Hello, everyone! I'm Kobecon, and I'm profoundly Deaf and been this way since birth.
My main language is ASL, but I have a faint SEE accent, stemming from my city's historical lack of an ASL community which I was raised with SEE and then gradually transitioned to something more of ASL. So, I would say I'm more of PSE signer today.
I also fluently read and write in English, which I am very proficient in and it's one of the skills I'm most proud of! Because I had A LOT of language delays when I was an infant due to my hospital's neglect, which means they tested my hearing level, and neglected to mention to my parents that I couldn't hear a jet engine if it was right next to my ears so my parents DID NOT KNOW I was completely deaf until I was two, and they kept getting more suspicious about me.
Dogs barking at the middle of night? Slept through it. My mom yelling for me? I was busy with my cool toys. My mom decided to put me on the front of the speakers with music on on a high volume. Know what I did? Didn't jump or move a inch, too busy playing. She got very suspicious and decided to go to various doctors and their various diagnoses. Either it was Autism, ADHD, ADD, etc... It wasn't until the audiologist tested me. "Yup, he's profoundly DEAF!" Since there wasn't any ASL community at my home city, as thus the only option the audiologist had was to give me cochlear implants.
Guess what happened? It failed the f**k out on me. Maybe it's because I was still DEAF inside the womb? Maybe it was my sensorineural deafness? My cochlea was utterly busted. I still remember the sheer awfulness of SCREECHING inside my head when I had my cochlear implants on me. Yeah, I still remember that horrible memory when I was three. I vividly remember throwing TERRIBLE tantrums at my frazzled mom, because I HATED that constant SCREECHING sounds, and my mom was getting desperate and frustrated until she found out about SEE lessons at the church... yeah it was in 2005-ish? Yeah, my homecity was not advanced at Deaf community stuff.
Only church ladies taught SEE (Signing Exact English) I'm thankful for them...but man SEE is an AWFUL language to learn to communicate. It's too long-winded and arduous and annoying. Think the worst aspects of English... yeah, SEE had it! ANYWAYS, It wasn't until an ASL interpreter came to my town that I began transitioning to ASL. She taught me everything, and she's my mentor.
So um, hello! That's my introduction!
My main language is ASL, but I have a faint SEE accent, stemming from my city's historical lack of an ASL community which I was raised with SEE and then gradually transitioned to something more of ASL. So, I would say I'm more of PSE signer today.
I also fluently read and write in English, which I am very proficient in and it's one of the skills I'm most proud of! Because I had A LOT of language delays when I was an infant due to my hospital's neglect, which means they tested my hearing level, and neglected to mention to my parents that I couldn't hear a jet engine if it was right next to my ears so my parents DID NOT KNOW I was completely deaf until I was two, and they kept getting more suspicious about me.
Dogs barking at the middle of night? Slept through it. My mom yelling for me? I was busy with my cool toys. My mom decided to put me on the front of the speakers with music on on a high volume. Know what I did? Didn't jump or move a inch, too busy playing. She got very suspicious and decided to go to various doctors and their various diagnoses. Either it was Autism, ADHD, ADD, etc... It wasn't until the audiologist tested me. "Yup, he's profoundly DEAF!" Since there wasn't any ASL community at my home city, as thus the only option the audiologist had was to give me cochlear implants.
Guess what happened? It failed the f**k out on me. Maybe it's because I was still DEAF inside the womb? Maybe it was my sensorineural deafness? My cochlea was utterly busted. I still remember the sheer awfulness of SCREECHING inside my head when I had my cochlear implants on me. Yeah, I still remember that horrible memory when I was three. I vividly remember throwing TERRIBLE tantrums at my frazzled mom, because I HATED that constant SCREECHING sounds, and my mom was getting desperate and frustrated until she found out about SEE lessons at the church... yeah it was in 2005-ish? Yeah, my homecity was not advanced at Deaf community stuff.
Only church ladies taught SEE (Signing Exact English) I'm thankful for them...but man SEE is an AWFUL language to learn to communicate. It's too long-winded and arduous and annoying. Think the worst aspects of English... yeah, SEE had it! ANYWAYS, It wasn't until an ASL interpreter came to my town that I began transitioning to ASL. She taught me everything, and she's my mentor.
So um, hello! That's my introduction!