Top 10 signs of hearing loss

I was born with hearing, but I often had ear infections which caused sudden hearing loss. This was not severe in my early years, but I would sometimes miss words and sounds.

My parents, teachers, and doctor were unaware of the signs of my hearing loss, but I thought I was fine since this is common in the hearing world. Although I said this quite often, I was simply told to focus and pay attention.

There was one teacher who sort of got it…at least she understood that something wasn’t quite right, and suggested to my mother that I get tested for glasses.

Brilliant!

Yes, fantastic. That’s what I needed, glasses to help me hear better.

Bravo! (?)

NO!
I was failed by the system.

Yes, I kept slipping through the cracks and the real issue was not coming to light. However, I did end up wearing glasses on and off. Mainly in middle school. On and off in high school, but had stopped wearing them by college.

Whatever.

We are getting off track. The point is the system failed me. Especially since we even had hearing tests in school.

Raise your hand when you hear the beep.

I remember telling the teacher, or perhaps the school nurse, that sometimes the sound was quiet and hard to catch.

Well, there was a clue, and nobody got it. That was the one time I told a teacher and the school nurse that I had difficulty hearing.

Me: This isn’t easy to hear.
Them: But you hear it, right?
Me: [Quiet…looking at them, then, with hesitation] “Yes” [with a shrug and a sigh] 

Arrgh…

And there it is…I just got passed over. My reputation as a “space case”, meaning not paying attention, won over.

So a big “Thank You” to the powers that be for not listening. And they were the hearing ones.

Pathetic!

The one time I took action, I was shut down. No one followed up on the big clue that had just been dropped. The fact that I had light / mild signs of hearing loss and although slow, it was a progressive hearing loss.

Let’s have some fun here and make a list. My “Top 10 clues that I and everyone else ignored” list.

Here we go;

1. I was a quiet, introvert kid. (OK vague, I know…but stay with me here).

2. In addition to the above, I was a book worm.

3. Again, the shy introvert that steered away from group activities.

4. Fourth grade elementary school. I was often scolded for not keeping up (not paying attention) at reading time. I was often lost as to where we were in the book. I didn’t know which part to read. And when I did, I was nervous, lacked confidence, and therefore was told to focus and keep up.

5. Middle school. Tinnitus was fully present, one of the most common signs of hearing loss. I remember studying about Beethoven’s tinnitus and hearing loss. At the time this scared me. My fear won over, I told no one about it, and why would I? No one listened the first time I tried.

I felt alone.

6. Again, middle school. My hearing loss was dropping. I very clearly remember a specific incident, I was with friends and classmates, we were chatting in the hall between classes. Really, they were chatting – I was standing there quietly, trying to follow. Then they all started laughing. I had no idea what was so funny or what had been said.

So I said, “What?”

The main speaker, actually a good friend of mine, looked at me and repeated himself. What I heard wasn’t words, it was just a buzzing sound. Garbled speech, I guess.

My gut tightened and I felt so nervous. I was trying so hard to understand and “hear”.

Again…I said, “What?”

And again, and again, and again.

Nothing.

Everyone looked at me like I was a green martian. Then we had to go to class.

I felt alone, scared, and miserable.

7. Number 6 above is my clearest memory of the early signs of hearing loss, but it was hardly an isolated incident.

8. In middle school, it was often the case that class would begin and everyone would get ready for the test or quiz. I was always the one asking, “What? A test? Really? When did the teacher say that?”

If it was written on the board, or in a book, I got it. Otherwise, when it was only spoken, I often completely missed it.

9. High school. I was becoming my own person, and I liked things loud. TV, radio, rock concerts. At this point I was reading lips and often focusing on or staring at peoples’ mouths.

However, I ignored the ringing in my ears, I ignored the fact that I was drawn to subtitles, I ignored that I liked and needed things loud. I ignored that I was drawn to ASL (American Sign Language), and the fact it was naturally easy for me to understand and pick up fairly quickly, so it remained at best an “on-and-off hobby” for years to come…sadly.

10. And from there it was just more of the same signs of hearing loss and resulting problems. Even in high school and college, I was often not ready for quizzes (mostly) and (some) tests, since I had no idea that we were having them.

Interestingly enough, I had always been interested in learning Japanese, even from a young age.

Which led to…

In my junior year of college, I had applied to study abroad in Japan. I got in and was off. Now struggling with hearing English was one thing, but Japanese, I don’t know how I did it…but I did. I struggled with certain words and sounds a great deal. The problems of not hearing words and lip reading were amplified times two in Japan.

One night at the dinner table I was oblivious to the fact that my home stay family was talking. So when my home stay father said my name and asked how my day was, I was clueless. He must have repeated himself a few times too, because my home stay mother yelled my name, but what really got my attention was the vibration from when she hit the dinner table.

School language lab work was nearly impossible. I almost laugh when I think back at putting on those headphones, listening to the cassette tapes, and transcribing what was said onto the worksheets. I did so horribly, it was yet another big clue as to how much lip reading, even in Japanese, that I must have been doing to hide the signs of hearing loss.

After doing that and getting the results, which were complete failures, I gave up and took the “zero” grade, since that was pretty much what I got even when I tried. However, I did ace the language lab video lessons because I could read the Japanese subtitles – so I was lucky and my grades balanced out.

Yet another big clue that can be added to the above signs of hearing loss.

I currently live in Japan, and I have been here for quite some time. Since I live here, I have learned a great deal of JSL (Japanese Sign Language), which I use every day to communicate with friends and those who can sign.

I work hard to maintain my ASL at a conversational level of fluency. Learning JSL has helped my spoken and written Japanese to improve greatly. It just solidifies everything for me.

Some time back, my hearing loss got worse and it started to cut out completely. I found a good clinic here in Japan, got tested properly, found that I had progressive hearing loss. I wear hearing aids on both ears which help with my residual hearing. And a big thank you to my amazing audiologist too. He is able to make very specific hearing aid adjustments to help me with both English and Japanese, as well as other daily sounds.

If you are going to make the jump and live overseas, make sure you “live” in the county that you move to. You wouldn’t let your hearing loss prevent you from doing things in your native land, so don’t let it be an issue while abroad. Get out there!

Meet people, go to sign language groups and meet-ups. No matter what level your hearing loss is, learning to sign will help you learn the language of the land. It is a fantastic bridge to help you connect with the Deaf and hard of hearing communities.

City Hall is another place to get useful information. For example, I learned that I can get a (Japanese) ASL interpreter, if I so choose, but at this point I feel more comfortable using JSL. A trip to City Hall is certainly beneficial.

I use written communication quite often, even though I have learned to speak Japanese.

Whichever signs of hearing loss are experienced, there are many ways to communicate – have faith, it can be done.

Guest author: Mac Bull

Mac is an American B2B freelance copywriter living in Japan. He writes marketing communications for B-to-B (business-to-business) companies all over the world. His main niches of expertise are in the industrial and dental industries, but he has written for others as well. This includes some work for B-to-C (business-to-consumer), and even for some of his own projects.
http://copybymac.com