Proof when voice is more effective than signing....

Or is it?

Well, one person was the Chapter president (Sacramento) of California Association of the Deaf, an organization who pride themselves their strong heritage on using ASL, used his voice instead at a California Senate Health Hearing discussing the AB2072 bill in a roomful of culturally deaf people which would make Alexander G. Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, John Tracy Clinic, Oberkotter Foundation and all of the oral/aural schools around the United States quite proud.




Sign language interpreters were at the hearing to help interpret both voice and sign language.  Yet it's perfectly alright to use your voice, even at Gallaudet University, CSUN, or elsewhere as long as there are interpreters and/or CART services available so that everyone, deaf, hard of hearing and/or hearing can understand what's being said. Tim Riker, former chapter president of CAD, made it perfectly clear on June 23, 2010 at the California Senate Health Hearing that using his voice was wholly acceptable finding it preferable and more effective than signing.  Although one cannot avoid noticing the total irony coming from a chapter president of an organization that exclusively use sign language.

It was perfectly clear that using my voice at Gallaudet University's blog/vlog conference with interpreters and real time captioners available for the audience and for those watching over the internet (it was a live taping) was more effective for me than signing. It was simply due to my preference and communication ease. I discussed one of the topic surrounding the use of technology on whether ASL is in danger of disappearing.




It was perfectly clear when a Gallaudet University Board of Trustee member, Dr. Brenda Brueggemann, used her voice at a Gallaudet University graduation commencement speech was an effective use of her communication preference to the graduating class of 2006  with an inspirational speech but you need to know the true story of why she had to use her voice before you get angry first.

It was perfectly clear that John Fortius, an oral person who does not know sign language, who used his voice at the California Senate Health Hearing was an effective and efficient way of communicating to the assembly members.  Even though, ironically enough, the former chapter president of CAD criticized John (it appears he was talking about John) for having "unintelligible" speech.  Even though there is a complete transcript of John Fortias' speech and that sign language interpreters were clearly interpreting in ASL what John said for the deaf audience in attendance at the Senate Health Hearing.





Thank you, Tim Riker, former California chapter president of Sacramento CAD. Thank you, John Fortias. Thank you Dr. Brenda Brueggemann.

Whatever mode of communication you find most effective and efficient is what really counts.

I have a question

A captioned video, "I have a question."

Annette Funicello and John Tracy Clinic

Annette Funicello, former Disney Mouseketeer, died to day at age 70. RIP.  The photo seen below (circa 1959) is Annette reading a Teen magazine to a deaf boy wearing a hearing aid on his chest.  Annette was introduced to John Tracy Clinic by the JTC founding board member Walt Disney.

Perhaps the greatest link was John Tracy, Spencer and Louise Tracy’s son, who was born deaf. John had an interest in art and as a child started a newspaper. The first issue sported a Mickey Mouse cover with an inscription by Disney which read, “Good Luck to Johnny Tracy.”

Louise Tracy spent a great deal of her life establishing the John Tracy Clinic for families with deaf children. Having struggled to understand the best way to educate her son, she wanted to provide the best medical advice to other parents in the same situation. Disney donated $100 at the clinic’s inception and was a member of the original board of directors. When Disney toured the facility in 1043 and saw that the children were napping on mats on the floor, he donated cots and at Christmas sent over “a truck load of gifts – puppets and toys, all Disney-licensed, that could be used in teaching.”

Disney later funded a $12,000 short film, Listening Eyes, made by the clinic to explain its procedures and supplied the director, Larry Lansburgh, from his studio.

When the Disneys sailed on the Queen Elizabeth to Europe in July of 1952, Spencer Tracy was also on board and they socialized during the trip.

In 1957, Disney hired John Tracy, who by then had attended Choinard, to work at the studio. He eventually was in charge of the cel library. John left Disney when his sight deteriorated and he was no longer able to do the job.

In 1961, Disney was on the ticket sales committee for a fundraiser for the John Tracy Clinic and in 1967 after Walt’s and Spencer’s respective deaths, the Disney Foundation donated $100,000 to the John Tracy Clinic.

In the photo below the poster behind Annette announcing the annual Benefit Bazaar. 

John Tracy was the inspiration for Spencer Tracy and his wife to start the John Tracy Foundation.

"As a child, John Tracy couldn't have known that he would be the inspiration of a whole movement to give new hope to parents of children with hearing loss," Barbara F. Hecht, president of the clinic, told The Times.  

The clinic was among the first to start a hearing-impaired child's training in infancy and make parental education a critical component. It has helped an estimated 245,000 parents and children.  

It tries to educate "deaf children through their mothers and fathers, who otherwise would not know what to do with them.... I hoped it would help a great deal," John Tracy wrote in 1946 in the Volta Review, the journal of the Alexander Graham Bell Assn. for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  

The story, written when he was 22, was headlined "My Complicated Life."  

John Ten Broeck Tracy was born June 26, 1924, in Milwaukee to two actors who married between a matinee and evening performance.  

When Tracy was 10 months old, his mother became alarmed when a door that accidentally slammed shut failed to wake him.  

"I stopped suddenly.... I stood motionless beside his crib. I called his name again -- and then I shouted it. He slept on. And so I discovered our baby was deaf," she said years later.  

Afraid to tell anyone, even her husband, she consulted several doctors who told her that her son had "nerve damage, cause unknown." They also said he would never talk.  

The Tracys refused to accept doctors' advice to "wait -- in a few years he'll be old enough for a state school," a reference to deaf education that would start when he was 6.

"We went right on talking to Johnny, singing to him, telling him nursery rhymes, and as it turned out, that was just the right thing to do," Louise once said, according to a 1983 Times story.

You can read more of John Tracy's bio here who later in life in his old age became blind as well. John was born with Usher Syndrome and eventually became legally blind in the 1990s.

After attending what is now the California Institute of the Arts,

Tracy worked for several years in the art props department at Walt Disney Studios; Disney was a close family friend. Tracy stopped working when his eyesight started to fail in the late 1950s.

Well into adulthood, he learned that his deafness was due to Usher syndrome, a genetic disease that was also to blame for his fading vision. By the early 1990s, he was legally blind from retinitis pigmentosa.

John Tracy died in 2007 at the age of 82.

Am I an oral/aural success?

That's a matter of perspective and wholly subjective based on experience and ability as a deaf/hh person who grew up speaking and listening.  I grew up with a lot of hearing friends and some deaf friends. I grew up playing sports such as soccer, baseball and wrestling and I excelled in them. My soccer team was a state championship team in 1975. One of my baseball team in early 1970s that I was in was a championship team as well. I placed 2nd in my weight class in a wrestling tournament. I competed in high school marching band competitions as a drummer and competed in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  And so on.

But was I an oral/aural success?

My first words were “bye bye” at 14 months old.
At 18 months - “Jamie,” “Baby,’ “DaDa,” “Bye Bye,” “Car” and “Hot”
By 30 months or 2 ½ years old I had a vocabulary of 20 to 24 words
At 2 ¾ years old I was forming sentences “Dada bye bye,” and “Dada eat.”

At this point after a year and half of oral training with John Tracy Clinic and Birney school I was progressing fast and saying many words.

At 2 ½ years old all of my words were hard for me to pronounce them because of my deafness. I received my new body hearing aid at that point and with the help of my mother and John Tracy Clinic my vocabulary grew. By 3 ½ years old I was forming questions. “Where is Jamie?” “Where is Dad?” I even said to my brother, “No no. Momma pretty” in reference to her hair. By 4 ½ years old I could recognize my own name and names of my classmates in Birney school in Tacoma. By 5 ½ years old I was able to read basic words, identify colors, count number from 1 to 10.

I was in a class of hearing first graders for ¾ of the day. At first I was emotionally upset for awhile with the big change from an oral setting in Birney School to a regular classroom with hearing students. But I finally adjusted and did well. According to my mother’s notes I was above average in most subjects. In March 1973 I received my first behind the ear hearing aid to replace my worn out body aid. I wore my behind the ear much better and was able to get more sound out of it. The miracle of advancing hearing aid technology.

I went regular school from 4th grade to 12th as a hard of hearing student. Did theatrical plays, played in the middle school symphony band, took piano lessons starting at age 7, and I was on the high school marching band that competed in the southeast marching band competitions.  I was your typical middle and high school student.

Am I an oral/aural success?  Certainly.

I still can order my food and listen at the drive through speaker and make sure they got my orders right. I can speak to my family, friends, and strangers in person or over the phone without problems. In a physical setting with people around me the acoustic environment must be conducive enough for me to carry on a conversation.

I've come to think of myself as a person with a hearing loss. A person who is deaf. Also a person who is hard of hearing. Or even person who is hearing impaired with the focus that my hearing is impaired, not just myself.

I'm an oral/aural success? Certainly.

Despite that, I still cannot hear completely and my hearing aid helps me tremendously. I can keep up with conversations in small group conversation but the settings have to be right.

I did well in regular school in a non-mainstreaming setting. I relied on my hearing aid to listen. Sometimes they needed to repeat what was said. I got good grades. I went from high school to a hearing college and then to Gallaudet University as a lark and curiosity to see what a deaf/hh setting was like. I learned how to sign and communicate in ASL. While going to Gallaudet University I also attended nearby George Washington University without the need for note-takers, interpreters or any other support services and did well in those courses.

After Gallaudet University, and George Washington University I attended a graduate school at University of Idaho and successfully got my masters degree in Geology. I did well in classes without the need for note-takers, interpreters or any other support services. I was successful in defending my thesis during an oral thesis defense that lasted almost 2 hours.

An oral/aural success? Certainly.

Throughout my life while attending regular school from elementary, middle and high school I had more friends than I could count on my fingers. I had hearing friends in my neighborhood that we skated together and did a bunch of fun stuff. These friends of mine weren't the "misfit" or "outcast" types. I still have them in my Facebook.

I was never really bullied though a few tried to do that to me but I pushed back and made myself clear. I wasn't worried about being shunned or quietly ignored by the “cool kids” because I learned quickly early on that such "coolness" was highly over-rated.  I never had a mental breakdown because I've always spoken my mind.  I was a good friend to many, and I considered them good friends to this day.

Am I an oral/aural success? Certainly.

But also, because of Gallaudet University, I am successful in sign language. I learned to sign while an undergrad at Gallaudet. I made many new deaf and hh friends. And also learned a great deal the insidious problem of identity politics. I was in the Honor Program. I worked as a math tutor. I spent time focusing on my education but had time to play with my friends, attended a few Rock Festival events, football games, and so on. I graduated from Gallaudet within 3 years. After that I attended graduate school at University of Idaho for 5 years with enough credits for two degrees but only got one degree in Geology and yet made some more hearing friends while there, too.

Now, I have many deaf, hh and hearing friends. 

Today, my working environment involves working with mostly hearing people. I still use the phone to speak and listen with no assistance needed. I still use the field radio when I go out into the field alone in the woods. I still deal with wildfires. I strive to meet other employees who are deaf or hard of hearing.  I strive to help educate hearing people and co-workers about people with hearing loss whether it's mild or profound hearing loss or those who communicate primarily with sign language. It's a win-win situation for me and others when people understand better on the issue of clear communication.

I have never dread sitting at a table surrounded by people who are hearing as long as I feel the acoustic environment is suitable, I'll join. I don't dread meeting different deaf people at bars during deaf nights, either, as we sign away through the night with my wife. I enjoy meeting different people whether deaf or hearing but I do enjoy my solitudes. At work I like calling the shots on when I need CART, a microphone or online captioning for those video conference calls that have a lot of people participating.

Am I an oral/aural success? Certainly.

Am I deaf? Sure.

Am I hard of hearing? Sure.

Am I hearing impaired? Sure. I won't let a little identity politics get in the way. That term doesn't bother me.

But that's not important.

What I like to see today is to help other deaf and hard of hearing people (signers and non-signers) achieve their own brand of success in life with the help of technology whether it's at school, work, play or at home. I serve as a source of inspiration to many deaf and hard of hearing people. Other deaf and hard of hearing people serve as an inspiration for me. I like seeing hard work rather than listen to people complain about how unfair life is. Or hear people make stupid excuses when they are really lazy or ignorant. I like seeing people take the imitative and be pro-active about something positive in their life. Grab the bull by the horns and get busy. Complaining about your past life won't do anything for you or get anywhere. Best you can do is to move forward and make the best of what you got. Me? I take the best of both worlds, hearing and deaf. And I'm making the best of it the best way I know how one day at a time.

I am me.



You are not me.

Don't try and be me but be yourself on the things that you do best at.

Focus on your own successes and what works for you. Success is relative. Success is subjective. I see myself as an oral/aural success. I have never regretted my life and the things that I have done. I continue to go down that path. If you complain about what I do and/or say in this blog then you need to stop focusing on the negative and do something constructive in your life for a change.


Bonus video for hearing people only:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9QwOC4ZxDM

Enjoy.

Refusing to subtitle your own videos

One of the lamest excuses for a deaf or hard of hearing person to say regarding their own videos is the refusal to subtitle their own videos (whether it's voice or signing) until a good majority of videos in YouTube gets captioned or subtitled by their own authors. The funny thing is that the best way to spread awareness is to include subtitles in your own videos. Doing that tells other people that you are for inclusiveness for those who cannot hear, understand the spoken words or understand signs. Recently today, on the John Tracy Clinic Facebook page it had a historical JTC video in it that was up but had no captions or subtitles to it. I responded by saying there's no captions. A quick reply was given saying they don't have the resource or time to add subtitles. I then wrote a quick response that was respectful in nature.

I caption my videos I put on my blog by listening to it. I need anywhere from an hour to three hours of my own time depending on the length of the video whether it's my own personal video or something else. I use Overstream (or physically add the captions for my own videos), for example, http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2010/10/matt-hamill-post-fight-video-interview.html, a video I captioned last year. And my video tribute to JTC (http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2010/09/video-tribute-to-john-tracy-clinic.html ).

Yet I'm hard of hearing (moderate-severe) and I took the time to do this by myself because my main audience are mostly deaf and hard of hearing. I know what it's like to be left out, so why would I do that to them even though I can understand the spoken words?

It'd be better to have video captioned first and have it ready to go rather than doing it later. Otherwise, it'd give the appearance of not caring first for people with hearing loss their consideration when it comes to accessibility. It'd be better to caption first in light of the organization's connection and name. Not doing so only serve an ironic reminder on the lack of inclusion.

Let's not use excuses and include everyone whenever a video first comes out by JTC using whatever medium format (e.g. Facebook, JTC website, YouTube, etc.).

Respectfully yours. Mike

Needless to say that video on JTC Facebook disappeared 10 minutes later. I hope they understood my  message on making sure any videos put out are to be captioned. Not to be mean but just showing them the futility in trying to use the "no time" or "no resource" excuse when it comes to adding subtitles to a video. It's very easy nowadays. Nothing complex about it all. All I had to do was prove to them that including subtitles in a video does not take a whole lot of time and resources. I used my own subtitled videos as examples to prove my very point! They relented and removed the video and the comments that went with it.

I include captions/subtitles to my spoken videos but in videos where I signed in a video called "Professionalism or name calling? knowing full well I'd have an audience that do not know sign language. This includes hearing parents of deaf/hh babies! Regardless, this is the surest way to reach the widest number of people out there in YouTube land. Barry Sewell finally saw that light last year and began including captions to all of his signed videos with his first Open Letter to NAD and the Community on June 9, 2010. He has been one of the most prolific signing vloggers out there and among the very, very few who include captions. Adding subtitles to his videos are a guarantee that his videos can be watched by both signers and non-signers alike.  Barry Sewell now has a huge edge over those who refuses to include subtitles to their own signing videos. If one thinks about it, 99.9% of the U.S. population does not know sign language. By including English subtitles to a signed video will ensure a capability of a captioned video to reach a majority of the U.S. population because it then becomes completely watchable.

If you have the means and capability to include subtitles or captions you should do so. Using the excuse as a reason to not include subtitles because you're waiting for the rest of the English speaking population to include their subtitles becomes a very lame one. It simply becomes a cop out excuse and a way to conveniently avoid doing any additional legwork for your signed videos and that you purposely discriminate because of a stupid ideology.  For Barry and I, we don't think of it as doing extra legwork but rather the huge opportunity and potential to reach a much larger and wider non-signing population which amounts to potentially several tens of millions of people in the U.S. alone not counting many more countries outside of the U.S. who know the English language. Remember, I said "potential" and not that the figure I gave is the actual number people will watch. I encourage those who sign in their own videos who have the capability and the means to include subtitles to consider that opportunity. Inclusiveness goes both ways. Let's not be selfish about it and let stupidity be your answer. 

But to focus on a very, very, very small segment of the Deaf community which amounts to potentially some 600,000 (maybe less or more) Deaf people, your non-subtitled signing videos would only reach a fraction of that 600,000 number because about half of those people are adults or older teens who can watch, and then you have an even smaller number of people who even bother or have an interest going onto the internet to watch YouTube videos or even visit DVTV (which btw continues to thrive despite a miserably failed boycott against it) and watch those signed videos.

All in all you have a potential Deaf audience of maybe 50,000 to 100,000 vs a potential audience if you include English subtitles to your signing videos will go up to perhaps several tens of millions of English speaking audience that actively use the internet.  I'm just guessing on the potential side of things but assuredly the number is much, much larger on the English speaking/listening side than the signing side. No one can dispute that one bit.

So, which signing message do you think will have a better chance of getting out to the wider audience? A signed video with no subtitless, or a signed video with subtitles?  Waiting for the hearing population to do the subtitles first is a losing proposition because those that do include English subtitles to their own signing videos have the distinct political advantage and leading edge over those who do not subtitle their videos in getting the word out.  And it is those people whose words are the ones that get out to the general population...and not the signed videos with no subtitles. They will be the ones forever relegated to the eyes of a very small population of Deaf people. And will forever fall on, literally, deaf ears in the hearing population because they do not understand a signed video.

Videos: Compare and Contrast on Communication Methods and Options

Let's compare with the recent ASL video that came out on what it appears to be (CDE) California Department of Education's official support on the ASL option against all other communication methods and options in an equal unbiased approach on information for parents to watch. Also see the CDE Oversight Committee in the last video below at 12:55 to see the scrolling names. You might recognize some of the names. That alone certainly raise questions about the possibility of conflict of interest. Who is Andrew Laufer?

As far as I can tell there were no budget set aside using California's public tax dollars to produce a video on other communication and language options for parents to learn and be informed about. The budget of $34,000 dollars was used to produce the inspirational ASL video with the intent to distribute DVD videos targeting parents of newborn Deaf or hard of hearing children. It is not known if CDE will include other DVDs, pamphlets or other information about other options along with the distributed ASL DVD video for parents to have. Is that their intent? Or just the ASL video only?

I have a question for you CDE, are other options being denied to parents who need to know all other options in order to make an informed decision regarding their deaf/hh newborn child? Is this the only DVD video available for those parents that talks expressly only on ASL? Do you have other communication options to provide and show? Do you have plans to make other similar videos about Cued Speech? Signing Exact English? Audio-Verbal approaches? And so on?


Auditory-oral approach on learning how to speak and improve listening skill.


Cued speech with auditory-oral examples along with sign language using Cuers.


A deaf/hh boy with hearing aid learning how to speak and listen fluently in both the English and Cantonese language through auditory-oral approach with his mother.


A mother and deaf/hh son (with a cochlear implant) moment with her signing in SEE and him responding in SEE which is a full visual communication access of the English language while at the same time hear exactly the spoken English language.


California Department of Education's ASL video of parents and kids signing only.

What goes through your mind when you see this picture?

What are your thoughts and feelings when you see this picture below? It's an old bumper sticker I have that's around over 35 years old. I scanned it last year for my laptop. I have two of these stickers in my storage box along with one button with the same phrase on it. You can see a picture of that button on the left side of my blog.

Now, is that phrase true today? Can deaf children, which could mean children with mild to profound hearing loss, learn how to talk? Was that phrase true 40 years ago as well? Or should deaf children be best not to be taught on learning how to speak early in their life such as 40 years ago? 30 years ago? 10 years ago? Today???

Look at Deaf Jeff's (aka The Terlinguan blogger) recent video of him talking (although there is no captioning which I'm sure has raised a lot of eyebrows but I give him mega kudos on talking though) about ABC's recent show on discrimination against deaf people, ironically so. He also used his voice in an earlier video back in November 2010 for his hearing family and that's fine as well.  Jeff is an example of that oral success. Just like mine, Tim Riker's, and many others.

Looking back what would have been the consequences of not getting that early opportunity on learning how to speak? Now, remember, it says that deaf children can learn to talk and it says nothing about the inclusion of signing nor does the phrase presume to say (especially today) that signing shouldn't be included, either. Regardless, what are you thinking when you read that bumper sticker?

John Tracy Clinic giant billboard in West Los Angeles

Here's a billboard spotted in West Los Angeles as part of the Public Service Announcement helped put up by generous friends in the outdoor media industry.

Here's a story on how children can learn to speak.  With the help of cochlear implant and JTC Catherine develop her speaking skill quickly. So, yes, children at JTC are speaking clearly. Watching the video there is one clip with a girl who respond in English to a question asked in Spanish. Another one shows a clip of a boy with a British accent whose parents are from Britain. At the John Tracy Clinic the requirement is that parents be involved with their children in their development of speech and listening skills. A skill that starts very early and last a lifetime.

What is John Tracy Clinic expertise in?

There seems to be a bit of a round robin by certain Deaf people in taking pot shots at the John Tracy Clinic program. What some Deaf people don't seem to understand is that the JTC program is very specific in what it can offer and the support they can give to parents of kids from age 0 to 5 years old that were diagnosed with hearing loss. Obviously, if an organization has a specific expertise in what it can offer then that is what they can offer and nothing else. The expertise at John Tracy Clinic is in spoken language which can be used with any other communication approaches. 

John Tracy Clinic offers information and distance courses for families of children with hearing loss ages birth to five. The focus is language development with ideas for learning through child play and family routines. The expertise at John Tracy Clinic is in spoken language which is emphasized in onsite programs such as the Parent/Infant Program and Preschool, as well as via Distance Education for Parents, but many of the techniques can be used in any communication approach. The key is to provide children with early and complete access to communication to help them fully develop their language skills. Development of complex communication skills helps children be ready for school. There are no limits to what children with hearing loss can achieve.

Many techniques used in the JTC spoken language program can be used with other communication choices or options such as Auditory-Verbal, Auditory-oral, Cued Speech, Total Communication, and Formal Sign Language (American Sign Language (ASL) or Sign Language of other countries).  It is obvious that JTC recognizes ASL but that is not their area of expertise. Their area of expertise is spoken language. It has always been like that. They do recognize that there is no one shoe size fits all and that the parents are the ones who make their own informed decision regarding their child with a hearing loss when it comes to communication and language options.

What does JTC offer?

1) Early detection of hearing loss and information on individualized intervention

2) A spoken language learning opportunity for infants and preschoolers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing and their parents

3) Guidance, support and instruction for parents in the special skills necessary tohelp their children learn spoken language

4) Distance education serving parents and families throughout the world

5) Over 60 years of experience in teacher and professional education

Again, John Tracy Clinic main area of expertise is and has always been in the spoken language area. Without their help I would not be who I am today as seen in my video dedication to JTC. May they continue for many more decades.

Pick the Pepsi Challenge to help Deaf Kids!

Here's your chance to vote in the 2010 Pepsi Challenge and vote for your favorite idea on who could could use a $250,000 grant. Voting ends on December 31, 2010. So, go ahead and vote! And maybe a chance to help out 175 deaf kids!




Here are the goals should John Tracy Clinic get the award:

* Provide significant funding for one year of preschool services
* Teach parents how to advocate for their deaf child's future
* Help 175 deaf children learn spoken language

A video: The John Tracy Clinic story...the beginning

Here's a captioned video about how the John Tracy Clinic began. The knowledge about deafness and technology were so much further behind when compared to today. Yet the idea and concept that a deaf or hard of hearing child can learn to speak, especially with an aid of a hearing aid or cochlear implant nowadays, are still the same.  Since I am unable to embed that video on my blog because it currently disabled but you can certainly go over to YouTube and watch the black and white video story on how it all began.

You can also visit my video tribute to the John Tracy Clinic. My mother participated via the John Tracy Clinic correspondence course that helped set the path for me on developing my oral and auditory skills, and well as my English language development. The whole idea is that, yes, deaf and hard of hearing children can learn to talk. Remember the old quote, "Deaf people can do anything"? This includes learning how to talk as well.

My mother....My hero.

Last night I was going through my garage and found what I was looking for. My stuff when I was just a toddler up to a young boy with pictures, report cards, John Tracy Clinic letters, my stories I've written while in the 3rd and 4th grade, my old hearing aids with one of it a box (chest) hearing aid, a couple of pro-oral bumper stickers, Birney School information, drawings, a Washington state champion soccer patch in 1975 the team I was on, a wrestling letter congratulating my wins, and so on. Lot of it deaf related stuff along with my history of my childhood that I am collecting for later research and organization.

I sat down and read a few of the several John Tracy Clinic letters written to my mother (and father) when she took up John Tracy Clinic's correspondence kit when I was around two years old which helped me on my way to a better oral-aural development only after when I received my hearing aid. Those letters were very positive, encouraging and informative. In fact, my mother was so inspired, encouraged, and determined to help me where I've improved so much that I was placed at Birney School's oral program before age 3. And by grade 2 in a school report card from Birney School saying I was ready for public school (with a deaf teacher for supplemental support) for the 3rd grade. And then finally I was placed in a regular public school in the 4th grade and stayed in the public school system until I graduated at age 18.

You would think that I had a miserable time as a deaf/hh boy growing up with a box hearing aid but I didn't. I had fun, enjoyed my hearing aid and the sound I was able to pick up, and had both deaf and hearing friends. In fact, I drew a picture when I was 8 showing me and my friends playing on playground set. You can see in the drawing I included my box hearing aid with me smiling while swinging on a swing and with the sun smiling in the background and wind blowing while kids wore long stocking caps (which means it must've been around fall/winter time when I drew that). All good times with a few rough spots in between but that picture epitomizes my childhood time.

My mother is my hero. She's the one who rescued me, loved me and nurtured me into who I am today. I love my mother. And she knows that but I want to say that here for all to see.  Everyday is Mother's Day to me because what I do today was because of her love and dedication.

In the coming days and weeks here I will reveal letters, pictures, my personal stories and a bit of history about myself in my blog as a deaf/hh person growing up learning how to speak while I had auditory training at the same time with my hearing aid. Because oralism, when done right, does work. And to ensure its success, early intervention is the key.

A video tribute to John Tracy Clinic

Here's a special video thanks to the John Tracy Clinic where I am a successful product of their oral-auditory program.  This a candid and frank video about my background in my oralism upbringing which made me for who I am today. Without it I wouldn't be where I am today.