dealing with other peoples reactions to my deaf child.

[cazcaz]

My four year old ds has di georges syndrome, which for him means he is partially deaf and has a severe speech delay, alongside poor health and frequent hospitalisation.
I really really struggle when out with him. He is a very sociable little boy and for instance when we go the sweet shop after school sometimes he wants to pay for his own sweets. The lady on the till will often tell him to 'say thankyou properly',and I just feel so awful for him. I KNOW that she doesn't know that he has difficulties and is just being chatty with the children but how do I stop this happening. With a big queue of school children behind me I can't have a conversation about it with her.
Tbh this is just one instance, his speech does just come across as a high pitches sqawk alot of the time and I struggle with peoples reactions then also.
I appreciate that this is my problem but would really be interested in any advice about how to deal with it.

I think you should say things at the time to aire them and you not end up feeling frustrated and it all bottling up.

You can always be polite about it and to the point,

" My dd son is partially deaf and therefore this is how he speaks"

This way you are putting the person right and they won't do it again.

I would have no issue someone telling me this. You have every right to defend your child.

I agree with Madame. Say something simple at the time. I do sympathise - DS also has major speech problems, so it's awkward when I get all sorts of helpful people trying to strike up conversations with him. Does he use any signing or pecs at all?

Thank you for the replies.

He uses makaton signing and it has made a massive difference to him and to us in terms of understanding him.

I think you are both right about saying something straight forward at the time, and I guess that mostly I do, it just occasionally really gets me down as I just feel so sorry for him being so misunderstood and I would hate for anyone to think him as rude.

Thank you again, it's amazing how much better you feel just for writing it down!

@zzz how come your reporting?

zzz has reported (I presume) because someone has trawlled through, found and resurrected a thread from 6 years ago in order to do some research for free.... .

there are routes to do research using the resources of mumsnet and highjacking a thread from a parent asking for help is not one of them