“I worked so much harder because of being hard of hearing. I wouldn’t give up my hearing loss for the world because without it I wouldn’t be who I am.”
The amount of things we take for granted in any given moment are astronomical. Right now, you can read this, for instance. In a moment you’re about to listen to this episode. That means that someone created language. It was passed down to you. You didn’t have any inherent learning disabilities that kept you from assimilating the language or learning how to read. Someone taught that language to you. The list goes on and on. At the very top of that list, and yet somehow often overlooked, are our senses. You can read this because you were born with the ability to see, and you still have that ability today. You can listen to this podcast and all of the beautiful, wonderful noises in the world because you have the ability to hear. What would you do if that ability started slipping away, or went away completely? Or if you had a child that was not born with hearing the way that you were? You would go and see an intelligent, caring audiologist like today’s guest, Lauren Keller.
“The biggest way that people lose their hearing is noise. And that doesn’t have to be some sudden noise like a firework going off…This generation with the way we use headphones we will likely slowly but surely experience some of the symptoms of hearing loss.”
“When you slowly lose your hearing over time you start to slowly withdraw. Depression rates are higher, cognitive decline is significantly higher. A lot of people don’t get help with hearing aids until 7 years after they need them.”
Interview Contents
2:30 - Blake’s background with American Sign Language.
4:45 - Lauren learning that she was hard of hearing at 3 years old.
10:30 - Growing up with hearing aids and being hard of hearing.
18:30 - Being born without hearing or being born hard of hearing.
20:00 - Other ways people lose their hearing.
22:30 - Sound pressure hurting your hearing.
25:15 - The things that an audiologist does.
29:00 - Hearing aids and cochlear implants.
35:10 - Hard of hearing vs. deaf vs. Deaf.
39:00 - The Deaf community.
44:30 - The work that Lauren is doing right now helping families with their children with hearing loss.
54:30 - Choosing a way to communicate with your children
58:00 - Hear and Now documentary.
1:03:30 - Making connections to sounds and knowing what to pay attention to.
1:09:00 - Lauren connecting with the kids she works with due to her own background.
1:15:00 - Advice to help us retain our hearing.
Links
THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Roxanna
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
