I take an eight tonne lorry around the UK, teaching young people and their families about deaf awareness. My day starts at 7am when my travel alarm clock starts vibrating under my pillow. As I am profoundly deaf, I rely on the vibrations to ensure I get out of bed, check emails and plan for...
Category: <span>Advocacy</span>
Raising a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child
Raising kids is hard. Add a diagnosis of hearing loss and you might find yourself thinking parenting is not for the faint of heart. My children were born with needs categorized as “special.” They look like typical kids (with the exception of their devices) but they don’t hear like those with natural hearing. Understanding and...
I’m Not Deaf But I’m Not Hearing. Where Do I Belong?
I’m too hard of hearing to be considered part of the hearing world, but I’m not deaf enough to be considered part of the Deaf world. I was born with a moderate bilateral high-frequency hearing loss. According to my family, I had enough hearing to adapt to the hearing world and attend mainstream school. I...
Hearing Loss – Identification, Impact and Next Steps
Hearing and listening are the cornerstones for learning for almost all children. If a child cannot clearly hear or attend to spoken information, speech and learning spoken language will likely be impacted. This means that hearing loss can cause learning challenges related to academic achievement, communication difficulties, and potentially result in social isolation, poor self-concept...