I know this is an old thread, but I had very mixed experiences at school and this is really the only place people will understand.
My hearing loss wasn't noticed until I was 4 (my mum said she never noticed anything) and for some reason unknown to me and my parents I didn't get any help at school until I was 6-7. When I was 6 I got a wireless unit with headphones on, the kind on a headband with 2 circular foam pads. I don't remember getting it, just that I didn't have it, then one day I did, and people used to tease me about it. I had no help other than this at that point.
When I was 7 I got ITEs, and I attended a 'special needs unit' ('The Unit'- basically a small room at one end of the school away from all the other classrooms). This was for children with additional needs; there was me and about 5-6 other kids with hearing aids, a boy with severe eczema and behavioural problems, a girl with CP. I used to have most of my lessons in The Unit at this point- it was a small room with teachers of the deaf and assistants. I liked being friends with the other children, but I remember feeling awkward about my hearing aids as I was the only one with ITEs and had a different type of lead to my radio aid, so I was different from the other hearing aid users. We did have a rabbit though which was nice, but we got told he died 'of germs' which I remember at 8 thinking it was insulting to my intelligence.
At some point I got a SEN (statement of educational needs) which stated I needed to use the radio aid in class, sit near the teacher and have the help of the assistants. I don't know if they were teachers of the deaf or not, but they used to sit next to me (and I wasn't always near the teacher- there were 30+ kids in a class!) so none of the other kids would sit with me as I didn't have many friends, and when I was doing something easy, like writing my name in a space where it said 'Your Name _______' on my work, they would take their pen and do it for me- I hated this aspect of it. It felt intrusive but what can you do when you're 8 years old...
I remember a particular event with one of the assistants which hurt my feelings. The other kids had BTEs with shoes to connect them to the radio aids, whereas mine connected via 2 small pins a mm apart, which I had to plug in to the aid while they were in my ears as I had difficulty putting the aids in myself. I asked the assistant to do it for me, and her response was 'You should be able to do this by now, all the others can manage it.' I felt very upset, I was about 9 and had only had them for 2 years, and never managed to do it as it's very fiddly, eventually I took the aid out to connect the cable then put them back in.
I was a so-called teachers' pet, but I didn't have many friends and, while I liked the work, I hated the other kids and the environment. I was absolutely awful at PE/sports/games- I couldn't hear when the rules of a game were being explained to me (wind outside), and because I was so bad the other kids told me to do things like go in left field when we played rounders (a bit like cricket)- the teacher said 'What on earth are you doing out here?'- but I was just doing what I was told. I wasn't co-ordinated, I wasn't a fast runner, I'm terrified of heights and I couldn't understand anything when we did sports outside.
I was also terrible at music, which I hated. Ironically I took piano and saxophone lessons as an adult last year, and loved them. I found an understanding teacher who teaches in a small room, and doesn't belittle me for learning things which are at a childrens' level these days.
I hated music- I could barely read the notes, my hearing aid used to whistle in lessons but I couldn't hear it, and everyone would be shouting at me to fix it. We had a large class with 30-odd people in, and somewhere along the line I learnt to say 'yes' when asked if my radio aid was working/I could hear, just to make things easier. I remember one day we watched the video of pirates of penzance, the teacher put the mic next to the tv speaker, but I couldn't hear it- but they can't do anything about it, so saying I can't hear was pointless. I had a lesson where we had to compose something on the keyboard. I did so, but when it was time to play it to the teacher I'd moved to a different keyboard and for some reason the one I was using emitted a very loud buzzing sound, and I barely played a few notes before he said 'yes, very good' and moved on. We used to get report sheets with columns like 'good understanding/limited understanding/no understanding in class' with ++/-- signs and it would just be ticked all the way down on the -- sign. I was academically good in other classes, and I wish someone would have asked me why I was struggling, or what they could do to help.
Hearing aside, I got teased a lot, bullied and did other peoples homework so I didn't get hit. I made a few friends but not many. Sorry this is so long; I think my schooldays directly affected my confidence- I have virtually no confidence and hate public speaking/group situations where I struggle to hear, am scared of meeting new people and prefer to work alone. I really think this is a result of my school experiences.
<of yours>True, True!
