From the Mother of a Hearing-Impaired Toddler: Translating "The Wink" by Dafne (Guest Blogger)

Source: Fiveprime

It’s time to go. I pick up my two year old and head out the door. He gives me a little wink, underscored by thousands of unsaid words. Because my little Shaulie was born with bilateral deafness. 

He does not know the world of speech. Although he recently started hearing with the help of an implant on his brainstem, the hearing is foreign and it’s taking him time to get used to it. 

So in the meantime, as his thoughts remain private and we can’t peek into his mind, it’s up to me, his Mommy, to translate The Wink.

In Shaulie’s words:

Sometimes my Mommy picks me up from Gan (preschool) before any other mommies come. Then I know that we are going to have a long day. 

There are a few places she could be taking me to. The pointy nose mommy teaches me to go up steps and plays a lot of fun games with me. I don’t mind going there that much. We really should go more often. The curly hair mommy is where we end up going most of the time.

When we first started going there, I thought that this place would be a blast. There are so, so many toys of all different colors and sizes. At the beginning, I tried grabbing some toys, and when that didn’t work, begging to play with some of the really fun ones.  It really wasn’t worth the bother. 

Now when I go, I sit in a high chair and play with the toys that the mommy gives me. Besides for when she covers her mouth. Do you want to explain it to me? She knows that I won’t be able to understand her when she does that. And she still expects me to know the rules of this game. Game? It’s no fun when we do this stuff. My Mommy sits near me and the curly hair mommy sits on the other side and they cover their mouths and move their lips and I can’t see what they’re saying. 

Sometimes they let me see through the cracks of their fingers, and then I copy them and cover my mouth and move my lips in all those ways that they do and everyone claps. I like it when they clap. It means they’re happy with me. 

Anyway, enough of all this talking, we’re off to somewhere else now. I hope it’s the mommy with the pointy nose. Mommy, can we go there now?

Wink.

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Dafna is the pen name for Shaulie's mom. Between running around from one therapy to the next and doing afternoon therapy sessions at home, Dafna is passionate about writing and art. She hopes to share Shaulie's journey to hearing and speaking as it unfolds, using the pen as her medium.

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This blog post was curated and/or edited by The Ardent Reader, Esther Hofknecht Curtis, BSOL, MSM-HCA. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the guest blogger. Visit Esther's page at www.parrotcontent.com for more information.