**Eliz77**

Re: **Eliz77**

• Eliz77 member

  

  May 2012 edited May 2012

  Hi! Ask away! I knew you taught in a deaf school but I was not sure if you were deaf yourself. 

  
  

  I know a little bit of ASL, just enough to have a decent conversation! I lost my hearing as a 3 year old as result of concussion, so I was already talking. My mom enrolled me in a deaf nursery school where I learned to sign, but then I went to mainstream public school so I never got to really learn how to have conversations through signing. I do wear hearing aids. 

  
  

  As an undergrad, I toyed with the idea of takinhg education in hopes of working for the School of the Deaf, and now I wish I had pursued it! I live in Westchester County, NY so close to the school.

  
  

  I know you are a teacher-what do you teach? Must be very rewarding to help kids when you understand 1st hand their challanges. 

  
  

  Nice to meet you! 

  ~ES~

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• mekiakoo member

  

  May 2012 edited May 2012

  Wow! That's scary- losing your hearing from a concussion. It must have been a bad one. what happened?
  
  Are you still able to understand sounds with your hearing aids? I understand nothing with hearing aids- I mean I can hear sounds, but they all sound the same, kind of like a static. It's difficult for me to separate background noises with other noises. So I don't wear any.
  
  Actually I teach American Sign Language at a public school (not at a deaf school). I teach high school students. But I grew up going to deaf schools. I actually teach 2 deaf students also, 5th & 11th grader (ASL skills and math).
  

  

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• Eliz77 member

  

  May 2012 edited May 2012

  I fell off the swing set in our backyard-attempted to do something I had learned in tumble-gym class, I guess! I don't really remember what happened, but I do remember when my parents started realizing I couldn't hear-I think because I was so young, I adapted quickly and figured out how to read lips. When I didn't respond to people, they just assumed I was being a independent toddler. But I remember "helping" Nanny make pie and had my hands in the bowl. She apparently was calling my name to stop and I didn't then suddenly she tapped me on the arm and had an angry face and I was so frightened, I didn't expect her to be mad. That was the final straw and then I was in and out of Drs/hospitals and diagnosed w/hearing loss-75% in left ear, 60% in right. 

  
  

  Hearing aids do help. My audiologist has tried to get me to switch to Digital hearing aids and the best way I can explain the difference is it sounded like going to the movies, how you can hear what the people on screen are saying but not always the background noise. Drove me nuts, I couldn't even hear myself chew gum. So, I stay with analog, it sounds "normal" to me and it's what I know!

  
  

  I think because I was born with hearing, my brain accepted hearing with hearing aids better than if I had been born deaf. From what my parents have said, I didn't have a delay in development, but I think because I was 3 years old, it helped both in learning to adapt quickly to my new situation and also helped because I was already talking. I can hear some sounds without aids, but I think it's more vibrations and not so much real sounds. 

  
  

  7 years ago, I had a bout of vertigo, ended up in the hospital, was awful because my right (my good) ear was ringing and screaming I could not wear the aid for 6 months. I don't know if it is a coincidence or has to do with most technology now being digital, but cell phones, telephones, some radios, now make my ears and I cannot hear over it. Never had the problem before. Luckily my FI is fantastic and makes all my important phone calls for me! I do as much communication via email/texts as I can though!

  
  

  How about you, what is your story? 

  ~ES~

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• mekiakoo member

  

  May 2012

  Oh WOW!! Were you in the hospital for a while after falling off the swing set? It must have been so scary.
  
  Well my story isn't as exciting as yours. My parents found out I was deaf when I was a year old. They tried banging pots & pans behind me and I never responded. They started noticing I wouldn't respond unless something is in my perphinal vision then I'd be starled and turn around. They also thought I was being a "rebellious" toddler by ignoring them and they often had to tap my shoulder until I'd look at them (like feeding time).
  
  Took me to a doctor and discovered I was profoundly deaf. 95dB both ears and as high as 120dB with some sounds. My parents immediately started to learn how to sign and I started school right away too. I was never behind.
  
  Deafness may run in my mom's family. My mom's cousin was deaf (he died at age 40) and my mom had a great aunt that my grandmother never knew about until my grandmother was an adult. One day she found out and went to visit her sister in a mental hospital where the aunt was put in when they discovered she was deaf. She became mentally ill and died there. So sad. Nothing on my dad's side.
  
  I use American Sign Language, it's my 1st language and I grew up with teachers who could sign, daycare ladies who could sign, deaf friends, interpreters, etc. so I've been around sign language my entire life. I tried speech therapy and hated it. I had hearing aids until I was 7 years old. Didn't see the need for it since everybody in my life signed.

  

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