Every weekend, we are publishing one popular articles from our archive, which you might have missed the first time round! This one is from June 2013. Tell us which articles you think should be reposted by emailing thelimpingchicken@gmail.com
I went to a great conference today. It was riveting and I was hooked on pretty much every word.
And then I got home and collapsed on the sofa. I’m not just tired, I’m shattered. I’ve had to turn my ears off to rest in silence and my eyes are burning. I’ve also had about 3 cups of tea just to write this paragraph.
Boo-hoo, so the Noon is tired, so what? True. People go through worse.
But I do also think the fact that the impact of deafness doesn’t just manifest itself in communication is ever really that well understood. It’s about the energy involved in lipreading and being attentive all day long.
Processing and constructing meaning out of half-heard words and sentences. Making guesses and figuring out context. And then thinking of something intelligent to say in response to an invariably random question.
It’s like doing jigsaws, Suduku and Scrabble all at the same time.
For deaf children and young people, especially, I don’t think this impact is as widely recognised as it should be. Advice to teachers on working with deaf children tends to talk far more about language and communication, rather than concentration fatigue.
And some deaf children and young people I meet haven’t been given the space to talk about what impact deafness has on them and to work out strategies to deal with it; like taking regular breaks and being honest to grown ups that they’re tired, without fear they’ll be labelled as lazy.
When I was younger, I was a little embarrassed to be so tired all the time. I would force myself to go out and be busy and out there when really all I wanted to do was crawl under the sofa and nap for a hundred years. Nobody ever really told me that being tired was ‘OK’.
It follows through to when deaf young people grew up and become deaf professionals. It was a long while before I started to openly admit to colleagues that long or successive meetings are the enemy of me and that I would need extended breaks to be able to function later. And to get friends to realise that if I wasn’t saying very much in the pub, it’s probably cos I was too tired to think.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that deaf people can do anything and everything. We can change the world. But we might need a nap and a cuppa tea every once in a while, so don’t judge us.
Ian Noon has been profoundly deaf since birth, giving him an interesting perspective “on what needs to change for deaf children and young people in the UK. It also means I have very questionable taste in music.” When he’s not stealing the biscuits in the office, he runs, does yoga and plans his next backpacking holiday. He works for a deaf charity but his views expressed on his blog and here, are his own. Follow him on Twitter as @IanNoon
By Andy Palmer. Andy is Chairman of the Peterborough and District Deaf Children’s Society and teaches sign language in primary schools. Contact him on twitter @LC_AndyP
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Sue
November 9, 2014
Hear hear! I can remember as a child I use to sleep for two whole days to catch up and face the world again. Now I keep going but as you said people ask if your alright but you are just taking a break and mentally switch off because you need to recharge your batteries. Is it any wonder that you isolate your self? It’s not because you can’t be bothered if just the sheer exhaustion of trying to keep up!
John Walker
November 9, 2014
I remember my days in (secondary) mainstream education when I was unable to process new information after Easter. The exhaustion was coupled with tinnitus. In fact, I often asked to sit in the refectory during lessons, just to have a break from lipreading. As a deaf child of hearing parents, there is no relief. I have to continue lipreading after school, such as my parents and their friends, which put me in a right mood and I scuttled up to my bedroom for some peaceful solitude. It is worth looking at the cumulative effect of lipreading in class and at home, when understanding exhaustion.
Amanda
November 9, 2014
My son, whilst fortunately only suffered until his gromits were fitted. Used to sleep most evenings straight after school. He was so tired we had to change our working patterns so we could pick him up every day after school.
Daniel Johnston
November 10, 2014
John Walker.. what about note takers, some sign language gestures in between to give you a break from lip reading constantly.. It must be like connecting the dots and second guessing what people are saying.. What if the person turned their head back from you while talking while they assume you understand 100%.. So selfish of people expect you as a profoundly deaf person to lipread constantly in a class during education while it should be an enjoyable experience at school. I remember feeling drained all the times when started high school and become very quiet. I had note takers and had to lip read all the times. When I reached Form 6 (I think Year 11) I just had enough and quit school instead of reaching Year 12. This was a time when Deaf people felt like they were not receiving enough options or choices with communication in education back in the early 90s
mandy snow
November 11, 2014
Hi…. this is so true. .. my daughter has mod sev hearing loss…she’d have meltdowns each afternoon after I picked her up from school. I have since taken her or and homeschool her. This has made the biggest impact to her life. She is actually learning at home too. She doesn’t miss out on social interactions either as she had met ups with other homeschoolers regularly.
Natalya
November 11, 2014
I still think this is one of the best articles LC has ever published and one of the best of a lot of very good articles by Ian. No one had ever put into words a substantial portion of my lived deaf experience like this before.
David Jonsson
November 11, 2014
here is funny article about mainstreaming by Mark Drolsbaugh http://www.deaf-culture-online.com/mainstream-school.html
Tim
November 11, 2014
This is why oralism is a bit evil.
Gina Kleine-Jaeger
November 12, 2014
I have ALWAYS been sensitive to this!! My daughter use to pass out and sleep in the car on the way home from school every day. Now she is 24 and she is dealing with this issue as an adult at work
Emma
November 16, 2014
As soon as my sister came back home from school she would always fall asleep on the couch. I used to attribute this to her being ill when she was really little but now it has dawned on me that it is was due to the immense concentration she would have to have at school. If she had lost concentration for even a second she would have not understood anything that was happening.