Talk:Hearing loss/Archive 1

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Corrections

There was a whopping mistake in the section on Congenital vs. Adventitious; the statement that all pre-lingual hearing impairment was congential. That is far from the case. Most pre-lingual hearing-impairment is the result of adventitious effect; about 90%. Mostly disease, but some injuries. Hereditary congential deafness accounts for less than 10 per cent of the total and of that group about 90 % of hereditary deafness is due to the union of hearing parents. That's an important distinction to make since there are prevaling myths about the origins of hereditary deafness which unfairly stimatize the union of two deaf people. Almost all of the children of deaf people are born with hearing and if there is hereditary deafness involved in the union, the children have a 50-50 chance of being deaf or hearing.

The article did not suggest sign language as a mean of communicating with a hearing-impaired person. I must say that omission was pretty profound considering that sign language was the very thing that put my mental health on a good footing when I became deaf. It not regard it as an alternative is to doom a great many deaf and hard-of-hearing people to permanent isolation, frustration and depression.

I thought there were instances in which the language was unnecessarily harsh and gloomy. I made an attempt to take the edge off of the gloom by replacing words like "suffer" with "experience". Ray Foster 22:18, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thank you, Ray, for adding to the para "Partial Loss of Hearing", it is appreciated. I was the originator of most of that part of the article, being a sufferer of the affliction myself. With the best will I do find it an affliction rather than a mere cause for complaint, as it is social problem rather than a medical one and however hard one tries, it causes difficulties. I sometimes can hear much better than at others, but whether it is so severe that sign language would be of help, no-one in the medical profession has ever suggested. If my hearing does deteriorate, I most certainly would take sign language into consideration. Thank you for your clarifications. Dieter Simon 02:06, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

• Thank you Dieter. Isn't it interesting about no one suggesting sign language as an alternative. That was my experience, too. No one suggested it to me. I had to discover it on my own and the way I did that was to go searching for a vibrating alarm clock. The only place I could find one was at a social services agency serving the deaf. They also had a small store of assistive devices (clocks, flashing alarms, etc.) and books. All the people there used sign language in every conversation, even if it was two hearing people talking to each other. So I joined a class in sign language and my companion and three friends joined with me. It was a very uplifting experience. We all stuck with it for a couple of years and learned to use Signed English very well. I eventually moved on to ASL because my social circle greatly expanded to included people who were native uses of ASL. It has been a tremendous gift to me to be able to understand so much more. I don't know where you live, but it might be useful to you, especially around home and with friends and family. I don't feel badly about being deaf any more and haven't for about two decades. True, it takes some adjustment. But I was pretty surprised to meet deaf people who had a complete lack of any sense of loss over being deaf. They just went about their lives in the most ordinary ways and I realized their example was a good one in terms of the effect it has on ones' mental health. It seemed a goal for me worthy of striving for, so I just got busy and tried it out. It did work for me but I make no claims of it being a universal remedy. We all have enormous challenges and one solution does not fit all. I had to change careers (teaching elementary school) but in doing so I found something I enjoy even more that is ideally suited to me both as a deaf man and as someone with an ambitious desire to be of service to my community and nation. I'm a writer now and have enjoyed it for a very long time. It tends to be solitary work, but it is quite rich in the way it fills the mind and heart with a sense of purpose equal to my intellectual capacity. Will I be rich from it? I don't expect to. I only expect to be useful and to have a sense of fulfillment and to enjoy the things each new days brings. I'm thankful for this experience. I feel a sense of resurrection and empowerment when I compare my life now with the early moments of becoming deaf. That was my motivation for writing on this subject. It was as simple as that. I also researched the subject and found that I'm not unique in this regard. Late-deafened and hard-of-hearing people have experienced this same change of perspective before and after me, so it's not just an isolated instance. I look forward to seeing more from you, Dieter. Again, thank you for your kind remarks. Ray Foster 16:45, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)