"deaf"or "hearing impaired"

[smartiejake]

A colleague of mine was on a TA course the other day and was told off for using the term "deaf" to describe one of our pupils.
Not PC apparently. Not allowed to say blind either, that has to be sight impaired.

Funny thing is ALL of my deaf pupils refer to themselves as deaf and all the deaf adults I know also do not like the term hearing impaired.

Who are these do gooders who think they have the right to use a term that the people who they are referring to do not like?

Or am I mistaken in thinking this?

WHat do you lot with hearing difficulties or dcs with hearing difficulties prefer?

Smartiejake - but we are not a representative group of people so you can't draw such conclusions. As I've said earlier, I wouldn't have objected to the term deaf in the early stages of finding out DS was deaf, but I would certainly have been scared shitless. Hearing loss and hearing impairment did sound much lighter diagnoses somehow. I suppose the same way you'll hear people saying their child is on the autistic spectrum or has high functioning autism, rather than just autistic. There's nothing wrong with leaving the option of describing your child's condition however you want. It's bad enough they've got something wrong with their child.

I think there are a lot of terms for deafness because being told that your child has a hearing loss means different things. It is like the autisic spectrum.

Ie. you might have a chld with short term glue ear in one ear and at the other end of the spectrum you have children like CristinaTheAstonishing's children or more extreme profoundly deaf children who cannot be helped by an implant.

The important thing is that children get the resources and good quality teaching they need to develop. It is national scandel how much deaf children do underachieve. It is this that we need to worry about rather than labels.

I tell people that I am half deaf, easier to get through to people, and I do only hear about half the stuff I'm supposed to hear! I personally prefer the term hearing impaired though. I don't really consider myself as deaf as the term, for me, implies no hearing at all.

RT, I hope a CI can help most profoundly deaf children too. Our DD2 doesn't get any benefit from the hearing aids and we hope the CI will help. DS is also profoundly deaf (>100-120 dB unaided) and the CI has been fantastic for him (he's down to 20-30 dB with it).

I hate to say it but cochlar implants aren't always a success. I know a couple of children with cochlar implants at the school I work at and they litearally have no hearing whatsoever inspite of being implanted.

There are also some children who are not suitable for a cochlar implant for one reason or another inspite of being profoundly deaf. Even if a cochlar implant is a sucess, the child is still profoundly deaf in one ear as its next to impossible to get the nhs to fund bilateral implants.

I'm glad that your ds has had a lot of sucess with his implant and I hope that your DD2 gets the same level of benefit.

That's scary. DD2's deafness has the same cause as DS's, so it should work for her too. Yes, DS is still deaf in one ear but that's hardly a problem in the grand scheme of things. His life is immeasurably better for being able to hear as well as he does now.

Cristina-Cochlear implants do work for the majority.

I have worked with loads of implanted children over the the last 15 years and they have always worked.

There are varying degrees of success though as there are quite a few children around with additional difficulties which impede progress. E.g. One implanted girl I work with has verbal dyspraxia on top of her deafness which has meant her speech is not very clear and her thinking processes slow but she is making excellent progress and with extra support achieving almost age appropriately in English, age appropriate in Maths and above in Science.

One reason why CIs might not be appropriate is if the deafness is retro cochlear (ie beyond the cochlear into the nerve of hearing) but if both your children have the same type and cause of loss then an implant would be more than likely to work. (especially as one of your DCs is already finding great success with an implant.)

As for single implantation- you only need good hearing in one ear to develop language skills.

Is you other dc going to implanted soon? The very best of luck.

Thanks, SJ. DD2 is 9 months old. Yesterday she had the MRI, CT and ABR, so we hope that an operation won't be too far away either. Perhaps not around 10 months old as planned but around 1 year old. DS had his implant at 7 years old, but he'd been an excellent user of hearing aids. DD2 doesn't get any benefit from them. I suspect hers aren't as powerful as DS's were because she's much smaller. Maybe if we get on to another set of aids they'll at least give her something. DD1 can hear. DS is 3 years ahead with his language (had his SEN review yesterday). Thanks for your post. I think I'd feel more at ease if Heidi had at least something from her hearing aids. I mean I'm sure I'd still worry until her CI op was over and done with and switched on and her turning to sound, but to a lesser degree.

Again I do know of dcs who have nothing from aids but are doing well with implants.

One of my pupil's little sister got absolutely nothing from even the most powerful digi aids, no response at all, no vocalisation. SHe had a CI a year ago (she's now 3)and is doing really well. WHen I saw her a few weeks ago she told me her name. It was the first time i had ever heard her speak.Her father has also had one fitted as the small amount of hearing he had in one ear disappeared and he loves it. His son (already profoundly deaf) has also lost what little he had left and has this week had the go ahead for his implant in November aged 10.

Thank you for taking the time to write such reassuring words, SJ. Really appreciated.

I've ended up calling myself deaf - because if you say you're hard-of-hearing or hearing-impaired, people assume they just need to speak louder and with your hearing aids you'll understand just fine.

Whereas if I say I'm deaf, they at least consider getting my attention before speaking to me, facing me so I can lipread, communication by means other than phone, etc.
Which is all very useful - I can usually manage with just the aids, but it's hard work and tiring. About 7 years ago I decided to only watch TV with subtitles, go to captioned theatre where possible, and only use phones when email etc weren't feasible. Result: found I needed an hour less sleep a night and stopped being depressed!

It's taken my parents though 20 years to accept the fact that I both wear hearing aids and still can't hear that much. Some people (usually random strangers) say if you have some hearing you aren't deaf - but I think the question should be "do you have useful hearing?" And my answer is 'it depends - often no.' Most foreign accents are a nightmare for me and when I'm tired my ability to decode speech plummets.

A friend is a nursery nurse in a hearing-impaired unit - loads of the kids are really too deaf to benefit from it, but the parents refuse to 'give up' on the child and admit they are deaf and need more help, and often it's taken years to get the child as far as the HI unit rather than unsupported mainstream, because the parents are in denial. If calling a child hearing-impaired rather than deaf to the parents means the child gets support, then just go along with it!

My DD is deaf in one ear - I say "she is deaf in one ear". She says she "is deafed in one ear"!

I say that my son is deaf.... he is profoundly deaf.

Lottie-What do you or your ds feel about the term Hearing impaired?

My son just knows he's deaf..... i have always said profoundly deaf... have never used hearing impaired.

Have to say i started a near riot on Parent Place by saying i thought being deaf meant you are disabled... i got fairly savaged for that but i stand by what i said!

I have moderate hearing loss and cannot function in the real world without both hearing aids.
I would describe myself as hearing impaired, as a preference, to most people as I have some hearing but deaf as a quick explanation.
Never Deaf though!

If your colleague wants to out-PC them she should say that it's up to the service user how they wish to be described.

Well said unfit mum!

My daughter os on paper 'hearing impaired', but she (and I) tend to say she is partially deaf. We are lucky that she had VERY good speech therapy, and now speaks almost perfectly.

"hearing impaired" as a term is so vague as to be useless. It can cover anything from a child with glue in one ear to a child is profoundly deaf. I don't see how it helps to have such a range of hearing impairment lumped together.

A child with mild glue ear needs little more than a sympathetic teacher in a mainstream class. A child who is profoundly deaf may need a special school and teaching in BSL.

The main thing is that children get the appriopate level of help to enable them to live life the full.

Hey cristina- any news on your dds implant yet?

Bumping for cristina