Kat

Sharon works as a teacher for the deaf. She tells us her experience with her kind of hearing loss (sensorineural), and she reminds us that people who are deaf can excel in whatever career they choose. Contact us if you want us to respond to Sharon or ask her a question.

March 03, 2005

My name is Sharon. I am 21 years old. I was diagnosed with a moderate hearing loss at the age of four, which is a late diagnosis. The reason doctors and my parents didn't pick it up any earlier was because my loss is mostly in the low pitched sounds, which means I can hear talking, bells, clapping etc. These are usually the sounds that people test babies for to check their hearing - I would have appeared 'normal'. Also, my parents would never have expected it - I was a healthy baby and there was absolutely no history of deafness in my family.

My hearing loss is in both ears, with my left ear being worse. The loss is sensori-neural so it will never be corrected. This also means that even though I can hear sounds, I cannot often understand them or locate them or recognise them.

I did not need speech therapy or any other type of therapy. As I could hear voices reasonably well, I was able to learn to speak with no problems - especially since my mum speaks very well and I could hear her voice the best. I have always been praised for my ability to speak well. But this is one of those advantages I have that becomes a disadvantage when people don't believe that I can't hear (because my loss is invisible) and when they forget that I can't hear.

I was fitted with hearing aides at the age of four and wore these until I was about eight years old. I stopped wearing them because I had decided that without them, I could hear better (to a point). All my teachers were frustrated with me - they tried all sorts of strategies to get me to wear my hearing aides. It didn't work. The sounds that came through the hearing aides were odd and mechanical, and background noise was so loud! The other reason I stopped wearing my hearing aides was because children at school teased me. They called me 'grandma'. They didn't understand me and laughed when I misunderstood what they said.

I went through school not wearing hearing aides, but surviving. I went on annual camps with other hearing impaired children in the district - this was the best time of my life because I was with other children who understood me and were empathetic towards my situation. It was on these camps that I realised I wanted to work with deaf and hearing impaired people when I finished school.

I went to a high school that had a unit attached to it for deaf students. I was not enrolled in that unit because my hearing loss was not rated sufficient enough to need special education. I didn't mind this, but I really wanted to be with the other deaf students. It was at this high school that I learned sign language. It opened up a whole new world for me. Previously, I had been fully integrated into the 'hearing world', in which I spoke to others and they spoke back to me. I listened with my residual hearing and learned to get along in that way. But when I learned sign language, I found that I understood more of the world. Even though I did not need it for functional purposes, it was great to be able to fully understand conversation without saying 'pardon'.

After high school, I went on to university where I am now studying to be a teacher of the Deaf. My studies also allow me to be a regular classroom teacher and a teacher of all children with disabilities. I have met many deaf students who are also studying at my university - the program for the deaf students is celebrating its 20th year this year. It provides interpreting, notetaking and general services and support specific to people with deafness. It is run by ex-teachers of the deaf and also by some deaf people themselves. It is great to see so many deaf people getting into tertiary education when maybe 30 years ago it was believed impossible. For those of you who need inspiration, we have deaf teachers, lawyers, mathematicians, artists, hospitality workers and many other occupations. And for those of us in teaching, we participate in music - with support and some alteration to the assessment. My very deaf friend even played the recorder as part of her assessment!

As I mentioned before, I had decided not to wear my hearing aides because they did not work well for me and I preferred my own hearing. Earlier, this year, though, my audiologist (the person who tests my hearing and provided me with hearing aides) told me that the type of hearing aides I had been trying to wear were analogue and did NOT suit my hearing loss. So, we tried some new digital hearing aides... And I found that they were excellent! Now, I can hear everything so much better - I can even hear the fridge humming and my dog growling when she sees a cat! These were things I had to feel previously in order to know if they were happening. As you might know, though, hearing aides do not cure the loss, they only amplify sounds to help a person hear everything. You should know that if your child has a sensori-neural hearing loss, the hearing aide will help them to hear all sounds, but understanding those sounds is still difficult. The distortion caused by the nerve damage means that speech is still difficult to decipher. You will have to teach your child to use their hearing aides well, by recognising sounds and knowing that certain sounds mean certain things eg. recognise their name, know what the smoke alarm sounds like etc. Even with my new hearing aides, I still confuse the sound of tyres screeching with a woman screaming. I am now engaged to a wonderful man and we are getting married in two years time. We are planning to buy a house and then have a family later. I think often about my future children - will they be deaf too? I don't know. But if they are, I know that I can support them and I know how far they can go in life, because I have achieved it myself.

Deafness is not a disability, rather it is a characteristic of our personality that helps us to become the person we are. It helps us to see the world in a different view to everyone else and therefore makes us unique. Even among those who are deaf, there is a unique experience with this characteristic. Deafness should be embraced, but even more so, the child with the deafness should be embraced...

(I hope this has helped someone to live with deafness, whether it is their own deafness or a family member or a friend. And I hope that their lives are just as enriched and fulfilled as mine is.)