My daughter was born deaf and wears two cochlear implants. While the cochlear implants have changed her life, she is still considered deaf and relies on sign language when her batteries or if there is something wrong with her implants. It wasn’t unheard of my daughter going without an implant for several weeks when she only had one implant. We decided to get her a second cochlear implant before she got any older and give her the gift of hearing in both her ears. Not only does the second implant add redundancy but it will help her be able to hear directional sounds easier. As my daughter gets older and turns into a young woman, I have always wondered how dating would be for her. Last year she started dating an young man, who has taken the time and interest to learn sign language so that he could communicate with her when she had trouble hearing. When I was presented with the opportunity to review the book “Turn a Deaf Ear”, I immediately wanted to read it.
Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this book are 100% my own and I would never recommend something that I didn’t enjoy. This post contains affiliate links.
The story line is very similar to my daughter and her relationship with her boyfriend even though it is a fictional story based on real facts. The first part of the book was kinda slow but it helps build the story line and the family traditions. Once you get to the middle of the book, you will meet Nick’s friend from work, John, who is deaf. Nick brings him home to have dinner and to meet his family. Linda couldn’t take her eyes off her brother’s friend and immediately felt a connection to John. A few days later Nick approached Linda and asked if she was interested in going on a date with John. She accepts John’s offer and a year later they decide to get married.
Linda tells her mom about her plans to marry John and her mother is totally against it. In fact, she starts saying bad things about John and his language. As a mom, this is probably something normal for people who don’t understand about the deaf community. I never thought about this until I read this book because my daughter is deaf and in high school. My daughter is also very fluent in sign language, which is something that the audiologists wanted me to take away from her after she got her first cochlear implant. However, as a mom I wanted to give her the opportunity to learn two languages and expand her career opportunities.
Linda’s mom finally apologizes to Linda for her behavior and attitude towards John. I am happy that his mom apologized to her because you can’t always determine in advance who you are going to fall in love with. I hope that my daughter doesn’t run into this situation with her future in-laws.
As Linda’s sign language improves and she is approached for a potential job opportunity while out shopping with John at the grocery store. Linda decides to think about the job offer and talks it over with John before making a decision. She is scared that she doesn’t know enough to interpret for others, John assures her that she would be great at it. So Linda calls Brain, the psychologist, to inquire about the job offer and accepts his offer.
I love that the author wanted to help educate other’s about the deaf community and ASL. I felt that this book did a great job at pointing out the stigma that is attached. Most people often perceive that if you are deaf, that your are dumb as well. This is not an accurate description, in fact, the opposite is true. My daughter is very bright and she does things that amaze me each and every day. She has played in the band for 4 years and how she does it, I have no clue. She gets good grades in school and she volunteers to work at the concessions stands at events around the metroplex.
Children who are born deaf have so many options available to them. For example, when my daughter was a baby cochlear implants were fairly young and they delayed surgery until my daughter was at least two years old. Today children are able to get the implants at an earlier age which helps with the language gaps that my daughter faces. If you don’t want your child to have a cochlear implant or they aren’t a candidate, you can give them the opportunity to go to the State School for the Deaf or enroll them in a local school program. In fact, you can get your child care at a very early age through Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) and once your child is three years old they are turned over to the school system. ECI will begin giving your child access to speech therapy, sign language, and even help train your child to read lips.
I hope that you will read “Turning a Deaf Ear” so that you can understand the challenges that deaf culture faces. You can find more information about Turning a Deaf Ear on their website.
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Do you know anyone who is deaf?
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