While surfing for other blogs I came across this relevant blog posted by an unknown author.  The article served as an eye-opener to me.   Reading all the issues behind Hearing Impairment made me realized that EC’s road to success in the hearing world should be paved by no one but US-her parents.  Patience with our daughter’s shortcomings and understanding her on the process are the keys for her survival in dealing with social problems. 

 

Although our fear for EC’s future will always be there, still her perception for her hearing impairment will depend solely on how we percieve her loss.  I am hoping against odds that she will grow up to be a self-sufficient advocate for herself.  What we are training her for will help her so much when time comes that she will be on her own.  Shielding her all the time will never help her to be strong in dealing with life’s trials in the hearing world.   

 

To help everyone on how to communicate with hearing impaired (deaf) or hard of hearing persons and to help everybody on how to properly deal with them I decided to post the unknown author’s blog here: 

 

Overcoming Emotional Problems

Understanding the Emotional Problems of Hearing-Impaired Children

It is hard to imagine how hard it is for those children that have hearing disabilities to blend in with normal society. Just the fact that they are usually unable to participate in normal conversations is already a big impediment to their social development.

And when social development lags behind, a child may develop a host of issues and emotional trauma that should be recognized and dealt with while still young. These emotional problems could lead to bigger and more destructive issues that would impair the normal development of the child.

The child, due to the disability, could feel out of place, lowly, lonely, outcast, resentful, and moody. It is very important that the parent works hand-in-hand with a guidance specialist on helping the child cope with this situation. The parent should exercise a great deal of patience and understanding when dealing with the child. This is the only way that children can deal with the social problems they are faced with when out on their own.

Here are some of the problems children experience due to their hearing impairment.

1. Inability to make new friends. Children, especially at an early age, are wont to make fun of, or fear the unknown. This also goes for things that are different. Children can be cruel and since your child, because of the hearing impairment, is different he or she becomes a target for all sorts of pranks and jokes.

This could push them farther away from making friends thus perpetrating the heightened feelings of exclusion and loneliness. And usually, kids that are different are the butt of everyone’s jokes and are treated as anathema. Also, being unable to understand what other people are talking about me arise in them a feeling of paranoia. They may feel that everyone is talking about them-especially when people give them odd looks.

Although they may be able to learn how to read lips, this ability may also turn out to be the butt of jokes. Some children make fun of those who try hard to read lips, and try to hide what they are saying behind their hands. Again, it may sound cruel, but for some young children this is just schoolyard fun.

2. Frustration at not being able to express themselves. The hearing-impaired know they cannot communicate properly with other people. This makes them feel like no one can understand them. This may arise from an inability to understand other people properly.

This could cause a heightened sense of estrangement – being different and being unable to blend in with the crowd may cause all sorts of behavioral problems. And since not everyone understands sign language, they may feel that the people they can relate to are limited.

This can be alleviated somewhat by strong family support and affiliation with other people who can communicate in sign language. This could also be a good reason for one with a hearing impairment to seek education in a special school for the hearing-impaired.

3. Suspicion. Most people feel awful when people talk behind their backs. It could increase one’s sense of suspicion. This is doubly so for those with hearing impairments. This is because people tend to say bad things about them even when in their presence, thinking that since they are hearing-impaired they would not understand a single word of what they are saying.

However, even those with hearing impairments can learn to understand body language much better than those that can hear properly. So when they see people talking to each other in hush-hush matters, they can read body language and see that they are being talked about.

This can be a very frustrating experience for those trying to get along with other people. This could cause the children to withdraw into themselves. Teaching others to understand these feelings people with hearing impairments experience could do much to help them react properly to them.

Being able to understand what people with hearing impairments go through will help us be able to deal with them in a better manner. Also it will help us educate people who associate with them to understand how what they do affects them.

Knowing how what we do affects other can help us understand their way of thinking better, leading us to be able to understand and communicate with them effectively. Also, being aware of the issues and problems these people go through will help their guardians to recognize and anticipate potential problems their loved ones are experiencing.