Thursday, November 02, 2006

Thursday Thirteen


Things I've learned working with the Deaf over the years.

1. Most deaf are uncomfortable in a completely darkened room and sleep with some sort of night light.

2. The way you get a groups attention is by flashing the lights on and off. So in my classroom when I used to teach the deaf, I had a light switch along side the whiteboard at the front of the classroom.

3. A great way to get someone's attention who is a ways away from you is to use a pen-laserlight. Otherwise we used the "relay" system. "Hey, Jon, get Jane to get George, please." You can communicate this through vibrations too, via a stomping floor, or banging on a table. Worse case senario - throw a paperclip or something at 'em.

4. The equivalent of a mad child putting their fingers in their ears to ignore you is for a deaf child to close their eyes.

5. To be able to drive and carry on a deaf conversation at the same time, without getting pulled over by the police, is an art form, indeed.

6. And rear view mirrors are for signing with the people in the back seat.


7. In a concert hall, my deaf friends have enjoyed a symphony, because they were able to feel the music resonate in their chest.

8. When lightning flashed - everyone suddenly got up from their seats at the table and ran to to put their hands on the windows to feel the thunder.

9. Talking with your mouth full is the best way to communicate at a meal otherwise the meal would take too long.

10. In a group, you pray with your eyes opened, and your head up - watching whoever is signing the prayer.

11. One deaf can "whisper" to another by turning their backs to everyone else.

12. A pun is completely lost on my deaf friends.

13. One of the first sounds my deaf friend Virginia will hear is the voice of Jesus.



14 comments:

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

Very interesting. Thanks for teaching me more about the hearing impaired. It's always great to learn about something new. Happy Thursday :D

Anonymous said...

love # 13 -- how awesome would that be - to have the first voice you hear be that of our Lord's!!!

Blessings,
Karla

K said...

A very interesting list, thank you for sharing.

pink-diamonds said...

Thank you so much for this list. I loved it! I am trying to find a way to go back to school for ASL Interpretation so I love learning about the Deaf culture.

Anonymous said...

Ops... Pink-Diamonds is me, it's my old blog. Gah.

mamashine said...

What a cool list! I studied deaf ed at TCU but haven't ended up using my signing much. I've forgotten a lot of it.
My sister used to close her eyes just because she was sick of my mom and I always practicing on her. :)

Anonymous said...

That's amazing about #7 and 8! My cousin is deaf, and every time my aunt would make him mad, he'd turn off his hearing aids, and shut his eyes so he couldn't see her yelling. he used to crack us up.

Anonymous said...

Wow...very very interesting things that I have never thought of before. Thank you for sharing.

Amanda Hunt said...

That is all really fascinating, thank you for sharing that.

Unknown said...

I didn't participate this week in TT but I LOVE LOVE LOVE your post! That is simply amazing.

I have tried to teach myself some sign over the decades, I wanted to learn when I was a child but didn't have the means. It was the first language I taught my children, using simple words I knew like, yes - no - more - thankyou - please - sorry - later - sit down - I love you.

My oldest is 8 and I see the same desire in him to learn more. We visit the library and rent books and videos on ASL all the time. One day I will make it to a formal class.

Cristina said...

This was such an interesting post. And how wonderful that you work with deaf people. Out of curiosity, how did you learn sign language?

p.s. Thanks for visiting my blog the other day.

*~*Cece*~* said...

I loved reading your post. It was not only touching but funny, too.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. See you around, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

Sandra said...

Love #6!!

thanks for sharing!