I Can Hear This and That!

My 3rd grade student yesterday (moderate-severe deafness) finally got her hearing aid back. It has been a little over a week since she wore it. A piece broke off and her mother sent it off to get fixed. As soon as she saw me she put up her hair and showed me her little pink hearing aid. She was beaming. "I can hear now.", she said. I smiled and responded, "You mean you can hear better. That's great!"

When she was not wearing her hearing aid it was so obvious that it affected her tremendously. Her voice was quieter, she did not seem as confident. She said she felt 'funny a lot' meaning she did not feel like herself. She did pretty well communicating, but I had to remind her that she needed to be extra mindful of her surroundings. Using ASL helped a lot. Thank goodness for her interpreter.

Now her confidence is back and her voice is louder. She walks with a tall upright posture. She kept telling me how she can hear this and that.

When we were working together, one on one, she stopped and asked, "What is that sound?" The AC came on, buzzing and whirring. After I tried to have her figure it out herself (by localizing the sound, giving her clues, "Feel the cool air?") I told her it was the AC. With a puzzled look, she told me, "I no hear before."
I responded, "You mean you have not heard it before. But, really I think you mean that you have not noticed it before."

I think it is so interesting how when you go without your hearing aid for a long time and when you wear it again, you instantly notice sounds you did not really notice before. Even if you have been wearing the hearing aid for a year or so, not wearing it for a while and then wearing it again is always an odd and new experience. You start to notice certain sounds more. The same happens when you get a new hearing aid. I remember when I got my new hearing aid, I could not get over how unnecessarily loud everything seemed.  For example, my cat eating his food sounded like a giant pig snorting and crunching on some slop.

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