Have you ever wondered about...
Growing Up Without Hearing (Series 1)
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MARIA'S SCHOOL
Marie is ten years old. Maria was very sick when she was a baby. The sickness caused her to lose much of her hearing. Maria
attends day classes for hearing impaired children. Day classes are different from residential and day schools. Maria's school is a
regular public school. Almost all of the other students in the school are hearing. Maria is in a special fifth grade class that is
just for hearing impaired children. Maria stays in her special class for part of the day. She works on reading, speaking,
spelling, and writing with her special teacher. Then she joins the hearing children for other classes during the day. She goes to
math, science, music, art, and gym with other fifth grade students. In day classes, deaf children and hearing children are often
together. This is call mainstreaming.
Maria wears two small behind-the-ear hearing aids at home. But at school Maria uses a different kind of hearing aid. This
hearing aid helps her hear the teachers who talk through a special microphone. This microphone sends the sound of the teacher's
voice directly to Maria's hearing aid. This hearing aid helps her hear sounds that are far away. It helps her hear better when it
is very noisy in the classroom.
Some hearing impaired children in day classes are in oral programs, just like Willie's. Maria is in a total communication
program. This means teachers and students use many different ways to communicate. They use sign language, fingerspelling, talking,
speechreading, listening, and writing.
 | | Maria's mother talks and signs to Maria. |
When Maria is in class with her hearing impaired classmates, her teachers and classmates use signs and fingerspelling as they
talk. In her other classes, Maria has a sign language interpreter to help her. The interpreter sits near her and signs what other
people are saying. This way Maria can understand what everybody says in class. With the help of the interpreter, she can
participate and learn in classes with hearing children.
Some of the hearing children and teachers in Maria's school have learning some sign language. They have fun signing songs
together in music class and talking to Maria.
Some hearing impaired children in Maria's school use another way to communicate. It is called Cue Speech. Using Cued Speech,
the children learn to recognize certain hand signals that help them speechread spoken words.
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| Maria and her family watch captioned television programs every day. |
MARIA'S FAMILY
All of the people in Maria's family are hearing. Her mother and father have learned some sign language. They try to use it at
home. But often, they just talk to Maria. And Maria talks to them also. When they go on trips or outings, Maria's mother can
interpret for her. With the help of speechreading, sign language, and repeating, Maria is able to understand almost everything.
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| Maria practices every day for her dance class. She has a lesson
each week with hearing children. |
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Maria has jobs to do at home to help her parents. She helps take care of her baby brother. She takes him for walks. She plays
with him. She reads books to him. Maria thing his baby talk is funny. Sometimes Maria likes to watch TV. The family TV has a
decoder, and Maria enjoys watching the captioned programs with her family.
Maria has a special hobby. She takes dance classes and is a very good dancer. Maria has studied ballet, tap, and modern dance.
Maria can hear some of the music. She especially likes the drums. She feels that rhythm of the music through vibrations. Many
hearing impaired people enjoy music and dancing in this way.
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