MY STORY

A place of belonging is important as it is a way of increasing meaningfulness in life, someone may be asking where does he/she belong to yet he/she is not a def and at the same time cant per-sieve sound. What do you say when introducing yourself,"I'm too hard of hearing to be considered part of the hearing world, but i'm not deaf enough to be considered part of the Deaf world" 

 

In some cases you find yourself in a family where your parents are deaf but you are able to produce sound and furthermore communicate with others. in this case where do this person belong to? This is what Nilsa Castro and Melissa (not her real name struggled) with for the early parts of their live, quite a coincidence that is same story from two different people from different continents. 

" I was born with a moderate bilateral high-frequency hearing loss.My mom is Deaf and according to my family,I had enough hearing to adapt to hearing world and attended a mainstream school. I struggled very much to hear my teachers or even my classmates and friends that my teachers begged my parents to buy me hearing aids,I experienced jokes,bullying and rejections of growing up of hard of hearing loss in a world where everyone can hear yet I did learn how to adapt to both the hearing and the deaf world. 

I learned to  read lips,decipher body language and find patterns in daily activities to predict conversations if am not wearing my hearing aids i pretend I can hear everything when I really don't,just to be part of the hearing world. The truth is I miss words and nod to inaudible conversations while smiling. Sometimes, I depend on other people to tell me what's going on.The truth is that I don't feel like I belong to the hearing world and at the same time I find it hard to fit in the Deaf world

MY PET MY VOICE

Pets are animal companions kept primarily for a persons company,compassion or entertainment. They are very faithful especially dogs, deafness does not just affect a person's hearing. It is an invisible disability that isolates people from others. It can cause a huge blow to a person's confidence,depression and can take away a person's independence.
Many deaf people often feel extremely vulnerable in a range of situations where sounds are relied on to provide essential information it could be public announcements in airports or stations to crucial dangers sounds like fire alarms.

For a lot of deaf people, night -time can be terrifying because one is required to take out all hearing aids before you sleep and for many deaf people who would usually hear some sounds are transferred to a totally silent world. Unable to hear footsteps,outside sounds or even potential safety signals fire alarms or calling sounds means falling asleep can be very difficult for hearing impaired person most especially children.





The best way to tackle this and also to help our child be comfortable at night when going to sleep,reduce loneliness and even get you out of depression is by looking for a pet and not just any pet a dog, a puppy to be precise, get it trained to understand languages including sign language in an official institution and it will help you in what you need.


Dogs are called mans best friend not only because of their faithfulness but also because they learn very fast and they can also relate to our feelings-they understand us very well. A simple instruction like lye down,sit or roll over can pave great way for both the dog and you to learn and per-sieve sign language for the dog. It is also important to learn how to train your dog by yourself to increase your bonding and friendship. 

WE ALWAYS SAY HELP THE NEEDY

Who is a needy? Helping people means showing them that their is someone who cares for them and also for their needs without showing selfishness. Helping is important because it helps you feel good about yourself because it will make you seem like a better person and make others have a better outlook of you, it takes a lot of energy to  make someone else feel bad and in the end you only feel good for a while but when you make someone else happy I bet you also feel happy and the feeling lasts for long at times even a life time RIGHT?



This is a good way of thinking especially when addressing the issues of bullying,prejudice and discrimination. have you ever tried helping a deaf even by giving directions? It can get tiring quickly when you are intentionally forcing people to hate/discriminate someone just to fulfill you desire.
Instead, treating others with empathy is the best way of gaining respect from your peers. Offer a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on or words of advice. This is how to build a healthy relationship that is founded on mutual trust rather than conflict, at times taking care of your friends hearing aids most especially if it is a child who only thinks of playing with his friends can make the situation more comfortable to both the victim and his family. For a parent to take care of the child he/she will need help and buying even the smallest part of the hearing aid is quite expensive and discouraging if whatever you bought with so much effort gets destroyed within weeks.

 help make a child's life comfortable

Did you know: With our words and actions,we have the ability to both harm and help others

SHOWCASING MY TALENTS

A talent is an ability or a skill that someone is born with and it give the person a chance to perform a task they like and though at times it is hard they still manage to do it very well. Some people usually take advantage of the deaf who wants to show their talents simply because they find it hard to express themselves through their voice.

 When their is a team it is always easy to mobilize others and make your voices to be heard even if it is through demonstrations but the best way is through performing the best in what you wanted by showcasing your talents a good example is with this set of boys who did a fundraising through playing football and organizing for deaf football championships in their community. Keeping in mind football is their talent and it is what made them escape depression,bad company and maintain their high spirits   

Having our family and friends to keep you company and giving you advice whatever given time is always the best thing one could eve have. Through her friends and her determination one girl who was scared of admitting or accepting the fact that she could no-longer have the ability to hear still managed to pass all the odds to an extent of competing for miss tourism which she confesses it was her life long desire as modeling is her talent. 

TELEVISING MY EMOTIONS

Emotion is the one thing that everyone is entitled to at any moment or time of the day as it is part of the mental state associated with the nervous system. KSL has its own way of advertising its emotions but for the emotions to pass the message intended for, facial expressions must be correct as a sign of emphasis as well as to help get the attention of the signee. Today we will be learning how to sign our emotions. 

 Have you learnt anything from our topic for today? you can know express our emotions in KSL you can practice by watching the video above

ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND

Putting  into  consideration  what  we  said  or  rather  talked  about  on  our  previous blogs,  before  starting  a  conversation  with  a  Deaf  person  you  have  to  make  sure  that  you  know  how  the  sign  example,"love"  is  signed  because  for  one  wrong  sign  or  even  the  movement  can  mean  something  else.  Example  when  signing  love,  you  use  hands  cutting  across  each  other  with  either  "A"  hand shape  or  clenched  fist  resting  on  the middle of your chest "wakanda" while  on  the  other  hand  if  you  use  open  palm  the  same  way  it  will  mean  friend.

keep in mind that sign language differs from country to country and it has a different meaning everywhere, in ASL they sign friend using their index fingers to show they will never be apart but in KSL if vertically placed it means umbilical cord for the attachment of the mother to the fetus.

friend in KSL

TODAY,,, IS MY FAVORITE DAY......

How do you identify your favorite day? Well you can only do that ones you know all the days of the week. Today we will do a practice in identifying and signing the seven days of the week courtesy of the deaf community.

When sign the days of the week you should be clear with your signing as even a wrong articulation can mean something different, example 'Thursday' if you sign while holding your elbow it will mean flag,while holding your wrist it will mean fish and at the middle it will mean Thursday the deaf don't just come up with signs and look for a significant name they always sit down and research about it before coming up with a word that relates with the subject and they also refer to what their hearing peers call the subject

DID YOU KNOW: THE DEAF HAVE THEIR POLICY ACT

THE FLAWLESS INTRODUCTION

The first impression that you have of a person will have an impact in your life in one way or the other so while interacting with a deaf, it is important to introduce yourself polity and confidently. The only way to make a perfect introduction is to remain calm and steady while signing out your name.

It is also important to finger spell your name if you don't have a sign name and the deaf are the only-ones who can assign you a sign name and most of the time they do so depending on the features of our body.

Here is a well constructed conversation based on greetings.

courtesy of Deaf Media of Kenya

 N/B: KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU CAN ONLY HAVE A SIGN NAME GIVEN BY THE DEAF.   

STUNNING REASONS FOR USING SIGN LANGUAGE

 Sign language can be used where the spoken word is physically difficult or impossible such as talking through the window or even talking in water. sign language can also let you talk with someone without interrupting others with noise.

For the sake of children,they can acquire sign language the same way they acquire spoken language. The muscles in a baby's hand develop faster than their mouths so signing can be a better options for  early communication especially if the child still can't speak and the best part is that many schools have started including sign language as a subject in their schools.

 

It is easier to have a private conversation in public by using sign language though it's a little difficult it works well if the conversation cannot be seen by someone who knows sign language. It is also a great way of gossiping or passing a confidential information  

ETIQUETTE

The politeness and configuration of a person always differs, depending on how you were raised or the environment you are in, etiquette is important as it provides personal security,protects other peoples feelings and it makes a situation comfortable. The five most important etiquette's to keep in mind are; please, sorry, thank you, welcome and may I.

The minute you learn how to sign the etiquette you will be able to bounce back from from the mistake cause no matter how careful we are it is always impossible to make a flawless communication and etiquette also helps us to focus on the bottom line as well as being productive.

AS EASY AS A.B.C

 As  much  as  it  is  important  to  have  a conversation  for  the  effectiveness  of  communication  when  talking  to  a  Deaf  who  is  learned  or  knows  a  little  bit  of  language  in  that  he/she  was  not  born  with  the  deafness  you  really  don't  have  to  construct  the  sentence  from  the  beginning  though  we  talked  about  signed English  and  signed  exact  English,  these  were  more  for  the  purpose  of  learning  and  understanding  sign  language  grammar,  so  when  talking  to  a  Deaf  use  the  KSL  style  as  it  is  more  of  a  shortcut  depending  on  the  Deaf  as  they  refer  to  it  as  their  Swahili.

sign exact English

signed English 

In KSL you just sign 'you how' to make your sentence complete. 

Easy right!!?? just like ABC

THAT GREAT FEELING

How do you feel when you acquire what you've been longing for, for such a long time? some may not take it as interesting as it should be due to excitement or that non believing mind,you when you already put it in your imagination sometimes it becomes difficult to place it back into your reality.

courtesy of citizen TV

The same thing is happening in the world of the deaf as some Deaf including Peter Ruto could not believe the fact that they can participate in athletics and furthermore, contest for the Deaf African Athletics.