Guest Post by Joey of BTaC

 The following is a guest post by Joey from BigTeethAndClouds.com. If you would like to write a guest post, please contact me with your idea. At this time, I am not interested in guest posts for advertising or those that are specifically about a technology that I do not/have not used. Thank you!

Our house has a nifty feature that wasn’t advertised by any real estate listing.  Twice a summer, there are fireworks we can see from the street right outside our house.  In July, we made our 5-year-old daughter, Julia, take a nap so she could stay up to watch the display.

The neighborhood kids are a nice bunch.  There are four other little girls under age 12 that play with my girl regularly.  They understand about her hearing aids and though they’re not perfect at compensating for her communication needs, they get along really well.  There is one boy, age 6, in the neighborhood.

This boy never comes out to play.  He doesn’t care for the girl dominated street or whatever.  He made a rare appearance on this evening of the fireworks. 

He wasn’t really paying attention to the show, so someone drew his attention to the fact that there was music being played.  It was far distant music that I could hardly hear myself. 

This boy walks up to my daughter, my sweet angel with her hot pink, purple, and white ear molds.  He gets right up to her and asks, “can you HEAR that music?  Can you?  Can you hear it?  It’s like doo, doo do do.”

The whole interaction took just a couple of seconds.  Julia said that she could hear it, which may well have been a lie.  The boy lost interest and went away from her.

I was left with tightness in my chest for the rest of the evening.  I had a whole fantasy sequence where I held that little boy by the shirt and told him that he will never be permitted to speak to my child again.  My palms felt sweaty and my heart was beating too fast.  Where did he get off talking to her like that?

When we were inside and Julia was in bed for the night, my husband and I talked about the incident.  We agreed that he was not being a nice kid.  He probably isn’t a nice boy.

There are a lot of boys and girls in the world that aren’t nice.  Julia will be meeting all sorts of kids this year in kindergarten.  I will be not be there to assess their intentions.  She will be alone.

Though I’m frightened for her, I’m glad too.  I can’t take it.  Julia clearly can.  And really, it’s hers to handle.  So until she comes to me with one of these stories, I really should stop worrying.

 

If only that were my nature.

Comfortable Kinds of Hearing Aids

 The following is a guest post from a hearing aid center employee. If you would like to write a guest post, write a comment or send an email to pinklam94 'at' yahoo 'dot'com (replacing at and dot with the respective symbols). I will be back to writing some posts of my own very soon, don't think I've given up on writing!- LAM

Many people will tell you that hearing aids are bulky and uncomfortable. But those people probably have an older model hearing aid or have never worn one.

The stigma of hearing aids no longer exists and there are so many styles of hearing aids today that suit different wearers’ hearing loss needs and cosmetic preferences. Here are some facts about a few hearing aid fit styles to help you determine which one you think is right for you:

Open Fit Behind the Ear – This kind features a receiver that fits into your ear canal with thin tubing that securely connects to a speaker behind your ear. Speakers are lightweight and difficult to see behind the ear, and tubing blends in with your skin tone. Models like these often have the best sound quality and some are even compatible with Bluetooth technology.

Behind the Ear – Cleaning is easy with this model, which has a curved shape that mimics the shape of your ear. It feels as discreet as it looks because it fits so closely behind the ear. But there’s no need to worry over using extra care with this kind of hearing aid because its solid structure makes it especially durable.

Comfort Styles – Function meets fashion with these models that discreetly fit partially into the ear canal without sacrificing high performance. Most are custom so that the in-the-canal part will fit as comfortably as possible.

Cosmetic Styles – These are the smallest and most difficult-to-see hearing aid options out there. They’re best for someone with an active lifestyle that can’t be bothered with a hearing aid that whistles or needs adjustment. Most are custom molded and fit completely in the ear canal, which means that others near you won’t be able to tell that you’re wearing a hearing device.

Visit a hearing aid center if you think you may be experiencing hearing loss and take advantage of a free hearing test to help determine what kind of hearing aid will best suit your needs.

The GED of IEP's- A Guest Post

The following is a guest blog post, as written by "Moxy", a fellow teenage girl with hearing loss. I'm sure she would greatly appreciate any comments! Are you interested in writing a guest blog post? Post a comment or email me with the topic you would like to write about, and I will get back to you. 
 
So, you've accepted that your child has a hearing loss. Your kid is enrolled in school, and there's talk of an IEP. What can I tell you about your IEP? Not a lot that your audiologist, teacher, or teacher of the deaf can't tell you. I'm not an expert on IEPs. I've sat in on my own IEP meeting once, which, in my opinion, was horrible. It was the first one that I was asked to attend, and I basically sat there, missing class, while teachers, my mother, a school psychologist I had never met, a hearing teacher/psychologist I had met once before, informally, sat and spoke about me as if I wasn't there. I, if you can't tell, am not a fan of IEP's.

A quick background, however, so you know where I'm coming from. I'm a hard of hearing high school student. I wear hearing aids and use an FM system in class (for those uninitiated, the FM is a wireless microphone my teacher wears like a lanyard. There are small "boots" on my hearing aids that pick up the signal. This is supposed to give me the effect of the teacher speaking directly next to me), and I enjoy long walks on the beach (Not really, the sand/ocean "white noise"/ocean spray isn't great for hearing equipment).

The IEP is what, essentially, requires that my teachers wear my FM. It also explains where I should sit in the room, what conditions might be adverse to my learning [Read: bad lighting, uncarpeted rooms, large classes, heavy facial hair/accents], and what (if anything) additional I may require [FM use, captioned media, extra time on testing (I don't get that one either)]. "BUT!" I can *almost* hear you saying, "Isn't your IEP a lifesaver? Doesn't it mean you can relax, knowing you'll have unrestricted access to communication and information, just like everything else?! What a breakthrough!?" But the IEP is not this. Often, unless a teacher knows they will be meeting with my Teacher of the Deaf, they don't read my IEP. On the first day of school this year, I had one teacher ask if "the hearing aids are all, or do you have anything else going on?" What?! My TotD-provided printout, carefully hi-lited with the needs specific to each class, determined by a conversation about this very act of explanation... didn't cover this.

However, being a fairly confident teenager in my own right, I laugh it off, say no, briefly explain my FM (I'll already turn it on when I give it to you, if you need to, you can turn it off, here's how, I can also turn it off from my hearing aids, so if you forget it's fine. Just remember to turn it back on, or, if you for some reason take it off, to put it back on, so I don't have to awkwardly/embarrassingly interrupt the class, telling you I've been lost for the last 5 minutes because you forgot), and take a seat. You seem content. You reply, after a minute, to let me know if you can do anything, whatever. It's all good.

Which is why, a week later, when I walk into the class to see the paused opening credits of a movie, I sit down and relax. In my world, everything is captioned. The TV I watch at home has those friendly black lines scrolling at the bottom of the screen. I'm still on auto-pilot, eyes flickering to the bottom of the screen. The film begins rolling, and I hear garbled noises as a heavily accented actor delivers his lines. I look to you, wondering if you've simply forgotten. You see me trying to grab your attention, and apologize, saying there aren't any captions. I nod my head, but inwardly, I'm screaming. "WHAT about the IEP?! What about the Internet, all of those script sites? What about the e-mail address for my Teacher of the Deaf  (TotD) I gave you, on the IEP recommendations sheet, who you're supposed to e-mail if the movie isn't captioned?! Was I speaking English!?" I sit, fuming for a while, trying to pick up random pieces of info. At the end of class, you assign an essay on the movie, due the next day. Ha! I think to myself.

Which is why you're surprised, the next day, when I hand nothing in. At the end of the class I approach you, reiterating everything about necessary captioning. You nod, agree, whatever.

The cycle begins.

Keeping in mind how often movies are watched at my school, this might happen twice a month. When the TotD approaches you, everything's good, I'm a good student, no, my hearing loss doesn't seem to be effecting me at all.

My parents, friends, and TotD know this to be untrue, however. You're simply resistant to my attempts to advocate, so I silently fume in your class during the rest of the semester.

Don't get me wrong, the IEP isn't evil. It can be downright helpful, but not in the ways I think it's meant to be. Something, for example, that isn't on my IEP, is group projects. I hate them. I hate them because I can be control freak-ish (that's me, overcompensating for my hearing loss. If I control the group direction, then I'll know what's going on), which leads to me doing a LOT of work. Which is OK, I will do my best for a good grade. But the IEP seems to signal to you that I'm hard of hearing. So, when I approach you, quietly, during class, and ask that our group be able to work in the hallway because with all the other groups talking, I can't hear the person sitting next to me, you allow us. We'll sit in the hallway and get stuff done. Hey! I can hear! But that IEP, yellow flag that it is, let's me ask this of you. It helps.

I had to ask myself why I wanted to write this a few times, during the process. I don't discourage anyone from getting an IEP, if it is appropriate for them. I just advise you that an IEP isn't a magical band-aid. It doesn't make hearing loss (in this situation) go away. It doesn't take it out of the equation at all. Advocacy is still very important, and if you're a teenager reading this, don't be afraid to shoot off an e-mail to your teacher, saying "Dear Mr. Teachy-mc-teacher, I can't deal when you don't do this and that. If you could do this-and-that, or perhaps hook me up with alternate whatever, I can deal. If you've got questions, feel free to hit me or my TotD up. TTYL, frustrated hoh/d student". If you're a parent of a hoh/d kid, don't be afraid to contact the teacher, and/or the totd. Trust me, your kid will thank you for it later, no matter how embarrassing it is at the time. The embarrassment might also teach some self-advocacy. And finally, if you're a teacher? Listen. It's not all your fault. Being hard of hearing/deaf (hoh/d) student is just half of the game. We need to be able to have open communication to make things work.

Quick MAJOR thank you to your fav blogger PinkLam (or MissPink, as I've seen it ;P) for letting me temporarily hijack her blog for a moment. Note that this post is not a reflection of her, or her opinions. She was kind enough to let me stick my nose in this whole hoh/d blogging :D Keep reading; I will.