late deafened or not?

kuntrykyd

kuntrykyd

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I have been referred to recently as a "late deafened adult"......I am in my (ouch!!) early forties now.... but have had a hearing loss of 60db at age 3, and it spiraled slowly down from there, to where, the past 10 years, it is in the profoundly/severe deaf range in the 90's and now into the 100's......having been helped greatly by hearing aids since I was a toddler, I was able to have my speech corrected and learning to lipread by the early elementary years.
Someone referred to me as "late deafened", and truly, I thought I had been pretty much deaf all my life.
At what point do you really call yourself deaf?
 
Ok I am new here, so bear with me if you would! I just realized this is not probably the right topic column for my posting! Beins this is a CI forum....sorry!!
 
Huh? this isn't a Ci forum....it's for CIs AND hearing aids....and hearing health in general!
I wouldn't consider you late deafened. Someone who lived their lives as a hearie, and then lost their hearing, I would consider late deafened.....maybe borderline postlingal.....Yeah....I'd consider you postlingal, but more Deaf, rather then Hearing Health postlingal....some postlingals (such as a person on an not to be mentioned messageboard) who lost their hearing during childhood, would be considered late deaf/Hearing Health/postie.....but you seem very postive about your deafness, so you're more Deaf......
I mean I only have a moderately severe loss, but I am more Deaf then someone who can't hear worth shit, but who lost their hearing and mourns the fact that they are dhh. Make sense? Big Deafness is more of a cultural thing, rather then an audiologcial thing. Oh, and I think that the dividing line between deaf and hoh is 70 dcB.
 
OK if the dividing line is around 70 db what the heck am I?

My pure tone tests are really good, actually ~ all in the mild to moderate range which I'm glad about. But speech has to be 75 dB for me to be clear in understanding it.

And can someone please explain the difference for me between Deaf, deaf, and hard of hearing, and hearing impaired? Would I be hard of hearing? Can someone who is hard of hearing be Deaf? Can someone who is deaf be hearing impaired? Pleaseeee help! <grinning....> thanks..... :o)
 
And can someone please explain the difference for me between Deaf, deaf, and hard of hearing, and hearing impaired? Would I be hard of hearing? Can someone who is hard of hearing be Deaf? Can someone who is deaf be hearing impaired? Pleaseeee help! <grinning....> thanks.....
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Well first of all, the term hearing impaired is just a dumb PCish hearie word.
It sounds like you're broken....it would be like calling a black person white impaired or a female y chromosome impaired.
Deaf means you're culturally Deaf. It has NOTHING to do with dcB levels...and as a matter of fact, there are people with perfect hearing who consider themselves Deaf...Deaf means you use Sign in your every day life, and that you view the world in a Visual sense, rather then as a person without hearing (or speech). You also see it as more of a cultrual thing, rather then as a hindrance or a handicap :barf: :roll: hard of hearing people tend to have useful residual hearing (can understand speech) with CIs or aids....and yes, someone who is hoh can be Deaf...... there are tons of us here who are hoh, but who ID as Deaf....me, Naj, Bree, Levonian, Vampy and even our esteemed adminstrator Alex!
 
kuntrykyd said:
I have been referred to recently as a "late deafened adult"......I am in my (ouch!!) early forties now.... but have had a hearing loss of 60db at age 3, and it spiraled slowly down from there, to where, the past 10 years, it is in the profoundly/severe deaf range in the 90's and now into the 100's......having been helped greatly by hearing aids since I was a toddler, I was able to have my speech corrected and learning to lipread by the early elementary years.
Someone referred to me as "late deafened", and truly, I thought I had been pretty much deaf all my life.
At what point do you really call yourself deaf?
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Hello knutrykyd,

I am not sure about all of the terms used to describe people with "Hearing Loss" and the true definations either. I am quite sure I am "Late Deafened" I lost my hearing at age 42 (yeah ouch is right I am close to 50 now DAM that hurts...lol) I lost it quite rapidly and used an AID for only a little over one year. The Aid was of little use so after a few assessments and the whole testing, councelling, pokes prods & pictures, I received a CI. I am not sure what to consider myself now?? I hear quite well in most situations with the CI, but if my batteries die or I have it off for any reason I am deaf again. I guess I am now a "Part time, Post Lingual, Late Deafened, HOH Adult" ??? I have seen much confusion over what terms are used and I guess I will just stick to telling people that I am HOH with my CI (still getting used to it) and truly deaf with the CI.

Maybe some day someone will give us a list of terms and defination we can all use and agree on, but for now I guess we are what we chose to call ourselves.

Oh and BTW welcome to All Deaf ;)
 
Actually, I think I would consider someone who was hoh in childhood but developed a worse loss to have a progressive loss, rather then be late deafened. Late deafened usually refers to adults who were hearing for most of their lives, and then became deaf while adults or teens.
 
"At what point do you call yourself deaf?"

I went deaf at 10 years of age, so I had a great start. I lost ALL of my hearing at once, overnight, while I was in a coma with the measles.

You can call yourself anything you want. Be an individual. I have retained good speech and have an excellent auditory memory, but I state loud and clear that I am DEAF, but read lips. Since I am married to a hearing man, I live in the hearing world a great deal, but have selected deaf friends whom I see and call on the VP often.

It is a matter of choice and what you feel comfortable with.
 
deafdyke said:
Deaf means you're culturally Deaf. It has NOTHING to do with dcB levels...and as a matter of fact, there are people with perfect hearing who consider themselves Deaf...Deaf means you use Sign in your every day life, and that you view the world in a Visual sense, rather then as a person without hearing (or speech).
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Why is signing a criteria of being "deaf"? I choose to lipread over signing since my speech is good, and it's a heck of a lot easier to communicate (IMO) with lipreading and speech than signing, so I don't sign. It doesn't make me any more or less deaf than any of you that sign. I find this definition confusing...
 
serijules said:
Why is signing a criteria of being "deaf"? I choose to lipread over signing since my speech is good, and it's a heck of a lot easier to communicate (IMO) with lipreading and speech than signing, so I don't sign. It doesn't make me any more or less deaf than any of you that sign. I find this definition confusing...
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Note that she said "Deaf" not "deaf". You are deaf, but apparently, not Deaf.
 
dkf747 said:
Note that she said "Deaf" not "deaf". You are deaf, but apparently, not Deaf.
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I guess I'm clueless, don't know what the difference is. I'm not being snotty here, I just really don't understand this.
 
It is never too late to learn ASL. Just enroll at community college in your distance..
 
Capital D eaf means you ID as culturally deaf...Culturally Deaf means that you see yourself as being a Visual person rather then a person who lacks hearing. The number one critereia for being Deaf is fluency in ASL....It's sort of like.....you can be a secular Jew (of Jewish heritage) without pursuing it as a religion. Yet you can be Jewish as a heritage and a religion....and you can also convert to Judiaism without having Jewish blood. Make sense now?
 
serijules said:
I guess I'm clueless, don't know what the difference is. I'm not being snotty here, I just really don't understand this.
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You can't hear. You are deaf. (except at the begionning of a sentence. :) ) The word refers to your hjjearing loss.

Deaf with a big "D" just refers to a Culture, a way of life which usually, but not always, includes those with a hearing loss.

"Deaf" and "deaf" refer to two different things.
 
Deaf with a big "D" just refers to a Culture, a way of life which usually, but not always, includes those with a hearing loss.
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Yeah, you can have mild hearing loss or even unilateral loss, and still ID as Deaf....there are some hearing people who Sign as a primary language, due to things like apraxia or tracheostomies....
 
mld4ds said:
It is never too late to learn ASL. Just enroll at community college in your distance..
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Were you talking to me? I don't need to learn to sign, I communicate just fine without it...my lipreading is excellent, as is my speech. Just my hearing sucks LOL.

Besides, no one around here teaches it and I'm not good at learning something like that from a book or video. I prefer human interaction :(
 
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