This past weekend, I joined more than 100 people with hearing loss or deafness at Kansas City’s first-ever Hearing Loss Summit. The crowd included fellow lipreading moms, individuals who were born with hearing loss, those who are culturally Deaf, and adults who are late-deafened. I saw several young children wearing cochlear implants or hearing aids. Sign … Continue reading
I love to communicate with my hands. In fact, one of my favorite things as an early childhood special education teacher is using sign language while I speak. Talk. Sign. Pause. Repeat. My class is learning about ways to give and be kind to others, so I showed them how to sign “give” (see photo). … Continue reading
Read my lips: Lipreading is tough. A while back, a producer with the Wanda Sykes Show emailed me, asking for help in understanding a news video clip. The idea sounded enticing: Come to California and watch a video blurb that had the speaker’s moving lips but no audio feed. The truth is, many words look … Continue reading
One of my classes as a new teacher is for preschool-age children with deafness or hearing loss, also known as an early childhood D/HH program. One of the key areas we work on is receptive and expressive vocabulary development. If bystanders were to walk by our classroom’s open door, they may hear the sound of … Continue reading
It is official: This summer I earn my Masters in Early Childhood Special Education… and I have been hired as an early childhood special education teacher for a public school district for 2017-2018. A huge thank you to all my blog friends who have been so supportive as I went back to school. As a … Continue reading
My first experience with hearing loss occurred in kindergarten. When the teacher asked the class to listen to and respond to questions through headphones, all I heard through them was garbled speech. The audiologist later told my parents that I could hear normally, but that I just needed to pay attention. From the age … Continue reading
The Blood David’s eyes were focused on his friend walking beside him on the sidewalk. In order to “hear” the conversation, David looked right at his friend who spoke. The act of lip reading required David’s eyes to do the listening. Neither one of them saw the low-hanging tree limb until after it smacked … Continue reading
The Limping Chicken, a blog that focuses on deafness and hearing loss, posted an article titled “Why I No Longer Mention Being Deaf in Job Interviews.” The writer, who has progressive hearing loss such as myself, related her experiences with discrimination when she disclosed her hearing loss during certain job interviews. Her decision, as the … Continue reading
The first time I told a stranger I had hearing loss was in a Bible study 13 years ago. As a first-time attendee with a new set of behind-the-ear hearing aids, I mostly kept quiet and tried not to draw attention to myself. My hair was long, and I covered my ears (and hearing aids) … Continue reading
It was 1993 as a college sophomore when I first felt the nudging to work in a classroom. After two blasé practicums at a middle school and high school, I decided to pursue a Communication degree instead. But the nudging didn’t completely go away. Now I am a 42-year-old mom of three pursuing a … Continue reading
