Personal Narrative: My Experience With Hearing Loss

In Alice-Ann Darrow’s article “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses” she states that it can be difficult to involve students with hearing losses in the music classroom and in the regular classroom as well. There are a numerous amount of students with hearing losses ranging from the ages of six to twenty-one. About 71,000 of special education students struggle with a hearing loss. A majority of students go without knowing that they have a hearing problem. Although most people believe that a person must be good at hearing in order to be musical, it is stated to be not true. The music classroom is actually a great place for students to practice good listening skills. Since listening is a mental process and hearing is a physical. Objectives for hard at hearing students should include listening to music, singing, playing instruments, moving to music, creating music and reading music. Music should be presented to the student’s strength and preferences. It is also helpful to have students feel stereo speakers or instruments as well as the use of kinesthetic movements. Alice-Ann Darrow believes that involving students with hearing losses into the music class room can be difficult but in the long run beneficial to the student.

Living with hearing loss wasn’t always an enjoyable experience. Growing up, I gradually became more and more self-conscious of my hearing loss. Sometimes, I became so anxious that I kept asking people to repeat themselves just because I didn’t think I heard them correctly the first time. Most of the time, I simply needed to relax in order to comprehend what the other person was saying–I discovered later on that playing the piano and exercising allowed me to maintain my composure.

Net’s Solution – A provider may find communicating with someone who is hearing impaired very difficult to deal with at times. Although,

I have been deaf for a few days now and the lesson I have learned is that I took hearing my kids say my name for granted. I can no longer hear them arguing, crying, singing, and saying my name over and over again. I have yet to learn to read their lips and they cannot all write out what they have to say to me. Not being able to hear is something I will have to get use to because I will not be able to hear a fire alarm going off, I will not be able to hear my favorite songs anymore or hear when my kids graduate from school.

In order to gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by people with hearing loss I wore ear plugs for an entire day in a variety of settings. The hearing loss simulation made relatively simple parts of my day much more difficult and really showed how much hearing loss can impact daily life. As discussed in class the shift from being “able-bodied to disabled”, was quite difficult to cope with.

I was crouching, playing with a wooden bead maze entranced with the different colours that it entailed. I was in this large regal office, the desk was made out of dark wood; certificates with glossy frames were hanging around the office. There stood a doctor behind the desk as he broke the news to my father that I was indeed hearing impaired. As they quietly discussed the best action of plan for me, I suddenly heard my father yell, “She is not going to deaf school!” and as the shouting got louder, the words started to sound muddled to me. Red with rage, my father grabbed me by the hand and slammed the door; I took a glance back and did not fully comprehend the life changing appointment that just took place in front of me. At the tender age of 5, I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss occurs with a combination of inner ear

This documentary does an excellent job of advocating for the acknowledgment of people who are deaf within society. This is shown through not only the brilliantly written and performed poems of the students but also in the basic, everyday struggles each of them face, such as the desire to fit in or be valued by those around them. Deafness is not a specific to any gender, race, culture, or religion. The struggles many people who are deaf go through are relatable to all and

As an ASL 1 student, the idea of my first deaf event was a little intimidating. The event I went to was the Apple Festival in Milneck, New York. The event was on October 10, 2015, and I went about an hour after it opened at 10:00 a.m. The festival included many vendors such as homemade jewelry, various clothing, and many different types of food. There was many shopping opportunities and games for the kids. The festival also showcases the newest deaf technology, sign language novelty items and books. I went in the morning so not that many people were there yet. As I looked around, I noticed more deaf people then hearing people. Most were deaf or had knowledge of sign language.

I grew up at a Deaf residential school. For most of the time I slept there at the dorm. We –they had a night supervisor who also slept on site. Aww, she was such a very sweet old women. She retired at her old job and got a new job here at the Deaf residential school where I was staying. It was four of us girls she would watch. Nine-nine-thirty the lights were out. But at midnight, me and my three roommates decided we’d meet at- meet up. So I waited till midnight. I kept looking at my clock- is it time, is it time? And then the clock struck midnight. Me and my friends we met up. One of the girl had a boyfriend who came back from Canada. He had bought a whole sack of c-f- firecrackers when he was there. They’re not allowed here in the states but he bought them anyway.

Tyrone Smith, Artist extraordinaire, is the focus of this interaction. I have known Tyrone for about 6 years. We met when he began working at my job. I was responsible for his training. I have known Tyrone for some time, but have never asked him about his hearing loss or deafness. Intrigued to know more I requested to interview him on a beautiful day during our lunch break. He is the first deaf/HOH person I ever met. He is funny, extremely talented and a dedicated father, who speaks well though he is deaf.

An auditory processing disorder, is when your ears and brain don’t cooperate together, the ways in which the brain interprets sound through speaking and or sounds.

Being hard of hearing, or deaf, is a common disability. Rarely is a person completely deaf, and a hearing loss could fall anywhere from being completely deaf to hearing. The amount of functional hearing varies greatly from person to person. While it may seem that being completely deaf is the only hearing disability, any sort of hearing loss is seen as impairment. A simple daily task such as communication becomes difficult when one’s hearing is lost. For the most part, English is an oral and aural language supposed to be spoken and heard. Therefore, it is quite challenging to learn and understand English when you

The ear is an extraordinary human organ that many people take for granted until it doesn’t function. It is the only device that allows the human to hear sounds in their environment. The ear is made up of many parts that distinguish various sounds through different means. The ear anatomy and physiology along with how sound waves are transmitted into meaningful sounds will help one understand how hearing loss occurs.

I chose the task of being deaf for about 4 hours which I thought may be the easer and safest option for me but I was quickly surprised that being able to hear contributes to so many things in my life. For example not being able to hear my kids call me when they say mom was sad because a mother will always know there child’s voice even if she’s in the middle of Time Square on New Year’s. Therefore not being able to come to their aid quickly was my biggest challenge. I wasn’t able to laugh at the things that they were laughing at when we watched our family movie. I couldn’t do my job at work of answering my customer’s phone calls because I couldn’t hear. I was afraid to drive because I was scared that I wouldn’t hear

Hearing loss is the most common physical disability in the whole wide world. In the United States alone, about 28 million people have some level of hearing impairment that interferes with their ability to understand normal speech and participate in conversations. Another 2 million cannot hear at all.