I got a surprise from the school nurse. She said that my youngest, a five-year-old kindergartener, failed his hearing test twice. The state required that she notify the parents and ask for a follow up. His hearing was fine until this point. The problem appeared only in his right ear and at the highest pitch (they test three levels).
Since he had been coughing and had a sinus infection, we thought it could be fluid. He went to see his regular doctor who pronounced no fluid and no wax. So the next step was to set up an appointment with the ENT and audiologist in his office.
We know it isn’t a hereditary thing as my hearing loss was a birth defect. His next follow up comes on February 3. Yes, it puts a family on the edge. I never dreamed that hearing loss would hit my children (the older two have full hearing).
I debated whether to share this story. But it’s deaf-related and thus, it should be here. Whatever will be, will be. That’s all.
I know some deaf parents are proud to have deaf children while others cry. I’m not going into that. This is simply my son’s story and we’re already working on the next step.

One of my best friends emailed me because she has a new student in her religious school class who has a cochlear implant. She and her sister are in the 4th class together despite the person with the cochlear implant is in 7th. Here’s how my thoughtful friend explained the situation:
“She doesn’t us American Sign Language – something different and she is also a special needs student (don’t know the details here). She can read and write. I think we will need to write more on the board to help communicate with her and take some of the pressure off her sister. Any thoughts? I want them to feel welcome and since she is so much older and doesn’t speak it will make it harder for her to participate.”
Apparently, things are not going well at home either with divorced parents and Dad having primary custody. Mother refused to allow the kids to get baptized and they’re behind in their studies.
Obviously, there’s more to the story, but I am not going to make assumptions. I told my friend that they need to relieve the younger sister (4th grader) of responsibility in helping her older sister. My friend is going to call the dad to find out how to best work with her.
I hope this story gets better and that the girl learns to communicate the way that it works best for her.

We finally feel a part of the cell phone revolution as more phones come out with keyboards, more people use SMS, and more apps become available to help us communicate through text. Then I read an article in the local newspaper that keyboard phones might become obsolete thanks to voice recognition technology for cell phones.
Google and Vlingo have applications that let you commandeer your phone, search the internet, and save on typing. According to the writer, they perform almost flawlessly unless he is in an area with a lot of noise. These applications are available only for iPhone and BlackBerrys.
I would think voice recognition won’t take over 100% of the time for one reason: noise. If you’re in a quiet area or in a meeting, you won’t want to speak commands.
Should this technology advance enough to separate background noise from your voice — then we could be in trouble. In this case, cell phone manufacturers may cut keyboards for good and go with touch screen for times when you can’t speak.
On a brighter note, I’m grateful Google Mail has added SMS capabilities to its Google Chat application. My daughter relies on texting for communicating with me and I don’t have my BlackBerry with me when I am at home. So now I can text her from Gmail.

Never thought about it until today — shame on me. If I used ASL on a regular basis, this hand injury would’ve been more frustrating. I couldn’t type much for six weeks, so imagine trying to sign with one hand.
As you can see from the photo, the splint allowed me to move my four fingers. However, I think the thumb has a big job. Though I am a lefty, I think my right hand may have been the dominant hand when I learned the finger alphabet and picked up on some ASL from friends.
Anyone ever get stuck with one hand? How did you work around that from an ASL perspective?

A reader wrote to me about her relationship. I told her I am not in the best position to advise and asked if I could post it as I think she would benefit from a community response rather than one person’s experience. After all, deaf people have all kinds of experiences. Here’s her note:
I know it isn’t easy to draw generalizations, but I’m hoping you may be able to tell me if some of my deaf boyfriend’s behaviors are culturally-based, gender based or just his own temperament.
He is an excellent lipreader and is able to speak with a hearing aid. All of his ex-girlfriends were deaf with one exception: a hearing person who knew ASL. Almost all of his friends are deaf.
I have never dated a deaf person before although I am very interested in diverse cultures. I have been reading as many books and on line info as possible about deaf culture.
I do not know sign language. I am willing to learn ASL (although learning a new language is very hard for me), but he says it isn’t necessary. I’m also not sure if I want to put in a lot of effort right now if he just wants a casual, friends-with-benefits relationship.
Without going into detail about the emotional baggage each of us brings to the relationship, can you tell me if deaf people tend to hold back from getting involved with hearing people?
We have fun together, can communicate and get along fairly well. However, he alternates between utilizing my help (dealing with the courts, banks, etc.) and then pushing me away saying he wants to be independent…which I understand. Do you think there is any long term future for us? If so, how can I promote it?