#profoundly deaf

[spexinminneapolis]

Dustin, Profoundly Deaf Hottie

[anidiotwithnolifebehindthescreen]

I caught a bit of Robert's live last night, but as they don't have subtitles, I have no idea what Robert was saying so.

But he's pretty, so that makes up for my inability to hear a single sound.

[deafstarrr]

I have my audiogram today to prove to the government that I’m deaf! Wish me luck!

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday to the remarkable Scottish virtuoso percussionist.Evelyn Glennie who turned 53 today.

Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire. Her father was Herbert Arthur Glennie, a farmer who was also an accordionist in a Scottish country dance band, and the strong, indigenous musical traditions of north-east Scotland were important in the development of the young musician.

She was a promising student of piano and clarinet as a child, and she was blessed with perfect pitch, the ability to identify or sing a note by ear. At age eight, Glennie started complaining of sore ears and hearing loss. Her condition steadily deteriorated, and by age 11 she needed a hearing aid, which she found distracting and later discarded. She continued to play music and found she could perceive the quality of a note by the level of the reverberations she could feel in her hands, wrists, lower body, and feet. Glennie counts as her major influences cellist Jacqueline du Pré and pianist Glenn Gould.

When she was 12, Glennie saw a schoolmate playing percussion. She started taking lessons, and, she told People, "... it felt right." She graduated with honors from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music in 1985. She claims her deafness kept her from being caught up by social distractions and made her a better student, but she also realized it affected her ability to play in an orchestra, so she set her sights on becoming a soloist. In 1985 she made her professional debut; the following year she left for Japan to study the five-octave marimba for a year. Glennie's first decade as a professional solo performer was filled with milestones: first performance of a new percussion concerto, first time an orchestra had performed with a solo percussionist, first solo percussion performance at a festival or venue. In 1990 she met Greg Malcagni, a recording engineer, and the two wed four years later.

Glennie tours extensively and exhaustively. She plays more than 100 concerts each year and has appeared across five continents. She plays on 20 to 50 instruments during each performance, "bounding," as Michael Walsch wrote in Time, "from instrument to instrument with the grace of a natural athlete." A Washington Post critic was almost as impressed by Glennie's physical show in concert--which he called the "Evelyn Glennie Workout"--as he was by "the subtle gradations of sound and color she brings to every phrase." In addition to the details of her music and instruments, Glennie pays attention to the non-musical details of her shows, performing in colorful, theatrical costumes and with thematically designed sets and lights. Because she feels the music through her feet, she prefers to play barefoot.

There are so many pieces of music that feature Evelyn, but I like this early piece from a Japanese TV show, especially her smile at the end.

[courageisacoward]

If someone if profoundly deaf and they have a hearing aid, will their decimals (i think thats what you call it) change to severely deaf w/ that hearing aid? Until they take it off i mean. (i hope i worded that ok :/)

Do you mean the decibel range? And not necessarily, it all depends on why they have hearing loss. For instance, my cochleas are both ossified (turned to bone) so me putting in hearing aids would just be uncomfortable, and offer no benefit. For other people, it could do that, but most profoundly deaf folks won’t even bother with hearing aids when their hearing loss gets to that point. 

[tired-talk]

This video literally made my cry so much. I mean she's got so far at Uni and everything. I lost my hearing to meningitis like her, but when I was 5.

It just make me realise that I only have 8 electrodes compared to her (she has 22), so hearing what her cochlear implant actually sounded like shows me how bad my hearing really is. It just makes me so angry that I only have 8 electrodes and that I thought I could hear so much better than I thought, but no. I don't. Which means I can't actually hear music or speech or basically anything as well as most people at my school, who are also deaf. I mean, my boyfriend has a full 22 electrode cochlear implant which explains why he never misses what people say in group conversations or when he was talking to people when he was in the dark when we were all playing Xbox, as I was just sitting in the dark, not a clue what was going on. I also hate the fact that my deaf friends get really frustrated when I can't hear them when they shout my name a hundred times or if i've missed something they have said, cos they think I can hear extremely well as I have good speech compared to most deaf people. I don't, my hearing is a lot more severe than most people think. Having anxiety and depression doesn't really help me either. the part in the video where she is in the pub just totally explains how hard it is. It's just weird how much confidence the girl has in the video though. It just made me feel kinda shit I guess, but i'm kinda amazed how well I can actually hear with 8 electrodes despite all my frustrations. The comments that my mums friends wrote on facebook made me realise how far I've actually come - especially with what I'm battling right now. I don't know whether to be happy or sad about being deaf. I just wish my implants were better. 

It's just kinda hard being stuck in two worlds and still not knowing where you belong. I guess I'll never fit in. 

[catsmmbarnes-blog]

Christian is 3 years old already!!

We can't believe it......Christian is 3 years old already. We have lived a worldwind life already. Being told that your child is deaf, profoundly is mind blowing!! We've had a lot to deal with over the last 3 years.

After our visit to the audiologist, we had to decide what kind of treatment we would choose for Christian. The audiologist gave us so much information about what we could do for Christian. A bit overwhelming I must admit. We were given the choices of ASL, the cochlear implant, lip reading, cued speech. My husband and I sat together and discussed the options we had before us. We discussed every option for days, weeks!! We wanted to be sure that the option we chose for Christian would be the best for him. After much debate, crying, research, more research, talking to others with a deaf child, talking to family members, and more research, we decided to go with the cochlear implant. We wanted Christian to be able hear and speak. With the research we did on the implant, we found that the implant would be the best for him. It would allow him to learn to hear sounds and learn to speak. We also wanted him to be able to be with hearing kids his age.

Now that Christian is 3 years old, he has been implanted for about one and half years now. It has been quite an experience the last 1 1/2 years. We were so nervous about the surgery and wondering if we made the right decision. Christian did really well through the surgery. When the time came for his mapping, we were excited, anxious, unsure, and just plain crazy with emotions as we waited for him to be mapped. I sat with him on my lap as the audiologist got things together to map him. As she began the process, I thought my my heart was going to jump out of my chest. The anticipation of what might happen or not happen was overwhelming. Finally, as she started the process she did something with her machine and said 1-2-3 and Christian looked up at her. He heard something!!!! We were so excited!!!! I began to cry and so did my husand. Our child heard a sound.

Since that day, we have had been everything possible to give Christian all that he needs to be able to speak and hear. We do speech therapy sessions as well as language auditory sessions. After 1 1/2 years, Christian is beginning to say words such as mama, dada, eat, pup pup, drink, and a few more. We are very pleased with his progress so far. His therapist say the same. Don't get me wrong, it has been very difficult for us. We have had to change the way we speak to him at home . We have to change the way we speak when we are out in public and with family. The speech and language sessions are are very grueling for Christian. the therapist expect a lot from him and he doesn't get off too easy.

As time goes on, I guess we will have to think about where to put Christian for school. There is so much we have to think about for Christian. Never thought having a deaf child would entail so much.   

[deaf-----awareness-blog]

ISSUES WITH RULES FOR THE DEAF :

I've had quite a few detentions for refusing to wear the transmitter or sit at the front of the class and sometimes the teachers think I haven't been lip-reading.

1.) I HATE the transmitter - it sounds horrible, it makes everything sound distorted, louder and there is also interference over the top. It sounds so much clearer without it (thankfully I don't have to wear one anymore, but there are some students who have to wear it and also have problems with it too.) 

2.) I HATE sitting in front of the class, I feel like everyone is watching me front behind, it's embarrassing, I also want to sit with my friends, so I always sit where they sit, which is usually in the middle or the back row. I always try to compromise with the teachers/LSA's and do sit somewhere, where I have a directional view - I don't sit at the back to annoy them on purpose. Anyway, it's MY CHOICE where I sit, and if I haven't learnt anything or missed something, It's going to my OWN fault at the end of the day, not theirs. 

3.) I DON'T ALWAYS have to lip-read - I CAN HEAR TOO!!!

                                                      - Emma