Are you Deaf/HOH/etc?

What is your hearing status?

  • Total voters
    48
i voted deaf from birth b/c I really dont know. I do know I took hearing tests when I was 3. I hate being deaf b/c I didnt get to learn a lot of english before I became deaf. That suck ass.
 
Hoh since birth, dianosed as being autistic til I was four years old. Got my first set of Hearing aids at the age of 4.
 
Babyblue said:
Hoh since birth, dianosed as being autistic til I was four years old. Got my first set of Hearing aids at the age of 4.
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I have a hypothesis about that kind of misdiagnosis. Of course, I haven't done the research to support it, but it is based on correlations between things I have seen.
 
jillio said:
I have a hypothesis about that kind of misdiagnosis. Of course, I haven't done the research to support it, but it is based on correlations between things I have seen.
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From what my mom said... The doctors told her that I was anti social and I cried a lot. My mother was trying to tell the doctor that I can not hear. With me being HOH I was able to hear enough for them to think that I can hear fully. I responded to loud noises but in a negative way.

Of course I was anti social.. I could not hear.. I probably cried a lot because I could not talk or express myself in any other way.
 
My hypothesis is this: Autism was a diagnosis that was becoming popular when you were a child. Many of the symptoms surrounding early childhood deafness are mimiced in the child who is autistic. Because autism was being given so much more attention (and still is, BTW), doctors would think of that diagnosis before they would even consider hearing loss (which doesn't get a lot of attention in their training or their professional seminars). There were a lot of children that were diagnosed as autistic first, and I think the above is the reason.
 
jillio said:
It is still a pretty common story. I think most parents suspect long before the pediatrician stops blaming the concerns on over protective parenting and starts paying attention.
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I was dx'd as deaf when i was 9 months old. I think the medical folks took my parents seriously because of my parents' professions: former nurse, and cardiologist.
 
jillio said:
My hypothesis is this: Autism was a diagnosis that was becoming popular when you were a child. Many of the symptoms surrounding early childhood deafness are mimiced in the child who is autistic. Because autism was being given so much more attention (and still is, BTW), doctors would think of that diagnosis before they would even consider hearing loss (which doesn't get a lot of attention in their training or their professional seminars). There were a lot of children that were diagnosed as autistic first, and I think the above is the reason.
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Well sad thing is.. My mom tried to tell the Doctor that I can not hear. They would not listen. I went to pre school and the teachers told my mom that I failed the hearing screening at school and my mom finally just went over the doctors head and took me to an ENT and low and behold... I was diagnosed as having bi lateral hearing loss and fitted for two hearing aids.
 
:ty: jazzy
though I have no children

before on here I have ID'd as new hoh
but I can identify in terms of feelings, cultural - as Deaf
so that's why I wrote that I....was no longer sure....

I also wasn't sure if I should type that in....
 
Speedy Hawk said:
I was born Deaf. My parents didn't know for sure until I was about 3 years old. Mum says she thinks I might be deaf when she using vacuum cleaner and I never woke up or reacted. Then she try other home test and I seem can hear and other times I seem can't hear. Bit similar what parents did home test in book called 'Deaf Like Me'. Much much later she realised parts I seem to hear was of vibrations or reflections, etc, nothing do with sounds.
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That is really interesting. I have often cautioned hearing parents that what they think is their child reacting to sound is more often a visual or a kinesthetic reaction. They get this idea that their child is "hearing" certain things, and they end up setting the child up for unrealistic expectations regarding what they can and can't hear. That old "she heard me walk up behind her and turned around" kind of story.
 
I know my parents and brothers used to make all kinds of noise to see how I would react, and it was stated that there was little to no reaction. Mom said I was the most silent baby she had ever heard of. I never cried unless provoked and never made any sound until I was 3. They took me to a psychologist who was a teacher at the college my father taught at, and his recommendation was that my brother's were not allowing me to try and learn to talk and for my parents to have my brothers go to my grandparents in Indiana while we stayed in Arkansas. After that summer, I could say between 8-10 words and still no sentences. It was all uphill from there.
 
deafskeptic said:
I was dx'd as deaf when i was 9 months old. I think the medical folks took my parents seriously because of my parents' professions: former nurse, and cardiologist.
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Yeppers. That no doubt had an influence.
 
Speedy Hawk said:
I was born Deaf. My parents didn't know for sure until I was about 3 years old. Mum says she thinks I might be deaf when she using vacuum cleaner and I never woke up or reacted. Then she try other home test and I seem can hear and other times I seem can't hear. Bit similar what parents did home test in book called 'Deaf Like Me'. Much much later she realised parts I seem to hear was of vibrations or reflections, etc, nothing do with sounds.
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I can be laying in bed (not sleeping) and know that my SO has come into the room. I can feel the vibration on the carpet. Same as many other scenarios. So I totally get where your mom was coming from in realizing you were picking up vibrations.
 
dogmom said:
:ty: jazzy
though I have no children

before on here I have ID'd as new hoh
but I can identify in terms of feelings, cultural - as Deaf
so that's why I wrote that I....was no longer sure....

I also wasn't sure if I should type that in....
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I got it. My husband is hearing but he has some hearing loss and does not considered himself hoh because his hearing loss only came to 40 percent hearing loss in high voice pitch while he has no problem with low voice pitch. He will lose some hearing as he gets older. He has no problem with it if he came to completely deaf which it runs in his family at older age. Many deaf people does not believe he is hearing because he acts alike deaf sometime. :)
 
AlleyCat said:
I can be laying in bed (not sleeping) and know that my SO has come into the room. I can feel the vibration on the carpet. Same as many other scenarios. So I totally get where your mom was coming from in realizing you were picking up vibrations.
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I'm like that, too. If I don't feel the vibrations I can feel the 'whoosh' that the door makes when it is opened. I feel a breeze on my face if that makes sense?
 
rebeccalj said:
I'm like that, too. If I don't feel the vibrations I can feel the 'whoosh' that the door makes when it is opened. I feel a breeze on my face if that makes sense?
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Yes, and same here! We deafies are sensitive to a change in something! :)
 
Babyblue said:
From what my mom said... The doctors told her that I was anti social and I cried a lot. My mother was trying to tell the doctor that I can not hear. With me being HOH I was able to hear enough for them to think that I can hear fully. I responded to loud noises but in a negative way.

Of course I was anti social.. I could not hear.. I probably cried a lot because I could not talk or express myself in any other way.
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I just recently watched, "For a Deaf Son" and that statement reminds me of what the little boy went through. There were some scenes where the poor little guy was crying, and you could just see the frustration in his eyes because of his inability to communicate.

I remember in one scene they were at a pool party, and the mom said something like, "you could tell he was different from other 5 years olds because he didn't have words" or something like that.

I teared up watching the little boy. No wonder he was frustrated- he didn't have access to language. It was tough to watch, and I didn't identify at all with the mother. In fact, a lot of the things she said are stereo-typical of "hearing parents". It's too bad the lady didn't get a clue early enough.
 
I was born Deaf.

My mom suspected that I didn't hear until age 9 months old as the confirmed result. She did bring me to the DR while DR used the shiny bell to shake it to see if i did response and I DID. :roll. Dr should know better that I have an excellent eyes that caught the shiny things. Jeez. They assured her that I was FINE. They stated that I was just a stubborn girl. She didn't agree with doctor and then she brought to the other doctor. It was confirmed that I was Deaf.
 
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