It all started in 2nd grade; my teacher had two Deaf sons. She taught us signs in class and brought her sons in a couple times for us to meet them, practice our signs, and ask all kinds of questions.
In college I was required to take a foreign language, so I was on the waiting list for two years before I finally was able to register for American Sign Language at the University of Florida. I completed ASL 1 and 2 and got a great foundation in the linguistics of the language. After taking two semesters, I was by no means ready to USE it and I was too anxious to actually try to communicate with a Deaf person!
Living in DC for five years definitely played a huge role in my progress by immersing myself into the community. For about the first six months, I soaked it all up and only made comments or asked questions when I was 110% sure that I was following the conversation and wouldn't make an idiot of myself. As my confidence grew, I began to initiate conversations and even start talking about myself and telling stories or jokes. When I started working with Deaf children, I was forced to closely monitor my expressions and provide accurate models. I also had to learn how to read what I call KSL--"Kids Sign Language". To watch little fingers and understand their expressions that often contain incorrect sign order and many sign omissions is a whole other step in becoming fluent in ASL. This isn't often the case when Deaf children have Deaf parents, but common when these Deaf children are only exposed to sign language at school.
Knowing ASL is really a handy skill. You can "talk with your mouth full", communicate through closed windows, easily chat with friends in a loud bar, and (most of the time) discuss private matters or make comments about other people in public places and no one knows what you're talking about. ASL is a beautiful language and I really enjoy just watching people sign well. The term I use is "sign envy" meaning I am envious of how beautifully and fluently a person signs. I started learning the language about eight years ago and my learning of new signs, expressions, or idioms never stops!
In my path of learning the language and being active in the Deaf community, I have learned there is a continuum of visual languages and not all deaf people know sign language. One of the common questions I have been asked is if Deaf people all over the word use ASL. No, ASL is not universal; I read somewhere that there are about 70 different sign languages world-wide and many different "accents" within each language. Plus, not even all Deaf people in the United States use ASL. I have met people who use Cued Speech, Signed Exact English, Pidgin Sign Language, and some who learned to rely on their residual hearing and learn to speak instead of learning any visual language. A myth I have heard is that ASL is "English on the hands". To the contrary, ASL has a completely different grammar structure than English and ASL is derived from French Sign Language.
I will never tell anyone that learning ASL is easy. Similar to my own development, it takes somewhere around two years to acquire basic communication skills and somewhere around five to seven years to become a proficient communicator. The best way to learn is to be immersed and ASL cannot be mastered by only taking courses. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to be immersed and have some great friends and a wonderful husband who have been patient with me so that I may become bilingual.
While working with adults in medical settings, many who wear hearing aids do not have them while they are receiving rehabilitation services. Some state that they were rushed to the hospital and didn't get a change to grab their hearing aids. Others state that an individual from the facility recommended they not bring them as they are very valuable and may get lost before they return home. Whatever the reason is, it can be very challenging for these individuals to participate in effective physical, occupational, recreational, and speech therapy while they are in rehab following a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other disorder. Other areas that are affected during their stay in rehab is the ability to participate in group sessions and family training/meetings and ability to communicate with other patients who are going through a similar experience and may be able to provide emotional support. Many end up turning their televisions and telephones up to a high volume level and create burden to their roommates. Many of these obstacles could be avoided if they had brought their hearing aids with them!
Some may wonder why individuals who acquire hearing loss later in their life don't learn sign language as many people do when the hearing loss occurs earlier in their life. There are several reasons for this. First, by the time the hearing loss occurs, these individuals likely have a well established communication system that revolves around spoken language. They have learned to speak and listen in order to communicate and learning sign language is opening a whole new door. In most cases, their loved ones, friends, and co-workers also use spoken language to communicate so it takes extra effort outside of their everyday lives in order to learn to communicate using a visual language. Second, as mentioned above, learning ASL is not easy. It's believed that the critical period for learning a language is before puberty occurs and learning a language after that door closes is much more difficult. Third, views of the Deaf community and use of ASL has, luckily, changed over the course of the recent generations. Individuals from the Traditionalists (born 1927-1945) and Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) generations were raised in a time when Deaf people attended separate schools or did not not attend school at all and may have been placed in asylums. By the 1970's, William Stokoe, a professor and chairman of the English department at Gallaudet University, published work that was instrumental in changing the perception of ASL from that of a broken or simplified version of English to that of a complex and thriving natural language in its own right with an independent syntax and grammar as functional and powerful as any found in the spoken language of the world. Once this barrier was broken in the 1970's, the original form of the IDEA was passed in 1975, the ADA was passed in 1990, sign language interpreting companies starting being established around the 1980's, and ASL and Deaf culture starting becoming more mainstream, Generations X, Y, and Z were exposed to once hidden information and have a different perspective than the older generations. Some individuals from the older generations consider it taboo and beneath them due to the way it was viewed when they were younger. While I have met late-deafened individuals who have learned or want to learn ASL, it is a small population.
Another question is why does acquired hearing loss occur? There are many reasons for this and what most people don't know is that there are things that can be done to prevent hearing loss from developing or progressing.
This blog post includes a guest post from John O'Connor. Over the past few years he has become more and more interested in hearing loss. His father and grandfathers are affected by hearing loss and many other family members and friends. He feels that there is a general lack of understanding around the issue and it's our job to spread awareness where we can. Please read his article regarding hearing hygiene and what you can do to avoid acquiring a hearing loss. You can also check out his blog at bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com.
Living Healthy to Attain Better Hearing
Your hearing is one of
your five bodily senses. It is just as important as being able to see and
taste things. Because of this, it is essential that you do everything to
protect your hearing and prevent hearing problems. There are several correlations
between a healthy lifestyle and hearing loss. Individuals who do not
take very good care of their health and well-being may find that they are at
greater risk for developing hearing loss than people who live healthier lives.
Knowing why this is will help you to make the appropriate changes to your
current lifestyle each day.
People who smoke are
actually at greater risk for hearing loss than people who do not smoke.
Smoking can increase these risks because of the ingredients inside of the
actual cigarette. You should consider quitting this habit to save your
hearing in the future. You should talk to your doctor about different
stop-smoking plans available to you so that you can kick the habit for good.
Quitting smoking also has a number of other benefits to your health, but
hearing loss is one that many people do not even think about when they are
giving up the habit.
Diabetes is also another
preventable medical condition that causes hearing loss. Diabetes is
caused by unstable blood sugar levels in the blood, which is often also caused
by obesity. Many people who are obese and eat erratically throughout the
day may find that they become diabetic or pre-diabetic. One of the best
ways to avoid diabetes and ultimately hearing loss would be to change your
lifestyle and diet. Try to lose weight and eat regularly throughout the
day at routine intervals. This will help to keep your blood sugar levels
normal throughout the day so that you do not get any spikes or drops in insulin
production.
Besides all of the major
medical conditions and the different habits you can stop to prevent hearing
loss, there are also a variety of small things you can do every single day to
attain better hearing and prevent major hearing problems from happening later
on in life. One way to avoid hearing loss is to turn down music when
listening to it with headphones. If the music is very loud, this could be
doing major damage to your eardrums. It is a good idea to turn down the
music whenever you possibly can. Also, consider wearing earplugs so that
you will be able to keep loud noises or music out of your ears entirely.
Hearing loss can affect
any age demographic, not just the elderly.
There are many ways to protect your hearing and prevent further hearing
loss. If hearing loss is a current and persistent problem, a person should make
an appointment with their audiologist who will be able to diagnosis the current
problem and depending on the severity possibly prescribe the use of hearing aids to help better hearing.
Your hearing is such an
important part of your health. Many people who diet and exercise do not
even realize that their new healthy lifestyle can also be helping their overall
hearing. By changing your lifestyle, taking daily steps and making an
appointment with your audiologist, you will be on the right path to preventing
hearing loss for the rest of your life. You will be glad later on that
you have taken these extra steps in preventing hearing loss entirely.
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