Were you lied by schools and/or parents that you were "hearing?"

[twaddellmotter]

Reason I am asking this particular question is I need to gather statistics/percentage of how many of you experienced this as part of my data collection.

I am a Deaf School Psychologist at Indiana Deaf School and part of my research is to determine how many of you were a "victim" of being mislead to being a "normal/regular," "hearing," or "hearing-like?" while growing up. Just reply YES, your age (if comfortable with it), and which state you are in. I am going to get a good percentage by the end of this week (August 19th).



Terri

 

[GrendelQ]

Are you looking for people whose parents or schools didn't detect a hearing loss and refused to test for it, insisting the kids were hearing? Or those who tested as deaf or with some level of hearing loss as a child, and whose parents didn't reveal this information and refused to provide academic accommodations or assistive devices such as hearing aids?

 

[jillio]

Reason I am asking this particular question is I need to gather statistics/percentage of how many of you experienced this as part of my data collection.

I am a Deaf School Psychologist at Indiana Deaf School and part of my research is to determine how many of you were a "victim" of being mislead to being a "normal/regular," "hearing," or "hearing-like?" while growing up. Just reply YES, your age (if comfortable with it), and which state you are in. I am going to get a good percentage by the end of this week (August 19th).



Terri

Hi, Terri. I am a clinician that specializes in the Deaf. This is something that many of my adolescent clients have stated: that they were led to believe that they functioned just the same as a hearing student with their device and minimum accommodation. Or to be more specific, that they should be able to function as such. They didn't feel they truly could, which created, as I'm sure you know, all kinds of issues for them. I would be very interested in what your data shows.

 

[Smithtr]

I remember sometimes on lie on fool schools because parents I know my school is teacher control because conviced to me I am not trust to teacher cause serious I believe it people is very uncover, because reason not fair! I Know on school is very trouble!

 

[Jazzberry]

Hi Terri,

I'm not sure what you are asking for. If you're looking for people who were told what Jillio's clients were --

<snip>

This is something that many of my adolescent clients have stated: that they were led to believe that they functioned just the same as a hearing student with their device and minimum accommodation. Or to be more specific, that they should be able to function as such.

<snip>

than feel free to include me in your survey.

I'm 52 and I went to grade school and high school in Illinois. (I live in NY now.)

 

[Sunshine]

Definitely not, but then I've got no measurable hearing. Never wore HAs or considered CIs. I was always just Deaf.

 

[twaddellmotter]

I am looking for what exactly Jiilio mentioned. Those who tested as Deaf/Hard of Hearing as a child or birth and whose parents or/and schools persisted that you need to be part of the "hearing world" therefore, must use speech or be "hearing/normal" as much as possible. I have seen numerous mainstream students' identities/languages significantly confused/delayed by the time they're in middle school. I just need to start collecting data/numbers who have experienced this. Please just respond yes, your age (if comfortable), and state you live in.


-Terri

 

[Bottesini]

54. Iowa

 

[Babyblue]

37, Florida

Never been mislead or told I was hearing. Just attended to public school and sat at the front of the class. Began FSD in my freshman year and attended til I graduated. I learned ASL at FSD.

 

[Bottesini]

54. Iowa

37, Florida

Never been mislead or told I was hearing. Just attended to public school and sat at the front of the class. Began FSD in my freshman year and attended til I graduated. I learned ASL at FSD.

I should edit to say my childhood was like Babyblue with front row center seating, etc.

I was never told I was hearing either. I hope you just meant the actions of requiring fitting in the mainstream.

 

[GrendelQ]

OK, I think we fall into what you'd define in your study as the 'lying' parent role then : we've misled our d/Deaf daughter to think that she's "normal/regular" and that it's a positive thing to be a part of the "hearing world" in addition to the "deaf world" in which she spends the majority of her time. And we encourage her to use language as much as possible (her decision whether it's spoken or signed at any given moment). We've already been told her identity is a bit mucked up, because for some reason she's got it in her head that she's Deaf. I don't know where she gets that, I'll bet they've gone and let in some abnormal / irregular kids at that school for the Deaf she's been at for the past 4 years.

Yes (lied to that she's "normal/regular" as you put it), 5 1/2, Massachusetts (she's nodding that this is her understanding, and amended the age from 5 to be 5 1/2)

 

[ash345]

22, colorado.
I was told from the time I was little to act hearing, I was put in a mainstream classroom with little to no accomidations. I was not allowed to use sign language and was put through speech therapy from 3-17

 

[Jiro]

OK, I think we fall into what you'd define in your study as the 'lying' parent role then : we've misled our d/Deaf daughter to think that she's "normal/regular" and that it's a positive thing to be a part of the "hearing world" in addition to the "deaf world" in which she spends the majority of her time. And we encourage her to use language as much as possible (her decision whether it's spoken or signed at any given moment). We've already been told her identity is a bit mucked up, because for some reason she's got it in her head that she's Deaf. I don't know where she gets that, I'll bet they've gone and let in some abnormal / irregular kids at that school for the Deaf she's been at for the past 4 years.

Yes (lied to that she's "normal/regular" as you put it), 5 1/2, Massachusetts (she's nodding that this is her understanding, and amended the age from 5 to be 5 1/2)

why the sarcasm? you still mad?

 

[Grummer]

I should edit to say my childhood was like Babyblue with front row center seating, etc.

I was never told I was hearing either. I hope you just meant the actions of requiring fitting in the mainstream.

me too, but they didnt lied about me being deaf, just lied about me being bright and better than the rest and that i can fit in and maybe one day i will be like hearing when grown up as adult, its that fairy tale they fed me...not good.

so in a way i was lied to too. im 42 and in NZ, not in united states, jsut add, "one respondant from outside usa comment the similar situation of being mislead too' or to that effect k
good luck

 

[deafskeptic]

Hi, Terri. I am a clinician that specializes in the Deaf. This is something that many of my adolescent clients have stated: that they were led to believe that they functioned just the same as a hearing student with their device and minimum accommodation. Or to be more specific, that they should be able to function as such. They didn't feel they truly could, which created, as I'm sure you know, all kinds of issues for them. I would be very interested in what your data shows.

I remmeber getting a new hearing aid when I was 7 and I thought it was better than my old one. Later my mother got mad at me and said it any better cuz I kept saying what all the time.

She has asked me if my CI works for me because I often dont' wear it at home. It works fine just htat I enjoy my days of silence.

 

[GrendelQ]

why the sarcasm? you still mad?

I'm not mad, no. Did my post seem angry instead of bemused? Twadellmotter explained her terms: she's looking for deaf people whose parents led them to believe they were "normal/regular," told them that they fit into "the hearing world" and encouraged speaking. We do all that. And apparently that's lying to her that she's "hearing" according to the parameters of this study. So, Li's included as a "yes" vote, seems that we're doing very bad things to her sense of identity by taking the approach we've taken.

 

[Jiro]

I'm not mad, no. Did my post seem angry instead of bemused? Twadellmotter explained her terms: she's looking for deaf people whose parents led them to believe they were "normal/regular," told them that they fit into "the hearing world" and encouraged speaking. We do all that. And apparently that's lying to her that she's "hearing" according to the parameters of this study. So, Li's included as a "yes" vote, seems that we're doing very bad things to her sense of identity by taking the approach we've taken.

since you recognized what you're doing to Li and you acknowledged that it is very bad.... so what are you going to do about it?

 

[GrendelQ]

since you recognized what you're doing to Li and you acknowledged that it is very bad.... so what are you going to do about it?

Guess I should specify that it seems this person doing the study sees this as doing bad things? Not my impression, but I'll consider that input. It's very much an outlier to both the professional and casual advice and encouragement we've been given, and runs counter to all that we observe in our daughter and what we see as her state of mind. And we've made certain to check our obviously subjective perspective against objective third party measures. But, if after considering this post, my family concludes that this bi-bi school she's at is confusing her identity, if using two languages and operating seamlessly in either a hearing or a deaf environment is problematic for her, we would ask my daughter what she'd like to do and change plans.

 

[faire_jour]

Wirelessly posted

we have also always told my daughter that she is normal. She is NORMAL. Her world is full of Deaf and deaf people, so, yeah, she is normal. We have always encouraged her to communicate in whatever way she is most comfortable. She has always been around people who sign and people who talk, so she can do both. Again, it is NORMAL for her to see people with hearing aids and cochlear implants, so she feels like she is normal.....would that mean we are lying too?

 

[jillio]

I should edit to say my childhood was like Babyblue with front row center seating, etc.

I was never told I was hearing either. I hope you just meant the actions of requiring fitting in the mainstream.

My take is that the OP is asking for those that were raised oral / mainstream in an attempt to fit into the hearing world. Shel would be a perfect example of that. If you can relate to shel's experience, then you the the type of person that the OP is looking for. The kids of parents that we often see on here where their parents have insisted that they need spoken language to communicate with "90% of society" is how the parent often phrases it. The ones that put more of an emphasis on fitting into hearing culture than in learning to be deaf. We all know the type, we see them often here. It is the children of those parents that the OP is collecting data on.