Amy's Story

Amy's Story

Amy B. 29, yrs old, I work as teacher aide with a deaf girl who has a behavior problem.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Peoria, IL.

Are your parents hearing? Both are hearing. Does anyone else in your family have hearing loss? None in immediate family. But have an uncle who was Hard of Hearing (by marriage... ) but his granddaughter (my second cousin) was diagnosed hard of hearing almost 2 years ago. (from mother's side of the family)

Were you born with a hearing loss? Born Deaf and the cause is unknown. What is your hearing loss like? Are you deaf or hard of hearing? I'm diagnosed as "Profoundly Deaf" but it is really on the border of being Hard of Hearing.

How do you identify yourself as a deaf or hard of hearing person and why? I identify myself as Deaf. Because that's who I am. I grew up not being ashamed of my hearing loss. I was born with it. I never was hearing so I have nothing to compare with and say "I'm Hard of Hearing because of how much I can hear." One example of how I accept my deafness... my best friend who also is deaf and grew up with me at school. We were out at the mall and talking. I signed naturally...she signed small but mouthing saying "You don't have to sign, I can understand what you're saying without signing." I got the stand up attitude and said "So what if people look at me while I sign, it's my language, it's a way for me to communicate! If they have a problem, then that's just TOO BAD!" She respected me.

I imagine if I said I'm HoH, they'd question on how much hearing I have... but since I'm Deaf... they take a while to get to know me before really asking me those questions of how much I can hear, what I can hear etc... I grew up at mainstreaming schools where they provided speech classes. There were times when I met someone for the first time and I spoke for myself... they'd find out I'm Deaf and they'd be surprised that I'm Deaf and can talk. So, to identify myself as Deaf, I show the people that there are variety of Deaf people out there... not all can speak, but not all can hear as much as me.

Did you grow up using hearing aids or a cochlear implant?I wear behind the ear, in my Right ear all my life, as for my Left ear, I wore HA for a while until I was 3 or 4 years old. It didn't help me at all. My parents checked out on the CI, which was experimental at that time. My parents went to see if I'd qualify for the CI. They wouldn't reccomend me because I can benefit from the HA in my Right ear. As for the Left ear, I could benefit from the CI but it'd be too confusing for me and my brain to be trained on reconizing the sounds etc... which ear is hearing this and that... So I never got the CI. Personally, I'm thankful thatI never got the CI. I've seen MANY... but also 3 of my personal friends... have experienced CI... as they got older, they stopped using it. Didn't like it. One kid completely stopped using it about one year after getting the CI... today he is 12 years old! Already wasted the CI, surgery, therapies etc... Now he can't shave his hair really short if he wanted to... his scar will be there to show. I can't say I would throw away my CI because I have seen few people who stopped using their HA because they're uncomfortable with it, or just don't like the sounds they hear etc... I was just raised in making a good habit of having to wear my HA, taking care of it etc... Tell me how it helped, or didn't help you. HA can help me to hear something like an ambulance, people calling my name for attention, dog barking, baby crying, people talking in the room (small room.)

When y ou were growing up, did you use sign, cued speech or your voice to communicate with your parents? I used Total Communication (now called SimCom I believe... signing and voicing at the same time.) while I was attending the mainstreaming programs here in Peoria. Then when I went to ISD for the last two years of High School, I started picking up ASL, and learned that I don't need to voice whlie talking to Deaf people. Just voice when hearing people (who don't sign) are around. Or just if I'm by myself in a group of Hearing people, I use Simcom. This includes my family. Were you happy with the method your parents choose to communicate with you? I'm happy with being able to sign and communicate with my parents. I've seen some DEAF kids and not being able to communicate with parents because the parents never learned to sign. That's SAD ! It shows me that my parents ACCEPTS for who I am.

Where did you go to school? I went to Sterling School, and Richwoods High School with mainstreaming programs, and I also attended Illinois School for the Deaf, ISD. Describe what each school was like. Sterling School has a "seperate building" for the Deaf program where all deaf kids goes, and the teacher signs. I took some classes such as math, history, science with the hearing students using an interpreter. As for ISD, everyone there sign. What were the teachers like? All can sign I remember one teacher who would attend workshops all the times just to improve their perspectives on deafness and education. Other teachers I don't remember them being as motiviated as that one teacher I had. That impresses me! She was from Sterling School. What communication method was used in the school? At Sterling and Richwoods, mostly Simcom. And as for ISD, it depends on the teachers... some are Deaf, so they just sign. Some hearing teachers would use SimCom, some hearing teachers would just sign if they're comfortable and if there aren't any students in the classroom who depends on hearing too. Did you enjoy going to school? I enjoyed school... as for Grade school, I spent 1/2 of the day in the Deaf Classrooms, and the rest of the 1/2 of the day, I spent with the hearing students using an interpreter. It gave me variety. But being in the hearing classroom, I was sometime afraid to answer or ask questions to the teacher using an interpreter because maybe the interpreter would not be able to understand me ?? But socially... I was always with my deaf friends at the hearing school... grew up together for 12 years! No variety of friends... I couldn't choose my "crowd" because that's all there is. My classroom had maybe 6 Deaf kids. When I was in 8th grade, I decided I wanted to go to ISD, and told my parents.. they supported me and let me go. Unfortunately the District wouldn't let me go to ISD for my HS years. While my parents fought for my rights, going to hearings etc...I had to attend RHS for the first two years of the HS years until the Springtime in my Sophomore year, the District finally let me go starting in the fall of my Junior year. I know it was only 2 years but IT WAS WORTH IT !!! After all those years at Sterling School and RHS... I have lost contacts with all of my old classmates except for one, my best friend. As for ISD, I am still in touch with lot of my classmates and other alumnis...and still attend ISD's events such as Homecoming, Reunions etc...at RHS, my best friend didn't even go to her 10 year reunion. I got to go to mine at ISD. ISD has strong bond like family, for me.... even though I was there for only 2 years. They sure adds up to MORE than memories I have at Sterling and RHS. I can tell stories about them but have TONS of stories to share about ISD years. That's just me. Keep in mind, everyone's different! :-)

If you could change some things in the state of Illinois to make it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people, what would you change? Why?If I was not serving on the Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commisson (IDHHC) Board, I would be wanting to serve on the Educational Task Force and improve the education of the mainstreaming program, the quality of interpreters, and the quality of the Deaf Ed. teachers' signing skills. It is scary that all the Deaf Ed are required to take only 2 semesters worth of sign language courses.

If you could offer some advice to someone who just found out they had a deaf/hard of hearing baby, what would you tell them? Don't try to make the kid Hearing because they'll always have that hearing loss. ALWAYS! Accept their hearing loss and focus on meeting their needs.

Explore all options !!! Such as Hearing Aide, CI, or nothing. Schools- inclusion, mainstreaming, or ISD??

Don't count only on the Medical experts to know what's the best for the deaf child. They can give you the option, but also go and meet with a staff from IDHHC, Center for Independent Living (CILs) etc... get other perspectives and you'll get more options that way. That Medical experts have never really envolved with the Deaf culture and community... IDHHC and CILs 's experts have so they can share more options and as well that they can help with legal issues for fighting for the deafs rights.

Respect their hearing loss or else the child will grow up having a hard time accepting his own hearing loss because you, the parents haven't accepted that. That makes it harder for the child to know where to be comfortable about his own hearing loss. For me, I am happy who and how I turned out so I don't have to debate with my parents for their decisions. Maybe once or twice I have a small debate... mostly on perspectives but nothing major on their decisions they've made for me when I was a child.

Just another fact from me... growing upin the hearing world, mainstreaming schools, I have learned how to live in this hearing world. Then going to ISD... I've seen some students who have no contacts with the parents only except at the holidays time... their parents never learned how to communicate with them, to me, that isn't family! It could've been that they never accepted their deafness. Then they grow up at ISD, all their life they've been at ISD... usually I've seen them that they have NO patience for the hearing people for their lack of knowledge of deafness. With my background, I have the patience...therefore this has allowed me to serve on the IDHHC Board for the last 5 years, teaching sign language at CILs for the last 5 years, and I currently am members of several Deaf organizations. I'm able to share my variety of perspectives on the options, and Deaf issues.