Disability awareness and understanding....

I've recently been reading a fantastic blog called Love That Max. And its made me think in some ways about my growing up with a hearing impairment, but also my experiences working with differently-abled kids when I was younger.

I worked at a summer camp with a kid named James. James was born with half a brain. He couldn't talk, but he had some amazing qualities. He had a wicked sense of humor, and even though he couldn't walk well, he would create his own games with the other kids....but we did have to correct the other kids when they called him a baby, "no, he's your age, he just hasn't been growing as fast as you". But the telling thing was when I'd go back to the house and talk about his good qualities with my relatives. Because they were always saying "Well, you know, he's never going to get better, he's never going to improve, yadda, yadda, yadda" and that pissed me off. Not because I thought James was magically going to transform into a tall, sturdy child, but because I was talking about his positive qualities, and they mistook it as something else.

I also worked at a summer camp in MD with hearing-impaired youngsters. That was unique for me and the kids. It was good for them to see someone older with a hearing impairment, something I really had not had, growing up. And in terms of my learning, I was glad (mostly) to have been mainstreamed, although I wished there had been some adaptations made for me... it would have made all the difference in high school if I'd been able to get help with my note-taking (trying to hear, lip-read, understand, and take notes all at the same time? urgh.) My mom, a few years later, when I lent my sister my chemistry book, made a comment about my notes...about how few they were and how bad they were. In retrospect, looking back, the times I had good notes in class were times I knew the subject well enough to be able to take the notes. Or where it would be easy to just put a keyword or something...

The thing is, there are limitations with everyone. The differently-abled just have different limitations. I can't swim with my hearingaids on. (they make waterproof watches! waterproof cameras! Why can't someone make waterproof hearingaids!?) I also take them out at times because I get tired of sound, of hearing. But that doesn't make me less of a person....

But where parents of differently-abled children have to watch out is overprotection. My mom (and a certain extent, the whole family) do this overprotective thing of me that drives me bonkers. Even now. And I realise that some of it comes from advocating for your child. But I think that is the one thing I'd call on parents to be aware of.

Because people judge. But educators judge by different yardsticks. I've been aware that my speech isn't always "up to par", and that I don't always hear things that others hear. But when I started singing lessons, all of a sudden, my speech, which had been deemed just fine, etc by a lot of speech therapists, started to improve, according to my mom. And I learned to match pitch better... I still have a horrible memory of music lessons at the British School, where the teacher would play a random note and ask us to identify it. That, I still cannot do. I can tell if something is a wrong note. I can even sing a note that's played. But I cannot identify the notes.. when they are played.

But what is fascinating is that taking the singing lessons really improved both my hearing and speaking, as well as my singing. But that isn't a tactic that would be considered, even in the modern world. It would be "Why do you want to take singing lessons? You can't sing." And I still feel like I need reassurance that I am doing ok at singing... because I can't always hear myself...

Because, as most people with disabilities know, to some extent, I have limitations. And I will never be a hearing person. And there are some advantages to that.