Talking about Our Deafness in St. Dominic's (November-2014)
Talking about our Deafness
Last Monday, the 10th of November, Shauna Farrell and I were asked to go to St Dominic's to meet a group of students to talk about our deafness as it is part of their topic in CSPE. We arrived to meet 13 students and Shauna and I introduced ourselves while Ms Higgins introduced herself. We started off by telling the girls how we became deaf and how it affected us and our family. I explained that I was raised in a deaf family and Shauna told the girls that she was raised in a hearing family.
We also talked about our cochlear implant and how much of a difference it made to us. We walked around the classroom and showed our implants. Ms Higgins explained about it as we showed the girls. I had to explain that I suffer from tinnitus and how it affects/affected me. We explained more and more. The girls asked us very good questions. Their teacher told us that the girls knew sign language so we asked them to sign their names to us and Shauna and I had to guess their names. I was very surprised because they were so good and they signed so clear to us. In the end, we showed the girls a video of me and Shauna signing to Price Tag along with the girls from Transition Year in St Dominic's. They liked it and we all got together and the teacher took a picture. It was very nice to meet the girls!
Aimee Ennis McLoughlin,
Transition Year.