Extraordinary Teens: Matter of Life and Deaf

[purpleme12]

Did anyone watch this?

I thought it was a lovely programme. Gave you some insight into what their life is like.
And I did feel really proud and pleased for Lewis in the end.

Why can some deaf people speak normally and some can't? Is it just in direct correlation with how good they can hear?

Hi Lovelise! Hopefully you have a good Teacher of the Deaf local offering you the support you need. Does your little one have hearing aids yet?

Oh my goodness, the support we have been given so far has been outstanding.

Yes, he has bi-lateral sensorineural hearing loss so wears them in both ears.

Our teacher of the deaf is amazing, she visits every 2 weeks at the moment and we're going to a special stay and play for deaf children together in January.

PurpleAlerts following on from your post, DS failed his newborn hearing test at 5 days old and had his hearing aids fitted at 3 months! I couldn't believe they could fit them so young.

It's crucial to catch deafness as early as possible. I want DS be able to speak but also sign.

I'm learning sign language at the moment and am teaching it to the rest of the family. My 3.5 year old is ace!

Where do you live Loveise? We run a stay and play HI group and so does the neighbouring local authority!

We come under Hampshire but we are just on the border of Dorset.

I am going to go to both as the Hampshire only run thiers once a month.

I'm really keen to become associated with the deaf community. I want DS to see other children like him and for us to talk to other families who are going/gone through the same as us.

One thing that the programme shows is that deaf children usually do best when educated along their peers i.e other deaf children - I feel that this is crucial when deciding how best to educate your deaf child.

Deaf children are much more likely to be isolated in mainstream settings especially at secondary stage e.g in the programme, the twin girls found it really tough despite their abilities and were moved to Mary Hare for the last few years of their secondary education.

My 10yr old who's deaf and I watched this programme.
Despite her deafness not being picked up until she was 4, her speech is very clear like some of those in the programme.
Lewis was such a lovely boy, it was so great in the end when he had the confidence to ask for a train ticket.

Lovelise, it takes a while for it to sink in, my DD has the same SN bilateral, I know when we were told I mapped her whole life out in a matter of minutes. We are learning sign too.
As it is, she's coped really well. Although I worry about secondary school but we'll see how it goes.

We were devastated at first but after a while you come to terms with the fact that your child is deaf and as you say, put in a plan to cope.

For me personally, I'm afraid of the unknown challenges.

Will he be able to communicate clearly? How will his peers respond to him in care settings? Will he miss out on opportunities that a hearing child takes for granted?

At least he has us as a family who love and care for him. He'll never go short of love, that's for sure.

I have bi-lateral profound sensorineural loss and was implanted, like the Borg, three years ago.

I have normal speech after three years or so of speech therapy as a child (at this point, my deafness was still undiagnosed). I went to a mainstream school, passed my G.C.S.E's/A-levels, and now have a PhD. I am an early career academic. Being deaf isn't really an issue in what I do, but sadly, I have encountered negative attitudes in some other places. A common assumption is that we must also be 'slow' which is ridiculous.

My CI enables me to have a normal one-to-one conversation. However, mine isn't standard so there are still a few difficulties: if I could wear it more, I'm sure I'd do even better!

It's rare that I become down about being deaf: rather, it's the attitudes that I sometimes encounter which make me feel depressed. But then, I remind myself that if someone cannot be patient and repeat something, or if they start treating me as if I'm completely unintelligent, then the problem really is theirs and not mine.

I finally watched this the other day. I was hesitant to watch as it was my old school. But I thought that it was actually very representative of the school and was sensitively done.

As it happens I was fitted with an implant in my late 30s and I’ve done well with it - I will always need to lipread as well but I never knew there was so much sound!!

Hi Everyone,
I am a third year English Language Studies student at the University of Winchester.

For my final year dissertation I am looking into the phonetic acquisition of young hearing impaired people, especially the comparison between those who use cochlear implants to aid speech and those who do not.

More specifically, I will be looking at suprasegmental features (this is just the academic term for speech processes such as intonation, stress, rhythm etc) in the speech. This is a topic that I am very interested and passionate about.

For the study, I need to collect anonymous audio recordings from young people with hearing impairment (with congenital hearing loss) aged 10-18, reading 2 very short samples of text provided from a children's book. I will also require the completion of a short questionnaire. The process will be very quick and easy.

I am sending this as a preliminary message; if you are able to help me gather some data from yourself/ your children or other hearing impaired young people that you know then please let me know by replying to this thread or emailing me directly at [email protected]. I will then send you more detailed information along with the official letter and consent form.
Thank you in advance, it would be extremely thankful if you could help me out with this.

Kiera