Coping in a hearing world

Rachel went to a deaf unit in Napier till her family moved to Khandallah. Then she went to Raroa Intermediate. There she attended classes with hearing children but she had the help, for several hours a week, of a teacher of the deaf, Susie Foster, who is now the tutor for Donna Allen.

Like Rachel, Donna also attended a deaf unit for her early schooling. Then when she reached standard three she went to Chartwell School. Her parents thought she would cope more easily if she repeated the standard three year.

She went on to Samuel Marsden Collegiate, then when her family moved from Khandallah to Ohariu Valley she went on to Onslow College.

Now she is the only deaf person in the sixth form there.

Both girls cope through a mixture of lipreading and using a hearing aid. While the hearing aid does amplify sounds, unless they are looking they are not aware they are being spoken to. In any group situation, where, as Rachel put it, “there is more than one mouth to follow” lipreading is difficult.

To help her in the classroom situation Rachel has apparatus called a phonic ear. The teacher wears an aid which amplifies her voice and blocks out other sounds.

“The teachers like it. They say they get a better response from me with it,” Rachel said.

Neil Churcher, the minister at Khandallah Presbyterian Church, which Rachel attends, also wears the phonic ear for her.

What Rachel does miss out on are class discussions and films. She also can’t take dictation because she can’t look and write at the same time.

Rachel says a lot of people are “pretty shy” with her at first because of her deafness but mostly her classmates have learned to help her.

“They write things down without me asking and they’re careful to look at me in discussion,” she said.

Donna, more retiring by nature, finds greater difficulties in the school system.

“The teachers do understand that I’m deaf but I do miss a lot of work. I spend more time reading the blackboard and books.

“Sometimes I miss out on knowing when a test is coming up because I haven’t been looking when the class has been told about it,” Donna explained.

“I don’t really take part in discussion. I don’t have the confidence to join in. I’m always saying ‘What’s this about?’ and ‘What’s she saying?’ I think my friends get a bit annoyed so I keep quiet.”

At lunchtime she often works alone in the library because then students tend to walk around the school and talk in groups. Donna feels that she’s just following them around and she can’t participate very well since she doesn’t know what’s being said.

But girls are given extra help with their school work.

This year, and last year, when she was preparing for School Certificate, Rachel has had the help of tutor Mrs Ledingham. Mrs Ledingham goes over class work and acts as a go-between for Rachel and her teachers so that she can catch up on anything she might have missed in class.

Donna also has a tutor for three hours a week. She feels it is not enough, and would like an hour a day, one hour for each subject.

Being the only deaf person in a group has its difficulties. But Rachel and Donna are glad to be in ordinary classes now.

“Sometimes it’s frustrating and lonely being the person who’s deaf but I’d rather be learning what I’m learning now,” Rachel said.

It’s in social situations that Donna and Rachel face their greatest difficulties.

“I go out with people I know. I know they will make sure I take part,” Donna said.

She’s afraid that if people take her out, to a party for instance, they’ll forget about her and leave her sitting out of the conversations.

That is why the people she can trust, such as her tutor Susie Foster, are important. Mrs Foster lives at the back of Onslow College and has become Donna’s friend as well as her teacher.

Deaf friends also provide support in the hearing world. Donna is very glad that a former Newlands College pupil, Averil Ryan, who is also deaf, lives very close to her.

Deafness doesn’t stop Donna from playing hockey and badminton for Onslow, and she also plays tennis and goes swimming. Her latest passion is skiing. She headed off to Mt Ruapehu these August holidays with a group of friends. Reading is another favourite pastime.

Away from school, Rachel Noble doesn’t sit around at home either. She has a wide range of interests from cooking and sewing to tramping, canoeing and skiing. Rachel and Donna have both been on an Outward Bound course. As well Rachel is active in the Khandallah Youth group and teaches Sunday School. She has been on bible class camps with no problems except that in the talking after lights out, speakers had to use a torch to light up their faces so that she could see what they were saying.

Neither girl is certain what they will do as a future career. This year Rachel had a holiday job in a laboratory and she’d like to work in a scientific field such as bacteriology. The outdoors has its lure, such as work in forestry. Donna, too, is attracted by the sciences and the outdoors.

It is in the normal hearing world that Rachel and Donna are determined to succeed.

“People are thoughtless at times but I can’t really blame them. I don’t look deaf. I think it’s me that has to make an effort,” Donna said.