Miss-Delectable
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Cell serves as a tool | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune
Cozy in an oversized grey sweatshirt, her copper hair pulled back in a high ponytail, stay-at-home mom ReVae Jensen cocks her head to the side.
She's heard a funny sound.
For most people, this is a pretty normal reaction. But Jensen is 100 percent deaf in both ears. If not for a cochlear implant, she would never hear a thing.
Jensen, who grew up in Shelby, gets up from her kitchen table, rounds the corner to her living room and discovers the culprit — her 4-year-old son has been running his fingers across a metal vent to get his mom's attention.
Aside from listening to the antics of her children, restored hearing means Jensen also can talk on the phone.
But she prefers to text message.
Before Jensen got a cell phone, the only person she would talk to was her sister.
Then she taught herself how to listen.
"I trained myself to pick up words," Jensen said. When speaking, she is easily understandable, although her consonants are softer, like someone with a slight foreign accent.
"Now I can talk on the phone without a problem," she said. "But sometimes it's difficult — different people have different tones. Some people aren't as clear."
Before she discovered text messaging, Jensen read lips. She said her family brought her up in the "hearing world" — not dependent on deaf support or technology.
Texting makes things a lot easier for her now.
"Oh it's huge," she said. "There's less talking. It's easier for them (her friends and family) too."
Jensen and her husband text each other all day because he doesn't like talking to her on the phone.
"I always ask him to repeat himself," she said. "It annoys him, and I can understand that."
Texting at work has its downside for Jensen's husband. He often gets in trouble from his partner. But Jensen said she thinks this is unfair because her husband's partner can simply pick up the phone whenever he wants to talk to his wife.
She said she sends about 50 to 75 texts in a given day.
Two of Jensen's close friends, although they are not deaf, bought cell phones just so they could communicate with her via text messages.
Kim Schwabe, supervising teacher for the deaf department at the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, said text messaging opens a lot of doors for those with hearing loss.
The hearing impaired who use text messaging aren't necessarily less dependent on other modes of communication, she said. Since everyone has a phone these days, it allows them to communicate with anyone.
She's noticed deaf adults who work at the school, who text and still use sign language.
"They're using whatever modes of communication they can," Schwabe said. "Texting has added another tool in their tool kit."
Cozy in an oversized grey sweatshirt, her copper hair pulled back in a high ponytail, stay-at-home mom ReVae Jensen cocks her head to the side.
She's heard a funny sound.
For most people, this is a pretty normal reaction. But Jensen is 100 percent deaf in both ears. If not for a cochlear implant, she would never hear a thing.
Jensen, who grew up in Shelby, gets up from her kitchen table, rounds the corner to her living room and discovers the culprit — her 4-year-old son has been running his fingers across a metal vent to get his mom's attention.
Aside from listening to the antics of her children, restored hearing means Jensen also can talk on the phone.
But she prefers to text message.
Before Jensen got a cell phone, the only person she would talk to was her sister.
Then she taught herself how to listen.
"I trained myself to pick up words," Jensen said. When speaking, she is easily understandable, although her consonants are softer, like someone with a slight foreign accent.
"Now I can talk on the phone without a problem," she said. "But sometimes it's difficult — different people have different tones. Some people aren't as clear."
Before she discovered text messaging, Jensen read lips. She said her family brought her up in the "hearing world" — not dependent on deaf support or technology.
Texting makes things a lot easier for her now.
"Oh it's huge," she said. "There's less talking. It's easier for them (her friends and family) too."
Jensen and her husband text each other all day because he doesn't like talking to her on the phone.
"I always ask him to repeat himself," she said. "It annoys him, and I can understand that."
Texting at work has its downside for Jensen's husband. He often gets in trouble from his partner. But Jensen said she thinks this is unfair because her husband's partner can simply pick up the phone whenever he wants to talk to his wife.
She said she sends about 50 to 75 texts in a given day.
Two of Jensen's close friends, although they are not deaf, bought cell phones just so they could communicate with her via text messages.
Kim Schwabe, supervising teacher for the deaf department at the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, said text messaging opens a lot of doors for those with hearing loss.
The hearing impaired who use text messaging aren't necessarily less dependent on other modes of communication, she said. Since everyone has a phone these days, it allows them to communicate with anyone.
She's noticed deaf adults who work at the school, who text and still use sign language.
"They're using whatever modes of communication they can," Schwabe said. "Texting has added another tool in their tool kit."