Hi, my name is Adam and I am a hearing impaired student at Westfield Park Primary School.
I'd like to explain to you what it is like to be deaf and how I cope with my school learning.
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I love to play hockey, football, cricket
and floor ball. My favourites are hockey and football.
When I play sport I don’t wear my hearing
aids because if I get hit in the ear it might break my hearing aids and
they cost heaps.
I can’t hear the referee but I can see their
hands. I have to watch what signal they make with their hands. The other
players help me to know what the referee/umpire said. If they are close
to me I can lip-read.
Last week Glenn Jackovich (AFL- West Coast
Eagles) came to our school, it was COOL!
I had my photo taken with him.
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What it’s like for me in class:
Sometimes when the class is noisy I can’t
hear the teacher and I can’t concentrate on my work.
I cope really well in most learning areas.
Especially in The Arts and Health and Phys.Ed.
My hardest subjects are spelling, writing
and reading.
SPELLING
In spelling I can't hear the words properly
so I don’t know how to spell them. Some words sound the same to me. The
teacher lets me sit in a quiet place and someone reads my words slowly
to me. Now I can get them all right.. most of the time.
WRITING
I don’t like writing because it’s hard to
spell the words. I ask someone to help me spell them.
READING
Sometimes I don’t know what the words are.
It’s hard for me to sound them out because I can’t hear them very well.
LOTE
Everyone else at my school learns French.
I learn AUSLAN and other ways to communicate with hearing people.
Every Wednesday I go to the library with
Mrs Woodhams, my Education Assistant. We learn other ways to communicate
like using the computer, writing letters and emails, SMS on mobile phones,
TTY (special hearing impaired phone) and best of all AUSLAN.
AUSLAN is short for Australian Sign Language.
I used to go to the School for the Deaf in Mosman Park, that’s where I
first learnt how to do AUSLAN.
I learn different signs using a CD-ROM and
the AUSLAN dictionary. I practice my spelling using AUSLAN finger spelling.
I also have a Visiting Teacher for hearing impaired. She comes out every week. I do stuff on the computer and she makes sure my hearing aids are working. Sometimes my mum comes to help out at the school.
Mrs Vicki Levitzki, Visiting Teacher for the Deaf
Every semester Mrs Woodhams makes me set a goal, my goals this semester are.
- Talk to one person at a time in AUSLAN
- Tell them what its like to be deaf
- Show them how to finger spell
I was very nervous but I got over it. The kids were very nice to me.
Clapping in Auslan |
"Good Morning" in Auslan |
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OVER THE YEARS
I have been to 3 different schools.
In Pre-Primary I went to Mosman Park School
for Deaf Children. When I was in year 3 I went to Lathlain Primary School.
I came to Westfield when I was in year 5. Now I’m in year 7 and I’ve had
a great year. I have lots of friends. My best friend is Danny. I’ve been
to the Year 7 camp at Pemberton and I am in the graduation.
Next year I go to High school!
Links
Below are some links to sites with information
about the hearing impaired.
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