Read: ‘The day my silence ended’ in The Independent

Posted on March 20, 2013 by



The Independent has published an article by a deaf man called Stuart McNaughton who has written about his deaf childhood and how cochlear implants have transformed his life.

In one section of the article, he says the closest he got to coming into contact with other deaf children was when his mother looked around a deaf school, but according to him, she told him that she saw simply: “a classroom of pupils [who] simply mimicked each other, grunting rather than speaking, using their hands to communicate with one another.” As a result he went to mainstream school.

It’d be interesting to know what our readers think of the article and particularly that part of it – do leave your comments below.

Extract: 

Sometimes, I look back at the photos of myself as a young boy. Scanning the images, I recognise my mother, my father, even the distinctive features of my two elder sisters. I vaguely remember the cousins whom we have lost contact with over the years, but I do not recognise, or relate to, the photos of myself.

I was born with hearing, but when I was 18 months old, my parents noticed an enormous change. Suddenly, after suffering from a fever, I simply stopped “responding”. I had also stopped using the very limited vocabulary I had learnt by this young age. It was a scary time, and imagine my mother’s response when one medical professional casually supposed that I was “either very deaf or just incredibly stupid”.

Read the full article here:  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-day-my-silence-ended-8539724.html


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