A muffled world, my week with one hearing aid: By Eleanor

 This week has been particularly tough. Not in the usual format of being on placement, assignment work etc. (its half-term whoo) but in the fact that one of my ear moulds has been causing me a lot of pain recently, constantly rubbing to make sores in my left ear.


 It has got to the point where I am coming home and taking it straight off. As a person that has grown up dependant on these machines to communicate it has been strange.


 Today I had to go to the UEA to do a 'viva voce' to pass the remaining assignment. I worried about attending with just the use of one hearing aid, knowing that it is really quite disorientating and that I can only realistically listen to one person at a time who is facing me. I considered wearing my hearing aid just to avoid any issues. But then I started to wonder, how would they cope if I did lose my hearing further, if I couldn't rely on my hearing aids any longer, and more to the point, how would I cope?... so I went without.

 But actually, I didn't need to worry. I explained to my tutor and she actually made a point of swapping positions to be sat on my 'better side'. She spoke clearly, not treating me like an idiot (you know the 'caaaan yoooooou heeeeaaaarrrr meeeeee?' version). She said if the other person in the room would ask me anything then she would indicate this was so, knowing that they were sat on my 'deaf side'. It really made me feel more secure and safer, not just in those 30 minutes but for the rest of my day. I spend the day with Imz (one of my best friends) and although we were in the busy city centre, I wasn't distracted by anything (mostly because I couldn't hear much of anything) but I could focus, I could listen, I could lip-read, I could speak, I could communicate. I'm not saying that if were was more than one friend, that I would have been able to cope but I really surprised myself.

The ones that matter don't mind and the ones that mind don't matter.

 On my way home Imz had left one of my old favourites in the CD player, with just one hearing aid in, I cranked up the sound to the max and belted out the lyrics, feeling the vibrations through the floor and reciting those lyrics from those thousands of times we practised when we were young. It made me smile, so much. Thank you (Imz, I love you :) ).


 In some ways it has made me so appreciative of the life that my mum and dad brought me up in, they encouraged me to speak rather than sign. This has made me really good at adapting to situations, by lip-reading and fitting in the missing bits (it often still goes wrong when I don't know the context!), and quite probably TOO good because some assume that I can talk so I can hear leading to another world of pain and communication breakdowns.
Sometimes I wish my signing was as fluent as my speaking, however it has enabled a bigger, accessible world, ensuring that I can associate with hearing people. This world is predominately a hearing world, and always will be.


It is estimated that 1 in 1000 people are deaf. This means that there are ALOT more hearing people, speaking, talking, chatting with their backs turned, talking from another room, mumbling down the phones, whispering secrets, singing along to lyrics, sharing stories, every minute of every day of every week of every year. A life with working ears, taken for granted, hearing and absorbing. Of course I can understand not knowing, not seeing and not understanding a world with broken ears.


  Sure, I still get frustrated at the lack of deaf awareness but quite often it is fixable with knowledge and communication. I want to fight for equal access, be it in the form of subtitles in cinemas, on TV, on the train, for any and all announcements. I want to fight for sign language to be a GCSE option, I want to fight for all companies to have and to use access to emails and live online chats rather than phone calls. I want to fight to enable that no deaf child feels they don't know which world they belong in. But I (and probably many other deaf people) have heard the same things, reached the same brick walls, same boundaries time and time again.


My energy falls, my enthusiasm and motivation to continue the fight often waivers. I celebrate at LoveFilm finally agreeing to subtitle more contents, but the fight goes on, directed for Sky next. I celebrate at getting my local cinema to show subtitled screenings once a month, but I despair at no-one using them.

 One day it will all be gone, and people will moan, but they didn't use it when it was there. These changes will be those failed movements of time that no-one opened their eyes or closed their ears to see. 

Starting Norfolk Signing Choir: By Eleanor

My First Signing Choir

 

Ever since I’ve been learning to sign I’ve become more and more absorbed in the ‘deaf world’. As well as using BSL with my communicator in the classroom, I’ve also been teaching signs to the young children as I continue through my PGCE training. Just a few weeks ago I finished at my first placement school and we had to perform an end-of-term play. Being in a reception class, this meant that the majority of the play was with singing which turned out to be a complete delight. I can’t sing myself and it is something I refuse to do unless I’ve got alcohol in my system.

 

 The reason the school play songs were an absolute delight was because it gave me the chance to sign along to the songs. I half expected the children not to be too bothered, and to be fair, not all of them were enthused about signing as I was but some of them completely surprised me. The amount of practising we did (mainly for singing rather than the signing aspects) was crazy, the amount of ‘quick ten minutes’ here and ‘super quick five minutes’ there was mad. It got to the point where I was in a classroom supervising break-time and I could see a young girl signing all the songs without the music, without singing to her friends. It was a heart-skipping moment, and if I watched her any longer I may have shed a tear. It was so beautiful to see these hearing children open their eyes and heart to sign language.

 

 It made me remember a time when I used to love singing in school, however badly and out of tune I was, it really didn’t matter when you were 4 or 5. It made me think about watching people on YouTube sign along to music, particularly the infamous Lee and really wanting to be a part of that. I was talking to my communicator about how much I really wanted to be a part of a signing choir and it was difficult with the limited amount of choirs in this area. I know there is one in Kings Lynn but they get together at awkward times for me. I wanted a choir where it didn’t matter if you didn’t know sign language, where it didn’t matter how old you were – because those children that I taught in a reception class were amazing and so motivated to join in. That love and passion for something quite often dies away as you get older, yet when you’re a child, the magic lasts forever, no matter how many times you repeat a song.

 

 My communicator (Claire) really surprised me with her response. She said ‘Why don’t you make your own?’ I was really taken aback by this, how could I make my own? I’m not an expert in BSL and at the best of times I use SSE (Sign Supported English) more so than BSL. How would I be able to know when to start a song, if I forget the words I can’t pick it up again by listening to the music, how could it possibly work?

 A few days passed and I mentioned that I was still thinking about this, how I could possibly make my own Signing Choir and she surprised me yet again by saying how she would love to start one up too, perhaps we could work together. The conversation instantly changed from how would it work, to how could we attract people? I no longer had the worry of translating because I knew I had her support no matter what, and from first-hand experience, I knew that she would be my cue when I forget the words or I miss the start of the lyrics.

 

 From that, Norfolk Signing Choir was born. I have to point out that it is REALLY early days but I am so happy. I designed a flyer and posted it on Facebook to every deaf group that I’m a part of, I started looking at sign song videos on YouTube to see how others were doing it and thinking what songs could we do. I started telling people, no matter who they were, hoping that they would pass the message through. I started enquiring about where we could have these meetings. I am so lucky for Charley South and her kind offer of using the Brickmakers Pub in Norwich.

 

 Yesterday, Saturday 3^rd May was the day of the first practise. I was really nervous because I wasn’t sure if anyone was coming. Quite often, people want to come but can’t make it, or are very nervous about coming to the ‘first’ event. So, I was so happy to see some new faces come through the door! Claire is our ‘conductor’ and we had a fab time learning part of a song. We didn’t manage to finish a song, but for the first event we did fabulously! I really, really enjoyed myself and that was what my aim for this Signing Choir was/is. From other comments, it seems that everyone else enjoyed it too! Thank you guys, for coming and joining in, and I can't wait to practise the rest of the song :)

 

 We are now in the stages of planning our next meeting, I don’t want to say any dates until we are absolutely sure but we are planning on having a practise once a month every month on Saturday at 2pm finishing around 3.30pm. Please, come and join in, we are open to all ages, all abilities and all sense of humours!! Find us on facebook @ Norfolk Signing Choir.

 

Boo! by Imogene

Hello!!

Long time no speak... literally!

(sorry for the post title, but couldn't think of one that goes, but it's amusing all the same!)

I firstly want to apologise for the lack of posting for well, months now. I've been really really busy with well, everything; but mostly my little family, which I would like to say has had an addition to, in the last couple of weeks!

So, I've rather had my hands full with my new little guy :) Oh, and not to mention Freddie too!

Ok, so I've got a massive confession to make - I've been cheating on this Blog with another! I've got a personal 'family' blog that I have been heavily involved with in the last few months.. and its slowly become to show that I've neglected this one - I'm very sorry!

I mainly started my other blog because I felt I never had enough to say for this one that was Deaf related as my family are literally, as sad as it sounds, is all I do. I hardly ever have many Deaf stories to share.. Which I think is kinda a good thing.. Shows that my hearing doesn't take over the majority of what happens in my daily life. (That really isn't in any way meant to sound patronising and offensive to any other deaf persons)

However, on this rare occasion, I do have a little something deaf related that I can share with you.

For the last few months I've been off to the Hospital for check ups on my Diabetes (as well as bump). I've been lucky to be able to have quite a few scans too, so it's not all been bad but there was a particular day that wasn't joyful or a planned event.

When I was 36+6 weeks pregnant I woke up and found some bleeding. Naturally this really worried me and I was terribly panicked that it could mean that something was going wrong with #2 (Noah as he is now). I rang my mum and she told me it could be the 'show' as they call it, but to make sure I rang my midwife.

I'm so glad that my midwife that I've had all along answered the phone (I also had her for my monthly check ups with Freddie too!) and she tried calming me and asked me to explain and tell her what had happened and what I found.. I explained it all and she told me to ring the Hospital to get checked out - simply to make sure everything was alright!

The funny thing that she said (it's funny now, not really at the time) was "Imogene, make sure when you go to the Hospital and see them that you tell them that you're Deaf! Because you don't always hear things right and it isn't obvious that you are.. I don't want you saying 'Yes' to something you don't hear"

Thinking back on it, it's such a true statement. I never tell people I'm Deaf. I'm not really sure why.. probably because I'm usually not too bad without telling them, but also because (as stupid as it sounds) I sometimes forget I'm actually Deaf! It sounds so laughable and really, it is but I occasionally do forget.

My mum comes to the appointments with me and very often goes 'Oh, Imz is Deaf, so if she doesn't reply or looks confused it's probably because she didn't hear you' (because I never normally mention it!) and then the same old comments come out 'Oh are you? I never realised' 'Ooh, you don't sound like you're Deaf, your speech is very normal' and 'You don't look Deaf, you're very attentive and reply quick, do you lipread?'

These comments always make me laugh. Writing them down does seem like you should take offense to what they say because it sounds rude. But I'm so open about it, I don't mind people having a say on it - at least it's not said behind my back or in whispers!

Anyhow, everything was fine. There was no explanation for the bleeding, just that it happens sometimes, but there was no sign of any other further bleeding.

I didn't have a fantastic birth, but it happened and little man arrived here at last!

To read or follow my family life feel free to become a follower/share my Blog - do say Hello too! :)

www.littleandbigmoments.blogspot.co.uk