How/when did you learn you were d/hh?

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rivenoak

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How old were you when you were told/found out?

How was it explained to you?

Any other comments you have about the experience are welcome.

:ty:
 
I always knew I was different but I had it confused with being the youngest in my family. Most of my neighborhood friends were a little older than me also. Despite also having a couple of neighborhood friends that were a little younger than me, I fully expected that when I got older I would be able to hear everyone well.

I think that theory started to fall apart after my first day at the Peter Pan Nursery School. Lots of kids my age, but I was still the only one who couldn't hear what was going on. I wasn't good at communicating at that age so I basically just recall feeling like something was wrong and having a sinking feeling in my stomach most of the time.

When I was 5 years old, my kindergarten teacher strongly suggested to my parents that they take me to an audiologist. That was probably the first time anyone said to me, "You have a hearing loss." But believe me, there were plenty of opportunities before then!
 
sometimes I learn it aware it I am pretty learn deaf teach hearing people learn cultures. I know pretty!
 
I think it was when I first got my hearing aids at age nearly 4 that I realized I was different from everyone else and that this difference was related to my hearing or lack thereof.
 
I remember having realization about age 5 or so that other people could do something which was called "hearing", but i didn't then (nor really now) have any actual concept of what hearing is.
 
I would guess at around age 4 or 5 when I realized that my brother never had to go into the 'hearing booth' and listen to the sounds in the headphones.

From what I recall as a child if someone wanted to whisper into my deaf ear I would turn my head and say 'No, that ear is broken!'. I think it was explained to be as being broken, which might explain why I used that word. I stopped doing this at around age 7 or 8.
 
The school nurse notified my mother to urgently get my hearing tested when I was 11. That was when I was diagnosed. However, I noticed something myself at the age of 7 when reading in class with the progressive reader. I noticed the way I spoke did not match with the words I read on the page. I also remember noticing around the age or 3-4 feeling embarassed and stupid due to the reactions of some other kids and also adults. Especially when my brother would get me caught out on something I was doing because I had followed him and then did not hear my parents approaching. (little kid antics like eating jam and peanut butter out of the refridgerator :giggle: )
 
Kind of late. At age 22 on a bet no less, I tried to join the U.S. Army(Failed the physical because of my hearing loss).
 
I was 9 when I was diagnosed as Deaf. Got by somehow all those years by either imitating those around me or by reading lips and body language. My hearing was tested many times but I always passed. You know the window in the testing booth that the tester sits in? Well, that was why I passed. I was reading the tester-and to me as a kid it was just another test I just had to pass. I didn't know there was anything wrong with me persay-how could I? I was never treated differently by my mother and father and my brother well, he was over protective of me and I know why now...but as a kid I was just as happy as I could be if not totally unaware I was " different".

I failed my hearing test when I was 9 years old when my tester realized what I was doing. She moved away from the window and I failed.

It should have been obvious that I was Deaf. I was three when I was put into speech therapy. Why it took so long...wish it didn't. This was however back in the late 80's ( born in 82), early 90s. If I had been born now I think the diagnosis would have been made quickly.

I also lived over seas as a kid in japan and the phillipines-I wasn't diagnosed until I returned to the states. That could have been another factor. I'll never know. My mother is no longer among the living to tell me...about me. I was 19 when she died, the talks we could have had, would have had...she took to her grave.
 
I don't remember being young and struggling to understand, I just thought everyone heard the same as I did, but figured things out better. They were smarter or older or something. I think the first time I realized there was a difference was when I started riding a bike. Between the training wheels scraping the ground and the wind making annoying roaring noises, and the fact that I couldn't read lips, I realized I could understand nothing that was said to me. But the rest of my family seemed to be able to talk and joke and laugh just fine. I didn't understand how they were doing it so much better than I was.
 
I'm late deafening. My friends started to notice first. My parents would be speaking to be while I was reading a newspaper in the kitchen and just assumed that I was engrossed in what I was reading (Im a big reader) so they did not even notice something was going wrong until after I insisted in seeing an audiologist and my results came back.
 
We first learned with a definite diagnosis when I was 7. Upon going through all kinds of papers recently, found that my doctor at birth knew I had a hearing loss, but he did not tell my parents. Little hard to complain 48 years later.
 
Well that thread says I was 4. I guess my mind is not working too well today.
 
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