ABR Hearing Tests Are Fun!

I showed my mom the clip of the young lady under the influence of anesthesia after her wisdom teeth were taken out. If you have not seen this clip, please do. It is hilarious. At least I think it is. 

She said it reminded her of the time I got my ABR (auditory brain stem response) hearing test. Before I tell you the short story, let me explain what an ABR is for those who don't know. It is a hearing test conducted on infants and very young children. It basically measure's the brain's response to sounds. This test is usually done on this age group because you cannot put a baby in a booth and ask him to raise his hand if he hears the tones, right? For the test to be effective, the child has to be absolutely still. Therefore the doctor or nurse will administer a mild sedative to help the child sleep. Then they add electrodes to the head (small pads) to record the electrical responses.

Here is a picture of a newborn getting an ABR test:

Image from: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/CDD/multiple/services/infanthearscreen.asp

Ok, so I was two years old and my mom took me to the hospital to get an ABR test. Unfortunately, when they gave me a sedative it had the opposite effect. I was wide awake but somewhat drowsy at the same time. They thought that perhaps it would help me fall asleep if they wheeled me around in a wheelchair. My mom said that I acted like an overly friendly drunk person. I waved at everyone slurring my words as I jubilantly greeted everyone. I also was yelling, "Whee! Whee!" and laughing hysterically. I had a blast.
I wish I have a video of this.

Later, they gave me some more sedatives and I instantly fell asleep.

You can guess what my results were from the hearing test.

I believe I started wearing hearing aids soon after.

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*Click here to read about hearing tests done on pets.

Parents, I Hear Ya

I think one of the hardest things about being a parent of a child with special needs is having other people tell you how you should raise your child. And once you make the decision you feel is best for your child, you will be criticized by those who don't agree. And you will also be criticized by those who agree, because you are not doing it right. It also must be frustrating when you suggest something and you are told "No" and no one will take you seriously.

I will admit I have been one of those people who criticize. I know better now than to tell parents what to do, I can only suggest and offer advice in the hopes that they will listen and ask questions. I am not a parent, so I feel I have no right telling other parents what to do. I can only offer them advice based on my own personal experiences and on my training as an educator and a professional who works with children and families.

Parents I know you may feel at times that the world is against you. You are not alone.

The best thing you can do is to try to let go of the little things (the teacher who is an idiot, the principal who does not understand why your child needs certain services, confusing IEPs, etc.). Love your child and focus more on living your life. Don't let others bully you and don't beat yourself up, you are doing the best you can.

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Link to this post: http://ehwhathuh.blogspot.com/2010/04/parents-i-hear-ya.html

Kicking Up Dirt! Ashley Fiolek

Someone told me about this fascinating young girl, Ashley Fiolek, who has won two American Women's Motocross Championship games, and she is only 19! And she happens to be profoundly deaf.

I think I will order the book. I would like to read about her life from her perspective as a young person. I wonder what got her into dirt bikes? Click here to read more about her.

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Link to this post:  http://ehwhathuh.blogspot.com/2010/04/kicking-up-dirt-ashley-fiolek.html

Online Hearing Test

 I took an online hearing test called HearingCheck on HearingDirect.com. It is very simple and easy to use. It provides different settings with various background noises. You are asked to select the numbers you think is being spoken.

I tried the test without wearing my hearing aid. Interestingly enough I scored 89%, better than the average person. I don't know if it is because I am really good at distinguishing which number is being said or if I just got really lucky. Numbers are usually easier for me to hear. Also, it helped that I was told that they will be saying numbers. If they had not, and I was to listen and try to determine what is said without the topic given, then I would probably have a harder time. Give me a topic and I'll look at the clues and will determine what is being said. People with several years of deafness are masters at figuring things out. We do this everyday. I know that if the test used random spoken words I would probably fail miserably.

This test is more appropriate for the average person who may think they are having trouble hearing.

I am going to try it wearing my hearing aid and see how well I do.
*Oh dear, I took the test with my hearing aid on and I scored 75% which indicates that I could have trouble understanding speech in noise. They suggest that hearing aids could help. LOL. I took it again with my hearing aid on and scored 78%. 

Ok, then I took it again without my hearing aid--made an 86%. Slightly worse than the first time I took it and way better than with my hearing aid on. Interesting.

I suppose my hearing aid is amplifying the background noise, which makes it harder to understand what is being said. Also, I can't see what is being said.

Therefore, this shows that I really do rely on lip reading. 

Check it out and see how well you do. Tell me what your results are. 

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http://www.hearingdirect.com/
http://www.hearingdirect.com/HearingCheck.htm

Deaf Wannabe: I Wish I Was Deaf

I recently remembered a friend who shared with me that when she was younger she wished she was deaf. She was jealous of some of her classmates who wore hearing aids. I thought that was interesting. I asked her if she still wished she was deaf, and she said, "No, but it would not be the end of the world. I would love to wear hearing aids, though. I wished I had a reason to." I did not know how to respond to that. I suddenly felt the need to hide my hearing aid.

Apparently, there are people out there who wished they were deaf or have some sort of deafness.

Why?!

Also, there are some people who want to wear hearing aids to satisfy their hearing aid fetish. If you have a hearing aid fetish, then you will love this blog. Click on the 'Festooned Hearing Aids' tab in the upper left side area.

Jamie Berke wrote about this as well. She refers to the DeafWannabe forum for people with a deaf or hearing aid fetish, people who wish to be deaf, or people who are deaf by choice. Yes, you read it right, people who are deaf by choice! Jamie Berke wrote about how she received an email from someone asking her how she/he can destroy his/her hearing.

The DeafWannabe forum actually has a WARNING posted:

WARNING: The postings in this site may be controversial, and may contain information about processes which will damage your health. Please think carefully if you intend to damage your hearing, and evaluate the potential risks and long term consequences. Neither the Group Moderator nor any member of the group will accept any liability for the outcome of any action taken by any person who has acted upon any information obtained through this group. This Group is intended as only as a place to express opinion and share experience, and is not intended to influence the actions of any person.

It's no joke. 

All I can say to those who wish they were deaf is to be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

If you want to to be deaf, wear ear plugs everyday for a year. See how you like it.

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Need An Ear?

Remember the Vacanti Mouse or the ear mouse?

(via biomed.brown.edu/)

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Drive Thru: How Do You Do It?

One of the questions I hear people ask is, "How do deaf people order food using the drive through?"
I often wonder this myself. For me, a hard of hearing person, or someone with some deafness, I never really hear what is being said. I can hear the speaker but I always assume they are asking, "Good afternoon. What would you like to order today? Would you like anything else?" I think most people with typical hearing can't hear what is being said anyway. 

What are your experiences? How do you order food at the drive through?

Below is a video about a company, Order Assist, with a mission to install a type of machine that can help many people with communication issues (deaf/hh, speech disorders, etc.) order food effectively at the drive through. I am not hopeful that many fast food restaurants will be willing to use this service. I guess if there is a restaurant who is aware that most of his customers are deaf/hh or have some sort of communication issue, then maybe they would think about using this service.

I think it is a great idea. But, I think the best thing would be to make the drive though accessible for all by including a touch screen menu and then if someone needs help they can push a button to call or type a message.



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IEP Checklist iPhone Application

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(via nurvee)

"Ok, Let's Work On Your R's!"

I received a letter from a reader who shared with me her personal struggles with having a speech impediment:

I'm a mother of two young girls, am moderately deaf and wear two in-the-ear digital hearing aids. My hearing problem, though can be problematic at times, doesn't bother me as much as my speech impediment does. I still, at times, get frustrated with my inability to speak "R's" correctly. I took speech therapy up until 8th grade and even took a few sessions my senior year in college (hoping that you can teach an old dog new tricks). Interestingly enough, I broke down and cried during my initial speech evaluation during college and it was suggested that I seek psychotherapy. At first I took great offense to that suggestion and never did talk to a therapist. Though as the years went by, I realized that maybe that wasn't such a bad idea after all since it is mostly my self-esteem that is impacted by my speech disorder.


About five years ago, I finally started to take "ownership" of my speech impediment and just flat out tell people that are having a hard time understanding me that I have a speech impediment. This is been quite helpful to me and people generally understand, once I bring it out in the open. I usually do this when I have a hard time saying a word and I end up having to spell it out.


My speech disorder does hold me back, though - I'm quite the introvert. Lord knows how I snagged my husband. Though he says that my speech impediment isn't that noticeable (uh, maybe because I generally avoid words with the letter R in them) and doesn't understand why I get so upset. When we were picking names for our kids, I held firmly to the rule of no names with the letter R in them.


Anonymous
_____________________________________________________

I can relate, and I am sure many people with deafness can as well. However, it was not a huge issue for me personally and it did not hurt my self-esteem so much, thankfully. But, it was not easy. Working on my speech was a tiring and long struggle.

I do remember a few times as a child, where other children would make comments about my speech. Some said that my voice sounded strange and some laughed at me whenever I mispronounced several words. But, it never really bothered me and I was fine with letting it slide or telling them exactly why I "talk funny." Once I told them why, they stopped questioning me about my strange voice and move on to other things such as finding out why Johnny has so many freckles on his face.

Like the reader above, I will often find myself substituting words I can never seem to pronounce correctly. Some of these words are  jewelry, and soldier. I am not sure how much this has to do with my deafness. But, I do know that my r's always tend to be long and sometimes sound more like w's, and this has a lot to do with my deafness. I cannot hear the crispness of the r sound. Like the reader above, I had to work on my r's as a kid among other things. I had to be taught directly how to form my r's. I remember during speech therapy saying over and over again, "The rabbit ran over the raspberry bushes."

I worked my little butt off to speak clearly the way I do today. My speech is not perfect, but it is good enough to communicate effectively with others.

It seems to me that I finally began to speak clearly, or well enough, when I was in my young adult years. It took me a long time and a tremendous amount of practice and hard work. One thing I did on my own that helped was read out loud to myself. I made an effort to speak clearly and slowly. I let the words form slowly in my mouth. I could almost taste them. When I am holding meetings, where I am expected to speak like a professional, I make a point to slow down my speech. I have to remind myself to slow it down; otherwise I will jumble my words or mumble.

I believe that my deafness makes me extra aware of my speech or how I talk. I can understand how this extra awareness of one’s own speech impediment can affect his or her self esteem.

It makes it difficult when you cannot hear certain sounds in spoken language. For me, I have a hard time hearing t, s, d, and f. Let’s say someone says the word fight in the sentence as he speaks to me. Unless I can see the person's face, instead of the word fight I may hear ice or something that has a long i sound in it. Most likely, I will guess what he is saying by looking at the context. If the speaker is fiddling with a lamp I will assume that he said the word light. So, you can see how missing out on certain consonants can impact not only how a person communicates with others but also the person's speech. As we learn spoken language we will imitate what we hear.

Sometimes, I will mistakenly substitute a letter that was never there, like the word Illinois. Until a few years ago, I have been pronouncing the s in Illinois. I did not know that the s was silent. I assumed that because I usually can not hear s sounds that you would pronounce the s in Illinois.

Years of practice and speech therapy helped me. I believe that today I speak clearly enough for people to understand me. In fact I get a lot of comments on my interesting accent. No one suspects or think it is because of my deafness. I get a lot of "Oh, Boston, eh?" "Are you from New York or the north?" "Huh, interesting accent. Are you from another country?"

I am sure that the reader above is not alone in developing insecurities and low self esteem due to her speech impediment. Anyone else out there want to share their story? How was it hard and how did you come to terms with it? What are some ways one can deal with his or her own speech impediment?

Feel free to email me your comments if you prefer.

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News for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

NEWS FOR THE HARD OF HEARING!!  DEAF!!  WHAT?!!  AAAAAH!!



(via UpLoadingFriend)

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Cute Skull & Bones Stickers + Hearing Aid

Deaf Contestant on The Price is Right

I like to show this video to my students. It is a fun way to reinforce the idea of not letting your "disability" keep you from participating in things you enjoy or want to do. If you want to be on The Price is Right, go right ahead and give it your best shot. :)

And yes, I am aware that this video has been posted already on DeafRead a while ago. Hopefully, some of you have not seen this yet. 



(via pressmin)

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Hard of Hearing Man: Funny Animation

Ha, ha. This short animation cracks me up. I can totally relate! 
Story of my life. 

(Transcript provided below)



(via Kidney John)

TRANSCRIPT:

HOH Man: You mean to tell me Earth's being invaded by super-intelligent, radioactive zombie monkeys from outer space?

Cashier:  No sir, I asked if you wanted fries with that?

HOH Man: Ohhh... 

Song: There's never a dull moment with Hard of Hearing Man!

HOH Man:  WHAT?!

Signing Deaf Students Deserve Better

I found a good article which discusses the importance of having complete access to fluent language. Language is the foundation of education, after all. Without language, we have little to nothing.

The article is called The 'Dumbing Down' of Language written by Sarina Roffe. She is a proponent for Cued Speech which is what the article eventually discusses.  It explains clearly some of the points I was trying to make about the importance of having access to fluent language in my earlier post. This is directed to pre-lingual deaf children (children with deafness before they have the opportunity to learn their parents’ spoken native language).

Of course I am aware that there are not many qualified fluent signers stepping up to teach deaf children who depend on and use sign language.  Yes, you could say that some signing is better than nothing. But, signing deaf children should not be constantly subjected to poor language models. They deserve better than that. Personally, I think they are better off being mainstreamed with an interpreter than to have poor language models for several years. Think about how many of them go home to poor signing or no signing. Remember 90% of deaf children are born into hearing families. And some of them will choose to go the signing route. Not everyone can afford to send their child to a really good private school or oral school (if they go the oral route).

Maybe the solution would be to start paying our teachers a hell of a lot more. Then maybe more qualified fluent signers would be willing to teach deaf signing youth. 

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Hearing people, especially parents, who live with deaf children often ‘dumb down’ their language to make themselves more easily understood..
Consider the following example. Instead of asking a child what kind of cereal he or she wants for breakfast by listing the options available, the person will just say “Do you want cereal?”
Sometimes the person will point to the cabinet where the cereal is stored. If signing is used, the hearing person is usually not fluent enough to fingerspell the names of the cereals.
This is but one example. This “dumbing down” of language is not intentional. It happens without the hearing person knowing it. After all, many people believe that limited communication is the natural outcome of deafness. Decades of poor academic performance, low levels of achievement, and poor reading skills among deaf children has resulted in a lackadaisical attitude among deaf educators toward the possibility of achievement. 

                                        * * *
The at-large Deaf Culture community should expect more from its educators. They should expect educators to teach them to read so they can compete in the hearing world we live in. They should expect enough of an education so they can be liberated from the newspaper press rooms of yesterday’s generation.


In order to achieve this, hearing parents and teachers must stop ‘dumbing down’ the language they use with deaf children. They need to use synonyms, adjectives and idiomatic expressions more freely. For example, once the child learns a word, switch to a synonym. This will increase vocabulary development. When the child learns couch, then it should become a sofa. Sad should be unhappy, disappointed, frustrated, angry or upset.
Different people say things in different ways. Do you turn off the light, turn out the light, shut the light or close the light? Do you sit on the chair or in the chair? 
                                         

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Link to article cited:
http://www.cuedspeech.org/PDF/vp-dumbing.pdf

Why Teach If You Are Not Fluent In Sign Language?

I don't understand people who go into deaf education wanting to teach in a school for the deaf where they use primarily ASL or some sort of signed language system, and they hardly sign themselves or have only been taking sign language classes for a year or two.

When I was in graduate school, this was the case. Just about everyone wanted to work with deaf and hard of hearing children using sign language. But, many of them were not fluent signers themselves. And they all had typical hearing.

I remember a lot of people could not understand why I refused to teach in a school for the deaf or a class that primarily uses sign language without an interpreter. Even though I had been learning and using ASL for five years, I did not feel comfortable teaching in a language I am not fluent in. This would hinder not only my teaching but how I communicate with my students. It makes so much more sense to have a person who is a native or fluent signer. If they are deaf themselves, even better.

I have observed some teachers in a classroom who are not fluent in ASL, and they would speak at the same time as signing (which is usually not very effective in communicating). They used a lot of English signs or ASL in English grammar. Sometimes they would pause to try to remember what the sign is for a certain object or word. One time a teacher asked another student the sign for a certain word!

I know that I would teach in this way too. I don't think I could do it. On top of all the other crazy demands that come with teaching, I would have to continue to practice using a new language!

Not until I test as a fluent signer will I teach using ASL. For right now, I use ASL as support (all of my students understand spoken language as well).  The interpreters I work with provide them access to fluent language.

Overall, I was upset by the number of teachers going into the profession without knowing much sign language. Most of them tested at intermediate, just enough to get by (at least in the state we tested in). I commend them for trying and wanting to make a difference in a school for the deaf, though.

When I was taking the mandatory sign language proficiency test, the person testing me explained the importance of being fluent in ASL even if I will be working with preschool aged children. He did not have to tell me this, but I realized then that he must experience a lot of people wanting to teach in ASL who are not fluent signers. I passed at an intermediate level, for your information. This meant that I could teach in a school for the deaf or a classroom using primarily ASL without an interpreter.

Scary.

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Related Posts:

• Signing Students Deserve Better 

• The Problem With Some Deaf Education Programs

Permanent Foreign Visitor

Being in a foreign country where another language other than my own is used primarily, made me think about what it must be like to be severely-profoundly deaf and rely primarily on sign language. You always feel left out (when in the company of non-signers). It makes it difficult to communicate on a daily basis with people who don't use your language. However, most signing people with deafness can write or read in the language used by the majority. At least they have that. Some can lip read, but it has been said that really good lip readers usually get only 30% of what is said.

Overall, it is not a comfortable experience.

The thing about being a severely-profoundly deaf sign language user, you can't move to another country or a large area where everyone uses sign language. It is as if you are a permanent foreign visitor in any country you choose to live. If you speak French and only want to communicate in French you can move to France or parts of Africa and other countries where French is the primary language.

For a person with deafness who relies on signs, anywhere he or she goes in the world, the majority will not sign. I understand the desire for signing deaf communities and Deaf Culture.

But with the fast growing amazing technology and instant access to information, the gap between individuals with deafness and individuals with typical hearing will hopefully lessen.

Do some of you feel like a permanent foreign visitor in your country? 

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Communicating in a Foreign Country

I recently went on a trip to a country in Central America where the primary language is Spanish. I had a wonderful time! Great food, wonderful people, beautiful land.

I went there to visit my boyfriend's family. I was nervous and excited. I thought about how we would communicate. I know very, very, very little Spanish. And because of my deafness, perhaps I am a little more aware of communication issues than the average person with typical hearing.  

Everyone in his family spoke just enough English to communicate with me fine, so that was a relief. Also, I noticed that when they spoke in Spanish, I would catch certain words and phrases I recognize and would piece it together to try to figure out what they were saying. Body language and reading facial expressions helped out too. I was doing the same thing I would do when people speak my native language, English.
 
For example, while sitting in the back of the car, his cousin asked me what kinds of food I like. Being that I could not see her face (she was driving), with the noise of rushing wind from the open widows, I assumed that she asked me what kind of music I like. Why? Because she stopped the music that was currently playing, and she was pushing some buttons on the iPod. I thought, "Ok, she is asking me if I like something, she is playing with the iPod, she must be asking me if I like music."

When some of his family and friends would apologize for speaking only in Spanish at times, I would smile and say that it was fine. It was fine, because I am used to it. I am used to sitting there when a whole lot of people were talking at once and not catch what was being said for the most part. So, even when they speak in English I would have the same difficulties understanding, unless I was spoken to directly, face to face. 

So, in this situation, my deafness proved to help me. Because I am constantly having to deal with communication issues in English, I believe that I was not as uncomfortable or frustrated when they would only speak in Spanish, in comparison to people who are used to communicating efficiently with most people on a daily basis.

My boyfriend told me that it took this trip for him to finally understand better what I was going through. He is currently making more of an effort to learn sign language to help us communicate more efficiently at times. :)

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Happy Spring and Easter!