Chapter 49 :)

"How do People Become Deaf?"

I thought this chapter was sooo interesting! I love learning all of the terms and causes of Deafness, I find it all so interesting! I am currently working on an undergraduate degree in Speech-Language Pathology, and I think that knowing and understanding these terms is important. Someone who is postlingually Deaf may have a better/ different understanding of speech, and therefore the SLP will likely use different methods on a postlingually Deaf person than on a prelingually deaf person who may not grasp the concept of speech sounds so well.
In addition to all of the terminology, this chapter gave some interesting facts! I would have never thought that "more males than females are born-deaf and early-deafened. I was aware that women usually outlive men, but I had not previously made the connection that more women than men become deaf late in life. May I add that I think this is God's way of saving men from their stubbornness...  in my experience women are much more resilient to change, and are much more willing to learn new things, even at an old age.  =)

Another thing I was surprised by is that roughly 1/2 of all known deafness is caused by "unknown etiology," with all of the medical technology today I am very surprised that this is still the case.

Also before reading this I thought that Deafness commonly ran in families... As I have mentioned in many previous blogs, my best friend Charlie's grandparents are both Deaf. Charlie's mom teaches at the Indiana school for the Deaf (but is hearing), and his sister is Deaf. I thought she was congenially deaf because of a gene or something. He was at my house this past weekend when I began to read this chapter and I asked him if he thinks he will have deaf children.... well come to find in conversation it came up that his sister was born hearing.... she got meningitis and had a very high fever which deafened her! What a coincidence!

I find it interesting that there is 2 types of Deafness: sensorineural and conductive! The conductive deafness is new to me, I think tinnitus would be incredibly annoying and frustrating. I think I would rather lose hearing in that ear than hear a constant buzzing, ringing, or wooshing sound. In a gerontology class I took we did a simulation project where we had to put a shell up to one ear and hold it there for an entire class period.... and boy was that annoying. The constant noise drove me insane!

Another type of deafness that I didn't know was real is adventitious deafness. My mom has always joked about Waylon making her 'deaf' (she was right next to the speaker for 2 Waylon concerts within like a week of each other) and since that day she says her hearing hasn't been the same since.  While the loud music damaging hearing makes since, I was really surprised to read that living too close to an airport and riding a subway often were really surprising! I am from a small town with no airport and definitely no subway... so I have to ask.... does anyone warn people about these dangers?? Scary!

So far in my experience with Deaf culture I have made the assumption that they are very blunt and will ask/ tell anything.. so would it be rude to ask when/how they were deafened?