Teresa Garratty: Sometimes it’s easier to talk to kids about deafness than adults

Kids! You’ve gotta love ’em. Except of course, when you don’t because they are the absolute worst. Which is all the time by the way.

Trust me, I’ve met children, they’re horrible.

Not only that, they’re weird. They have weird brains that don’t work the same way as adult ones do. For instance, when my cat died, I told my nephew that I had buried her body at the top of my garden. His response was…

See. WEIRD.

I will give them this though, children are much more accepting when it comes to talking about our differences. Especially things like being deaf, wearing hearing aids/CIs and signing.

A conversation with a hearing child about being deaf has never been as painful as one with a hearing adult.

When you meet a hearing adult and they notice something different about you (hearing aid, CI, signing etc) they’ll usually try to pretend not to notice while actually staring intently at said difference like its a box of frickin’ wonders.

A child on the other hand will just get straight to the point, usually with a very direct and blunt question or statement such as “Why don’t you speak?” or “What’s that thing in your ear?” or as my nephew so eloquently once put it…

It’s simple, effective and doesn’t have to pass through a bullsh*t filter.

Adults are plagued by the need to be polite but also subconsciously driven by their childlike wonderment, so when they ask questions they end up stumbling over their words like a drunk, tap dancing octopus.

Kids though, do not hold back. They get stuck in there, straight for the jugular. They want the details and they want them yesterday. I’ve been asked some pretty weird stuff by kids about my hearing aids, none of which has ever offended me.

They have a genuine interest in learning about what makes you different to them, Not out of spite or malicious intent, they just want to know because they like learning new things.

My niece once discovered that if she hugged me close, my hearing aids would give off a feedback squeal. This led to repeated hugging, giggling and an in depth discussion about microphones. Hours of fun (!)

The other thing about kids is that they’re so accepting of things. Once they’ve asked and you’ve answered, they’re done and onto the next question.

No rebuttals. Grown ups don’t do this. They feel obliged to offer condolences, solutions or sometimes even counterarguments.

Children ain’t got time for dat!

Wait a second. Maybe I was to quick to judge. Maybe children aren’t so bad after all. Imagine if all the grown ups could be as honest, open minded and accepting as all the kids when it comes to learning about deafness. Think of all the awkwardness that could be avoided!

OK, I’m calling it. It’s not kids, it’s grown ups.

Grown ups are the absolute worst.

Read more of Teresa’s posts (with more cartoons!) by clicking here.

Teresa is a freelance film maker, photographer and full time cynic. At school, she was voted “Most likely to end up in a lunatic asylum”, a fate which has thus far been avoided. Her pet hates are telephones, intercoms and all living things. Follow her on Twitter as @TGarratty