STORIES AND EXPERIENCES

A MOTHER'S STORY

Harry Sherman is one of our youngest members. He was one of the first children identified by the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme. He has since had dual cochlear implants. His Mum Kelly has kindly written an article about his diagnosis and his progress.

Harry was born in Jan 2008 and diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 3 ½ weeks through the newborn screening test. By 4 ½ weeks Harry was wearing hearing aids and was fitted with bilateral cochlea implants at 16 months. Since the initial diagnosis nearly 2 years ago now, it has been a whirlwind, emotional roller coaster but one that is now starting to slow down a bit. I can honestly say there are even times when I forget that Harry is profoundly deaf as he is doing so well, something which I never ever thought that I would say.

Harry is profoundly deaf in both ears but at the time of assessment NICE had not passed the recommendation that children requiring two cochlea implants should be given them. As far as we were concerned it was completely logical that Harry should be offered two implants but we were forewarned that it was a postcode lottery as to whether the PCT would approve the funding. Luckily we were fortunate enough that when Harry was approved as an ideal candidate for cochlea implants the NICE guidelines had just been passed but the time in-between proved quite stressful due to the worry of potential financial pressure and also we didn’t want to have to put Harry through another operation at a later date.

When Harry’s implants were first switched on he looked a bit surprised but he seemed to take the session all in his stride. One of Harry’s favourite toys before the implants was a dog that sang ‘singing in the rain’ which we took with us and when we switched him on he started moving with the music, we were absolutely ecstatic! It took a little while for Harry to start making new sounds but he quickly began turning to his name every time we called him and when we took him for his three month post implant assessment we were informed that Harry was already well ahead of where they would have expected him to be.

Harry now has a couple of words. He can say ‘up’, ‘look’, ‘mmm’ which is turning into mummy and, quite fittingly as he is addicted to the things, ‘yoghurt’. Like most two year olds Harry wants to do everything himself and getting him to wear his processors can be a bit of a challenge some days, but the struggle is definitely worth it when he starts babbling away. The other day it brought tears to my eyes when he hugged our dog and tried to say ‘Chester’. Although Harry has only been fitted with his processors for 6 months now, everyday I am astounded at the increase in vocalisation and his ability to communicate new things.

Harry absolutely loves anything that plays music, in fact the louder the better, and will dance when he hears music on the telly or music on the radio which seems to have a strong beat to it. He even recognises certain theme tunes to programmes on telly like Waybuloo and the Night Garden and if he is in the kitchen will run into the lounge to dance to the music.

My husband and I have never once looked back or regretted him having the operation. We understand that for many parents it is a very tough decision to make whether to put your child though the operation, but we strongly feel that it was the best thing that we could have done for Harry and without his implants he would not be doing as well as he is now.

If parents are going through the assessment process for their child to be fitted with cochlea implants I would urge them to look at forums such as the NDCS as there are so many lovely success stories and it can make the situation a little less daunting to know that others are going through the same process. Also talking to friends and family can help them try and understand what you are going through and lets them be as supportive as they can. We are very lucky to have such fantastic friends and family behind us and it is amazing how many people are so interested in and amazed at Harry’s progress. The world can be made better for all deaf children and young people by raising awareness of deafness and the issues affecting deaf children and already people who have met Harry have begun fundraising for local charities such as the Dorset Deaf Children Society and the Elisabeth Foundation in Portsmouth which we take Harry to once a week.

One thing that has certainly helped us in developing Harry’s speech and communication skills is making flash cards of the ling sounds, places we go often, family and friends and animals etc. He absolutely loves them and we take them everywhere with us. It would be wrong to say that Harry’s deafness doesn’t still upset me sometimes for after all, we are only human and at first I struggled at times to separate the deafness and my beautiful little boy. Now, however, every morning when I am greeted by his cheeky little smile and chuckle, I feel a glow inside and think to myself ‘I wonder what you are going to surprise me with today…’ 

A CHANCE TO PLAY FOR ENGLAND


Jamie is a hearing impaired teenager who has a love for cricket; we asked him if he would share some of his experiences of being a member of the England Deaf Cricket squad with us.

My name is Jamie Sorbie and I am sixteen years old. I developed a severe hearing loss when I was seven years old and have worn hearing aids in both ears ever since. I have also recently become a trustee of Dorset DCS because I wanted to become more involved with the charity and represent younger members on the committee.

I have been playing cricket for Parley Cricket Club since I was nine years old, I actually started playing earlier than this in the back garden with my brother and friends. At that time I was also selected to play for the district team and my first ever proper game of cricket was for East Dorset against South Dorset. When I was twelve, my brother Tom was asked to play in a training game for the England Deaf Cricket Team. I went along to watch but at this time I was too young to take part as it was adult cricket and they had some pretty fast bowlers!

When I was thirteen I had the opportunity to train with the England team at their training sessions being held at different venues all over the country, one was at the Rose Bowl the home ground for Hampshire. This was a brilliant experience for me and I went on to play some training games and go on tour with them. About a year ago the England Cricket Board took charge of the team under their Disability Cricket section. This has led to the formation of a full strength Lions team, with developing players hoping to progress to the elite squad and play for England. I was lucky enough to be selected for the Lions team and was until recently their youngest player. I went on tour with them last September where we played three games and won all three!

Last year the BBC programme ‘See Hear’ came to one of our training sessions and filmed the England Squad training. The programme was broadcast last February and did a whole feature on the team interviewing the elite players, captain and coach. I managed to make an appearance taking part in the training!

For the past two years the England team have been training in the winter at Shrewsbury School and the last sessions have been to prepare the elite team for their tour to Australia to play the Deaf Ashes. The team have just returned from Australia having drawn the series, meaning the Aussies retained the Ashes. It was a shame it wasn’t an Ashes double after the brilliant Ashes win by the hearing team! Having the opportunity to wear the three lions and play the sport I love is a dream come true for me, and I hope that I can progress as a cricketer to be able to push my way into the elite England Squad in the years to come.

Last September I was nominated by the England Team and the England Cricket Board for a scholarship known as the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS), which means I have funding for my cricket coaching, equipment and travel and I also have my own strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist,. I still play for Parley Cricket Club, playing youth cricket up until last year and adult cricket for the past two years. We also play in the indoor cricket leagues during the winter. I passed the Level 1 Cricket Coaching qualification and trained as an Umpire last year so I have a lot of cricket going on all the time! This can get difficult at times as I am studying for my A Levels in Maths, Chemistry, Geography and Media and also hope to take my Grade Five saxophone exam this year!

I love cricket and only hope with a lot of hard work and commitment I may one day walk on to a cricket pitch representing England!
For the past two years the England team have been training in the winter at Shrewsbury School and the last sessions have been to prepare the elite team for their tour to Australia to play the Deaf Ashes. The team have just returned from Australia having drawn the series, meaning the Aussies retained the Ashes. It was a shame it wasn’t an Ashes double after the brilliant Ashes win by the hearing team! Having the opportunity to wear the three lions and play the sport I love is a dream come true for me, and I hope that I can progress as a cricketer to be able to push my way into the elite England Squad in the years to come.

Last September I was nominated by the England Team and the England Cricket Board for a scholarship known as the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS), which means I have funding for my cricket coaching, equipment and travel and I also have my own strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist,. I still play for Parley Cricket Club, playing youth cricket up until last year and adult cricket for the past two years. We also play in the indoor cricket leagues during the winter. I passed the Level 1 Cricket Coaching qualification and trained as an Umpire last year so I have a lot of cricket going on all the time! This can get difficult at times as I am studying for my A Levels in Maths, Chemistry, Geography and Media and also hope to take my Grade Five saxophone exam this year!

I love cricket and only hope with a lot of hard work and commitment I may one day walk on to a cricket pitch representing England!

FERNDOWN CARNIVAL QUEEN


Laura’s name was announced as the winner! Laura was totally shocked…
“But those other girls are so pretty”

In May 2008 one of our members, Laura Bolter entered the Ferndown Carnival Queen competition. Laura did not tell anybody on the panel of judges that she was deaf and her cochlear implant was well hidden in her long blonde hair.

There were 11 entrants ranging from 15 to 23years old. They all had to stand up in front of a busy, noisy room full of people and answer a series of questions.

Laura was asked why she wanted to win, who she would want to take on a desert island with her and if she had any siblings. She joked that “unfortunately I have a younger brother, who is a teenager…and we all know how they can be a pain!” She wanted to take her best friend Emma with her to a desert island, because they “never run out of things to talk about.”

Laura’s name was announced as the winner! Laura was totally shocked… “But those other girls are so pretty.” Laura will now represent her town at a multitude of carnivals for a year and also has the chance of competing in the Miss UK Carnival Queen in Disney Land Paris. She won £75 and had a dress specially made for her to her liking!

In the words of her family...

So Laura….Carnival Queen!!! So positive for any parent with a special needs child. So positive for other children. So positive for the implant team and such a reward for all those countless people who have loved and helped her get to where she is today….. a totally independent, bright, loving and lovable young lady! Well done Laura, we are all so very proud of you!!

DEAF GREAT BRITAIN RECORD HOLDER

Over the May 2008 Bank Holiday weekend the Ring family made the long journey to Loughborough University in Leicestershire. Their son Stuart Ring, aged 10, had been invited to compete in the Great Britain Deaf Swimming Championships for the first time. Stuart swims for West Dorset Warriors Swimming Club based in Dorchester and is their only county level deaf swimmer.

Loughborough is an Olympic sized 50 metre eight lane pool and this was the first time Stuart had seen a pool this big, let alone swum in one! After a training session on Friday, the races were on Saturday. Stuart’s Dad said – “We were so proud of Stuart’s efforts, he trains four times a week so he deserved his medals. But, for me, the best part of the weekend was seeing Stuart signing and communicating so well with all the other swimmers - something he can’t do at his own swimming club.”

Through his times achieved in Dorset, Stuart had qualified to swim in five races, the 200m Individual Medley (I/M), the 50m breastroke, the 50m backstroke, the 50m butterfly and the 50m freestyle.

The 200m I/M involved 8 lengths of the pool doing 2 lengths of each stroke, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl.

This was Stuart’s first race and the one he was looking forward to the most – and with good reason as it turned out – he set a new Deaf British Record time for the under 11 years age group in a time of 4 mins 7.02 secs!! Not content with that, in his other four races he picked up four silver Deaf Great Britain medals. His older sister Hannah, who also swims for West Dorset Warriors, won the bronze medal in the hearing siblings 50m freestyle race.

A SIBLING'S PERSPECTIVE


Have you ever wondered what it is like for the siblings of your deaf or hard of hearing child? Kelly Sorbie tells us what it has been like for her, growing up with two hearing impaired brothers.

Deafness has been a part of my daily life for as long as I can remember. I have two younger brothers Tom and Jamie and my dad Charlie, who are all hearing impaired. It’s a fairly unusual situation to be in as a family, but one I wouldn’t change for the world.

Tom was diagnosed with a hearing loss, when he was three and I was six, (he has a bi-lateral severe to profound loss).  After this, my parents resolved to do their best to adapt and provide him with all the opportunities any other child would have.

The hardest part for Tom was keeping his hearing aids on. Tom hated wearing them at first and went to great lengths to get rid of them. He buried them in the garden, hid them in a cup of tea, threw them out of the car window and flushed one pair down the toilet at the sports centre when I was having a swimming lesson. I even had to help search for the pieces scattered around my school playground. We can see the funny side of this now, but at the time Mum was tearing her hair out! Having said that Tom gradually got used to his aids and the first hurdle was overcome.

Tom attended Sylvan Nursery for hearing impaired children and our local playgroup and when Tom turned four, he came to school with me at Hampreston First School. When he started at Hampreston he had no speech, but he amazed everyone with how quickly it developed. The teachers wore radio aids to teach the class and it was explained to all the children in assembly what they were for.

During my time at school with Tom, I felt on occasion I had to act as his ‘ambassador’ and ‘protector’, as well as his sister. The Teachers had to wear a ‘strange box’ around their necks and I’d have to explain it was for my brother and in turn explain his deafness. As he progressed to a larger middle school and then upper school, nasty comments were occasionally made in his direction. At first, it was me who would rise to his defence with a quiet (and sometimes not-so quiet) word in their ear, but as Tom has got older (and become a teen) he’s been able to provide a wisecrack defence for anything thrown at him... including me.

I expect you are wondering where Jamie comes into the equation. Jamie developed his deafness when he was eight (he has a bi-lateral severe loss). This came as a shock and my parents were devastated, but again we managed.

He also did not like his hearing aids at first, mainly because he was not used to wearing them and wearing them knocked his confidence a bit. However, I’ll never forget our day out in Alton Towers when Mum and Dad spent an hour searching all the bins in K.F.C because Jamie had accidentally left them on his food tray….and they found them amongst the chicken bones, soggy chips and rubbish!

Jamie ‘s hearing loss meant that I had to go for audiology tests again. At first, I reacted with trademark teenage angst and sullenness, but over time I’ve come to accept it, as I have also inherited the deafness. I do have a hearing loss in the high frequencies, which may develop further. But it doesn’t bother me, when I see how well my brothers have coped.

From a sibling’s perspective, everyday comings and goings in a deaf family aren’t that different to any others. My parents have always made things as normal as possible and the boys do everything any other boy would do. We just have to be aware of dangers and make sure they understand what’s happening. This is hard when we go out sometimes and there’s a lot of background noise, as the boys are having to deal with lots of sounds at once. Try ordering food in a crowded Burger King, when you have to deal with a foreign student’s ‘English’ and a little brother who can’t hear or make his mind up! Taking Jamie out for the day made me realise all the little subtle things that you have to consider when you are with a deaf child.

There are funny moments, when in conversation they may have missed something and we are all talking about different things in one conversation! How Mum stays sane I don’t know! I joke that we all talk louder than the average family because most of us struggle to hear things.

We tend to rent out movies on DVD, rather than go to the cinema as the boys can follow things better with subtitles. We have them on all our Sky programmes as well. At first I found it annoying, but now I appreciate it as sometimes I miss things too. Being late for school was always equal parts me being slow and having to play ‘hunt the hearing aid’.

I have always believed that what one person perceives as a difference is not a difference at all, but a strength. Achieving something is great on its own, but when you’ve overcome other obstacles to get there, it means so much more.

To me, they will always be my brothers first and deaf second. They’re annoying and grumpy, but I’ll always love them. Deafness is just one more obstacle life has thrown at them and to see Jamie progressing with his music and Tom with his sport, both in mainstream schools, both with a good set of friends, makes me incredibly proud to be their sister.

Now they will just have to put up with me being embarrassing!

HAWAII - THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME


During 2007 we received a request from one of our members for funding towards a once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii to represent the British Deaf Community on behalf of The Lions International Group.

Aloha! (Its means Hello in Hawaii!) My name is Kate Ballard and from the 7th July-31st July 2007 I was in Hawaii for three weeks. While I was staying there I was with another girl called Catherina! And she is Italian and also she is 17 years old. After 11th July I met the rest of the group, which is 28 people altogether. They came from all over Europe including Denmark, Holland, Germany, Turkey and Israel and also one girl from Mongolia and one from mainland America.

I stayed in a hostel on the big island for four days. My favourite trip was a visit to the Akaka Falls it’s a really lovely walk and the Falls are amazing, we also visited a dormant volcano where we walked around the edge and went into the crater.

I visited lots of interesting places including Pearl Harbour. It was strange to see it for real after watching so many films about it. It was quite emotional and very sad to remember all the people who were killed. I visited lots of places but it wasn’t all tours. I did lots of fun things including visiting a water park where we stayed all day and then watched Hawaiian dances, I’ve been to amazing beautiful beaches that I will never forget and of course lots of shopping too (clothes and jewellery- my idea of heaven!) Also I went snorkelling which I did it for first time and I love it so much as the sea was so pure and clean and I saw so many pretty colourful fish and just swam around.

On the last night a concert was held by us where we dressed up in traditional Hawaiian clothes and sang and danced the hula (Very hard to learn believe me!!) But the best part of the trip was all the great people I have met and the all the friends I made, meeting people from lots of countries and with different lives was amazing.
Since coming back I have visited Holland and Denmark to visit some of the friends I met in Hawaii!!

But Thank you so much DDCS for the contribution you made towards my airfare it gave me the chance to have an amazing experience!