I don’t write much anymore—not even on Facebook. I spend a lot of my time reading and learning new things. I am learning to use my ABI more and more every day. I am taking sign language lessons from a deaf-blind woman not far from me. I am told I am a good teacher. I not only work with Isaiah to teach him the basic things every child needs to know, but I also help him learn it in the form of sign language so he can communicate with me. His mind is completely open to creativity. He is excellent with English and he is getting really good at signing, too.
Isaiah is so smart. He’ll be 3 soon, and he is far more advanced than most kids his age are. I think he has spoiled me. IF I ever had another child, I doubt he or she could compare to him. He’s really a great kid. I don’t think that parents get this lucky twice in a row. I doubt I’ll have another one anyway because of the NF2 factor.
I have started to pick up a few things Isaiah says with the ABI. If he gestures or signs as well, I hear his tiny little voice and can usually pick out the word. I showed him the sign for “all day” and he picked up on it right away. That’s usually what he does. Show him a sign once or twice, and he has it–even if I don’t ask him for a few hours or a couple of days. When I finally do ask him how to sign that word, he will show me–correctly.
I’ve also started signing to him without using my voice. At first, he kind of hesitated. So I would supplement a little with moving my lips. But now, I am having to do that less and less. Today, I signed to him, “Do you like to play?” He signed and said, “yep. Allllllll DAY!” It’s SOOOOOO cute when he exaggerates his “all day.” I can hear that tiny voice saying it. It gives me a smile. I am showing him simple phrases in sign language like: “What’s your name?” “My name is…” “How are you?” “I’m fine.” “See ya later.” He already knew several of the basic signs from the whole time I have been teaching him–since he was around 6 months old. Now, he is learning more of the basics and learning to build simple sentences. He and I are able to talk more now. He might sign “drink” and then point to the kitchen. I ask what he wants to drink and he might hesitate. So I sign, “water? Or milk? Which one.” Then he’ll sign back to me that he wants water. He prefers it when you give him a choice.
Today, he also signed his ABC’s for me and counted to 10 in sign language. A few of his letters don’t come out exactly right, but that’s just his tiny hands. I know what he is trying to make, and with time he’ll be able to make them all perfectly.I am amazed at how quickly this kid learns. I believe I’m going to have a difficult time with him in school. I think he’s going to get bored because he’s going to pick up the information so quickly and the other kids will need more time. I know that is how I was in school. I was ready to move on and the teachers would stay on a particular thing for a long time to make sure EVERY kid understood it. So I would often get bored. I am also going to have to make sure he gets challenged in school. I’m not sure how to do that, though.
We have several print/braille picture books to read. But, there is one in particular that he wants to read all the time. He doesn’t really want to read the rest of them. Even this morning, I asked him if he wanted to read. He said, “Yes, Bedtime Book.” I said, “again? We always read that one. It’s not bedtime. Let’s read something else.” But noooo. It has to be his “comfort book.” It’s “Goodnight Moon.” He likes me to read it while he points out the pictures and signs what he’s seeing. One day when we finished it–it was sometime near noon–I said, “Ok. Let’s go to bed.” He jumped off my lap and said, “No way! Let’s play.” I said, “well, you wanted a bedtime book. Doesn’t that mean we have to go to bed now?” He said, “No, I just like it.”
He’s such a cute kid and well-behaved as well. Now, I can communicate with him better, and sometimes even hear his voice and words. I am so thankful for that. Thank you to every single person who made it possible for me to get this ABI. I use it from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep—excluding the time I am in the shower or swimming (which I don’t do much anymore). I LOVE this thing! I don’t know what I would do without it.
Sunday I met a deaf-blind lady and her family. They live a little under an hours drive from us. It’s odd, we are practically neighbors and never knew there was a DB personal anywhere near us.
Her husband is fully hearing and sighted. He drove to our house and we got to meet. I was so excited to meet them. I found out that she teaches sign language classes at their local community college and that her second son is also DB.
When they got here I was instantly overwhelmed with signs. They kept signing words that I didn’t know and signing too fast. I finally got them to slow down, and come down to my level of signing, which isn’t much. I know some sign words, but my main communication method is fingerspelling. It’s very slow and tedious.
They said that they were going to give us, my family, private sign lessons so we could communicate better and also interact with more of the deaf community easier when we come in contact with them. They said fingerspelling makes your arm tired and you can’t keep up. Don’t I know it!
We had good conversation and I learned a few new signs. They saw how fast I pick up on signs. They would show me a sign, fingerspell it’s meaning and sign it again. I would repeat the sign and they would sign “yes” excitedly if I got it right, or sign the word again if I didn’t quite do it right.
The problem with me is that I know how to sign a lot of the basic signs, but I don’t know how to read them. I could read them with my eyes, but reading them tactually is WAY different. So once I get more practice at interacting with deaf people and reading these signs tactually it will get easier. I feel kind of stupid sometimes, though. They sign something and I tell them I don’t know what that is. Then they fingerspell it to me and I think, “I should have known that. I know how to sign that one.” Well, I know how to make the signs, but don’t know how to read the signs. I guess It’s kind of like a person speaking Ppanish. They can study and practice speakin it outloud all they want but then when a native hispanic comes around speaking spanish at90 to nothing, the person that is learning can’t get it unless they slow down and simplify it a bit. That’s kind of the way it is, Iam havingto learn a new language here.
But, I now have private sign classes once a week. So hopefully soon my family and I can start getting a little more fluent in it. And now that this family and mine know about each others existance, we can get together more often and that will also help me because I’ll have lots of practice and interaction with another deaf person.
So I’m very excited about this and hope it all goes well. Maybe someday, once I finally learn sign language fluently, I can help someone in the same way and teach other people who are interested learn to sign.
It has been a little over 3 months since my ABI was turned on, and WOW! I LOVE THIS THING!!!
I can’t understand when people talk to me. I think other people expect me to, and kind of wonder what the point of the ABI is since I can’t have a conversation with them. I still have to have them sign or type on the DBC. But, believe me, the ABI is awesome. There is a point even though I don’t get speech.
In just three months, I can tell when people are around me. I can walk and hear the tap of my shoes, others shoes, or the crunch of the gravel. I can hear the dryer running. I can hear when my CPU turns off. I can hear when water is funning. I can hear the “beep, beep, beep” of the microwave when food is done. I can hear Isaiah playing with his toys. Granted, I don’t always know what the sound is until I ask, but I’m getting better at recognizing them.
I hear Edward and Isaiah talk all day every day. I’ve started picking up on a few words. When I ask Isaiah something, I sort of feel his body shake if he’s on my lap, but I actually hear, “Nope!” or “yep!” If he makes a gesture with his word he is speaking, I sometimes hear the word.
Edward and Mom always talk while they sign to me. They have to speak slower, of course, to keep pace with the signing. But, I’ve started picking up on a few of their words to. Sometimes they speak a little faster than they sign. I will put what they’ve already signed, with what I heard and can finish their sentence for them. Or sometimes I can even tell what is being said if they only sign the first letter of each word. I can’t do it all of the time, and I get it wrong sometimes, but the fact is, I also get it right.
It’s only been a short time and I seem to be doing really well with this thing. I wear it from the time I get up, until the time I go to bed. When the battery dies I have to immediately replace it. I hate being in complete silence. I love this thing, and I am improving all the time. I just want to say thanks to everyone who made it possible for me.
I really do need to write more often. But, when I go to write a blog entry I can’t think of anything to say. I open a blank document, and it just sits there. I come up blank, so I close the document and do something else hoping that eventually something will come to me to write about.
My normal daily live is cooking things to eat, reading, checking email, looking on Facebook a little while, playing with Isaiah, and talking to Edward and my parents. I also chat on Windows Live with a few free fairly often. On days that I have to go to the doctor, or actually do something, I don’t have time for email, Facebook, or chat. I just read while I wait.
I love to read. You’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again. Reading is my form of entertainment. I am not fluent in ASL so I can’t go to a play with an interpreter. I can’t go to the movies because I can’t see to read the caption. I can’t watch TV in my home for the same reason. I can’t listen to the radio, audio books, concerts, or any other form of hearing entertainment.
All I have is these books. I can literally go anywhere and do anything. It keeps me in touch with the world. I read about new things, that I would have no clue about see I neither saw or heard them. It’s sort of like watching a movies, a really long, detailed movie. But instead of me seeing and hearing the people, I am reading the “script” and I see what those people are supposed to look like, and say. So, while I read, the imaged play out it my head. I can be reading and start laughing, just like people would do if they were watching TV.
I read electronic braille. So I load a book onto my braille note, which is portable. I take it with me everywhere. When we get in the car to drive somewhere, I read while I can. Sometimes Isaiah pulls my hands off the braille and wants me to play hand games with him. So I do, but he gets bored and I get to go back to reading. If I am waiting in the doctors office, I read. Any time I am just sitting idle, I read. It’s my form of stimulation and it keeps me sane.
The ABI is working well for me. I go back to Los Angeles in August to have it tuned-up. I am starting to understand a few words when Edward or Isaiah talk to me. It’s really, really nice. At my cousins wedding, I thought I heard something that sounded a little like the “Here Comes The Bride” Wedding March. It made me smile. I had another cousin translate the wedding to me by typing what was going on and being said on the DBC. It worked well.
I have a slower paced life than most, but at least it is an enjoyable one. I take time to live in the happiness. I soak up the new sounds I hear. When people actually try to communicate with me, I feel like I’m the luckiest woman in the world. Reading gives me pleasure. I love to play with Isaiah and he and I are communicating really well these days. All in all, life aint back.
