Saturday 21st March 2015
I am sitting in a still and quiet hotel bedroom, with five sleepers all around me, they are completely exhausted. I guess I am too, but the lure of a cuppa and some chocolate on my own (and some time to read FB and update my blog was too irresistible!)
This weekend, we are on an NDCS Family Sign Language weekend. We are learning so much! Today topics ranged from greeting people, learning the alphabet, spelling out our names, learning numbers and reciting mobile numbers. We also importantly learnt the signs for deaf and hearing.
It is so lovely and therapeutic to come together with a diverse group of people, of whom many were strangers to me, sharing our only common bond of having a deaf child in the family. We have bonded and laughed, leant and giggled - we have had fun - whilst our children were being expertly looked after. It is such a weight off a parent's mind, to know that their child (or children) is being looked after, safe in the knowledge that we will be called should anything be needed. This reassurance allowed us to learn sign language today for several hours with two expert teachers. We learnt so much, because of the teaching, but also because it was so much fun! It's just so much easier to learn when you're laughing.
My next BSL exam is coming up and so this weekend was great timing for me to get in some extra practice!
However, my joy today especially came from the children, as usual you might think, and their reactions to disability. Now, my kids are encouraged to always ask questions - if they are not sure if their questions are appropriate, they should ask us (hubby or I) first, but if it's a friendly question, we encourage them to ask the person or family themselves. So today they commented on a little girl who was the same age as one of our sons, who happened to be using a wheelchair. Initially they stated, we saw a girl in a wheelchair and she is only 3!!! Why is that? Of course, we couldn't see the little girl now and I had no idea why she needed a wheelchair. However, later on I spotted her and so I stopped her mummy & said that my boys thought it was brilliant that her daughter had a wheelchair and she was only 3!
What followed was a beautiful show of acceptance that only kids can do (I try everyday to be more like a child in my acceptance of people, but their innocence makes it so much easier). The mummy was pleased I had stopped her and called her daughter over, I called over my two older sons (aged 7 & 5), we all then had a chat with our new friend and told her we thought her "magic wheels" were cool, there are like my duaghter's "Magic Ears", they help you do something you couldn't do if you didn't have the magic. The little girl (who is actually 4), showed us her wheels - it was actually a walking frame and not a chair, she was very proud and slightly bashful at our boys' excitement toward her wheels - a reaction I don't think she must be used to. The boys told her they thought it was great she had magic wheels to allow her to walk and play better and she beamed back a huge smile, as if realising that she had been accepted into a new friendship.
I never want my children to feel ashamed of asking a question - without a questioning mind, we do not learn, and a day when nothing new is learnt, is a day wasted. I was so proud of the way my sons handled this situation today and I hope part of that relates to the way we have brought them up.
I am also overjoyed that this weekend they have again made new friends with kids who are deaf or who are brothers or sisters of a deaf child. It is so important that they learn that deafness is not a barrier to life, but simply a different path. Seeing hearing technology in our house is not an issue for our children and part of that comfort comes from making friends who also use hearing technology and sign language. We don't usually see the kids signing together, but this weekend we have seen plenty of signing between parents and children, which of course we are trying to do as much as possible and experiences like this, help our kids to see that we are not the only family behaving in this way.
We are so grateful for the NDCS for giving us the opportunity to attend this weekend and for the families we have met. The experiences we have shared this weekend are almost as useful as the sign language we have learnt. We have much more to learn tomorrow and I guess I better get some sleep to prepare, but I know we will be going home feeling positive about deafness, cochlear implants, parenting and the future, no matter what it may hold.
Goodnight & thanks for reading,
Saz xx
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