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8 Misconceptions about Deafness |
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I taught children who are hearing impaired for thirty years. As a peripatetic teacher I visited babies at home and worked in deaf and normal schools and units. I loved it except for people's misconceptions of deafness. 1. People do not realize what a handicap deafness can be. Because it is less visible than other handicaps, such as blindness, people do not realize the difficulties deafness can bring. The handicap is one of communication and language. They often do not understand the link between hearing and speaking. 2. People do not understand how diverse hearing problems are. Two children can have the same hearing loss but it can affect them differently. Even a slight hearing loss can be a real problem for a child. 3. People think a hearing loss never alters. It can vary from day to day or week to week for various reasons, such as the child having a cold causing a conductive loss on the top of a sensorineural loss. 4. People think a hearing aid gives people normal hearing. An aid helps but is not a cure for deafness. It is good to let people listen through a hearing aid with the sound turned down. This gives them a more realistic idea of what it is like to listen through a hearing aid. Often they are shocked! 5. People do not understand how acoustics affect a hearing aid wearer. I hated it when I into a school and the teacher said of the hearing impaired child, "He hears when he wants to." Often the classroom was very noisy. It is important for schools to install curtains and carpets to help reduce background noise. 6. People think one method of teaching will suit all deaf children. We have to consider the child and suit the method to them not the other way round. 7. People blame every problem on the deafness. A profoundly deaf friend told me about the problems she was having with her hearing daughter. She thought the problems were caused by her own deafness. I was having the same problems with my own daughter who had normal hearing. We all have troubles with teenagers and deaf ones are no exception. 8. People often think the deaf understand more than they do. No one likes to look foolish so often a child will pretend to understand when they do not. I recently met a mother I used to work with. Her son has done very well and is in the top group at school. However she told me there are often misunderstandings. He recently missed his school trip because of a mistake with the date. She was hurt when people said, "He couldn't have wanted to go." She said, "I know he did." It is best to get things in writing. When I make a mistake my daughter says, "Why didn't you say you didn't hear?" Often I misunderstand and do not realize that I didn't hear something correctly. I am learning to laugh about it. I feel attitudes toward deafness are improving as there is more discussion. Yet the changes are not fast enough for the children. Everyone must speak out about deafness. The goal is to get the hearing impaired child to do as well as they would without the deafness. This is not always possible but we have to keep on trying. Sometimes when I went into a school to help the hearing impaired child the teacher said, "There are children in the class achieving less than the deaf child." Why should a child who is hearing impaired be content with middle of the class when they should be at the top? Everyone needs to fulfill their own potential or it can lead to conflict. Anne Colledge is a qualified teacher of deaf children. She has an honours degree in Psychology and English. She was educated at Homerton College, Cambridge. She lives in UK and has five grandchildren, two in UK and three in USA. Her book for children, Northern Lights has a hero who is deaf. In each story a different aspect of deafness is introduced.
Copyright © Anne Colledge |
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