Hearing loss
I have been hard of hearing since birth, but my family never realized it until I was two years old, because I was born in Shanghai where they didn’t screen for newborn hearing loss. My loss consists of the speech bubble of sound frequencies but I am able to hear very deep sounds like an airplane overhead without amplification. As a child, I never spoke, couldn’t hear my parents but I could spot a jet in the sky. When we moved to Hong Kong the doctors were able to determine that I had in fact bilateral severe hearing loss. In addition to hearing aids and speech therapy, my parents made sure I would make up for the two years of lost language by reading as many books as I had time for. I can lip read a bit and also learned sign language but I have not had much opportunity to use it as I prefer standard listening and speaking even if it’s harder for me. Over the years, I kept up the speech therapy which I was provided for at school and reading. I was never crazy about speech therapy because it interfered with class time. It was boring and disruptive and I would always ask to stop the lessons. Finally, in 6th grade my mom realized that the speech sessions were too easy for me and I was able to stop taking them. Now I have an FM system transmitter that some teachers wear in order to bring their voice directly to my aids if the room is too loud. I wear Oticon OPN 1 minirite hearing aids and can connect them to certain bluetooth devices as well. Even though I am part of the deaf world, I have overcome any disability from my hearing loss. My family forgets that I can’t hear and most people have no idea when they meet me (if they don’t notice the clear, rubbery mold nestled in my ear or the high tech mini computer processor at the back covered at times by hair.) I’m proud that the loss of hearing does not define who I am and that I can compensate and function as anyone else.
