posts here, including yours. This is a great board.

BTW, I wrote up a few memories of what it was like for me to be the only HoH kid in a public school for hearing students in my blog space:
http://www.alldeaf.com/blogs/jazzbe...ies-hard-hearing-kid-mainstreamed-school.html

Thought it would be too long to post to a thread.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Is that recent photo of you, you look younger than 65!
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Thank you for the compliment for me to look younger than 65 years old. I think it is because the oil on my brown skin make me keep young, I suppose. :dunno:

Also I never drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes or get involves in drugs like some kids do in the past. I tried to stay healthy enough even if I have high blood pressure. I don't have diabetes, yet. Hope not. :fingersx: My sister has diabetes. :(
 
jillio said:
Yes, I am anxious to see their responses. But from the stories that have been related over time from AD members, I think most will agree that they were made to feel that the only way to be normal was to speak and be mainstreamed.
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And yet the irony is that even those of us who speak well got made fun of or thought we weren't exactly bright b/c of the way we speak. The thing is.......spoken language is a really good gift. Heck, if I have a deaf kid I will have them in spoken language therapy, but ALONG with ASL! So much of it boils down to parental attitude. I can pretty much guarentee that if ASL and Deaf Ed was portrayed as " Your child can be BILINGAL and be a part of an amazing culture." rather then the audist " Oh your child has to learn a "speshal needs" language, and go to a speshal school. If they don't learn ASL and don't go to special schools they can be *gasp* NORMAL.
God, even the ads for auditory verbal therapy push that *gasp* they don't even teach SPEECHREADING....which of course is a CRUTCH!
 
Berry said:
Neither deaf nor a parent of deaf

But

The fact the attitude the OP is talking about is still in full force is an incident I have related before.

We were signing in a large store when the parents of a two year old girl came up and asked us to "stop doing that" because their daughter was deaf and they did not want her "contaminated" by being exposed to signed language.

Why?

Because they wanted her to grow up to be a "normal" child with a normal childhood.

This was in Northern California a short while before I joined AllDeaf.
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Fucking auditory verbal propaganda. It all boils down to the assumption that hoh= more hearing then deaf. Where the FUCK did they EVER come up with that? One of the biggest things that annoys me to NO END about auditory verbal and "mainstreaming ASAP" advocates, is that they really tend to brush the huge psychological downsides of their " Your child can grow up healthy and normal!" Look I understand it was hard finding out your kid was dhh....but a LOT of parents would do far far better with going to see jillo and getting psychologically adjusted!
 
rebeccalj said:
Better that a Deaf school not have audist teachers.

My experience was different. We signed when I was little and I don't really know why my mother stopped allowing it and wanted me to be hearie. Nobody at the school provided any translators but I was seated at the front. I guess they figured if I sat closer I might hear better. :laugh2: Uhm, no, but my lip reading was perfected so it wasn't all bad.

The problem with the mainstream approach is that I always felt so different but couldn't articulate why or what exactly it was that made me feel different. Watching other kids play and verbally communicate so easily with each other during recess is a very lonely existence for a deaf child. Longing to be able to communicate with my friends the way they were. In their own language. Why couldn't I have mine?
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You know....that is exactly why inclusion is such fucking bullshit. Solotaire kids really miss out on SO much. Some of them have the typical hearing kid experiance educatiallly...........but so often even the kids who do well educationally with minimal accomondations, have horrible horrible social emotional issues. And that is going to be very true for this generation of early implanted early mainstreamed kids. Their parents are just going to be told the exact same crap by the "professionals" that shel90's, mine, bajagirls and countless others on here, were told.
 
jillio said:
I remember exactly who you are talking about. jackiesolanzaro or something close to that. And yes, she had some very disturbing philosophies regarding deafness and deaf education.

You are very welcome!:wave:
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Oh hell yes. She was stereotypcial AG Bell "oral education and auditory verbal will allow my child to reap the rewards of the hearing world!"
Like she was one of those parents who saw the super high achievers and thought that the high achievers represented the average kid......sigh.
 
deafdyke said:
Oh hell yes. She was stereotypcial AG Bell "oral education and auditory verbal will allow my child to reap the rewards of the hearing world!"
Like she was one of those parents who saw the super high achievers and thought that the high achievers represented the average kid......sigh.
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Yep. Sad when you think about the consequences for the kids.:( They are definately getting those messages the OP was referring to.
 
deafdyke said:
You know....that is exactly why inclusion is such fucking bullshit. Solotaire kids really miss out on SO much. Some of them have the typical hearing kid experiance educatiallly...........but so often even the kids who do well educationally with minimal accomondations, have horrible horrible social emotional issues. And that is going to be very true for this generation of early implanted early mainstreamed kids. Their parents are just going to be told the exact same crap by the "professionals" that shel90's, mine, bajagirls and countless others on here, were told.
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Lots of emotional issues. While I was raised hearie I was always very blunt and didn't understand social, how do you say, etiquette for certain things? I never understood why being blunt and open was such a big deal and never felt like I 'fit' in. That can play with your head.

Fortunately, that was years ago. I'm 'normal' now. :laugh2:
 
jillio said:
Yep. Sad when you think about the consequences for the kids.:( They are definately getting those messages the OP was referring to.
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I certainly got those messages. I think my competive streak come from a belief that I have to do everyhting better than others just to be considered equal. There's healthy competion and the kind that isn't healthy. It's not healhty to beat yourself up over your short comings.
 
rebeccalj said:
Broke my heart to read that.
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It's really hard to think about my what kind schooling I had because it brings up too many horrible thing about my childhood. So I will just read what other say.



Guess what , you're not going to get your wish!
 
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"Hearing-like"

YES, my age is 28 and I am in Virginia.

Growing up in Michigan and mainstreamed in a private religious elementary and high school, I was given hearing aids. It felt like they were telling me you are hearing, but not a whole person, so here are HAs. They also had me meet with a speech therapist for a couple hours each week for a couple years in elementary school. It felt like someone was trying to splash a coat of paint on something to pass it off as new rather than how they saw me as something with poor workmanship. I felt like a product that no one in the world (read hearing world) would buy since I wasn't a whole (read hearing) person unless I could fake it.

My parents were lied to as well. They wanted everything in the world for me and didn't care if I was hearing, deaf, or anything else. They thought that what they were being told to give me was what was best for me as a person. Since college and learning some sign, they have even accepted me as a culturally Deaf person and have tried to learn some signs (especially the "important" ones like "bathroom where?" and "Taco Bell run" :P)

I should add that I managed to do very well academically, but because I had my twin sister by my side taking the same classes. She accompanied me to college, but not the same classes. By then I was given CART and notetakers and started ASL. Doesn't mean there weren't consequences to the way I grew up.
 
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jillio said:
I have a doctorate in clinical psychology. A PsyD and a Ph.D in Psychology are exactly the same degree: doctoral degrees in the field of psychology. License is the same, governing organiztions the same, priviledges the same. Maybe you need to inform yourself before running your fingers across the keyboard. But, hey, why try something new?
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Oh so you are a licensed Psychologist then? Just curious.... I was thinking you were a licensed counselor...
 
33, California (currently resides in TX)

I've been to the John Tracy Clinic before (around early 1980s), when I was a kid. There was no ASL at all.

My parents were observing there, and made their decision, before they sent me there just for the summer to see if I felt comfortable there or not. After the summer, my mother asked me if I continued to stay there. I simply answered her "no", and did not tell her why. My mother listened and sent me to the mainstreamed school where I learned SEE 2 for the first time.

Years later, I was in my early 20s, and some conversation came up randomly. I told her my observations from the John Tracy Clinic- such as some oral teachers said to their classmates- like "Good job! You do have a hearing voice." and "It is good to hear your beautiful sounds.", and "You speak better than me." Et cetera.. I watched a few kids covering their eyes quickly with their hands to try not to cry so hard after trying to pronouncing the same word repeatedly. Some oral teachers waited for them to finish crying, then continued to pronounce until they got it right. I felt the environment was cold, and uneasy. Also, the kids and I were on the floor watching the local tv news because this deaf teen was from the John Tracy Clinic, and could speak miraculously. Some of us had no clue what she said on the tv. No oral teacher told us ever what she said on the tv. My mother was shocked to hear all kind of stories, and asked me "Why didn't you tell me!" I knew my mother would be furious at them. That is very typical of her. She would raise hell if the d/Deaf students were treated in any inappropriate way. Dang, I should have told her in the first place, eh.
 
TXgolfer said:
Oh so you are a licensed Psychologist then? Just curious.... I was thinking you were a licensed counselor...
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Do you need a link to the two degrees? They perform and are licensed the same, except PsyD is more clinical based and PhD more research based.

You could have looked that up, unless you just wanted to make insinuations.
 
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