Lessons Taught By The Unexpected Person

Hi Everyone,

I want to talk about the unexpected lessons we learn in life. I know everyone has been taught something amazing by someone who you would have never expected it from. My lesson came from a 13 year old deaf girl with Down Syndrome. For confidentiality reasons I cannot say her name but we will call her Erin for the purpose of this story.

I first met Erin in July. I was working with a young man at a summer camp that she was attending as well. From observing her I knew she was having a hard time communicating and as a result she was acting out. Erin would run away from the camp staff, take out her hearing aids, hit people, and generally displayed defiant behaviour. I wasn’t working with her so I only had very slight exposure to her but I used that to try to talking with her support worker about improving Erin’s situation. Her worker was very set in her ways but did take some of my advice, but Erin showed no improvement in her behaviour.

I was only at that camp for two weeks before moving on to another setting with another client. I forgot about Erin until I received an email from a coordinator of mine from work. The coordinator emailed me to see if I would be interested in providing support for a young deaf woman with Down Syndrome. I talked with the coordinator briefly before agreeing to meet with the family. When I found out the young woman was Erin I was intrigued.

A few weeks later I went to meet with Erin’s mother to discuss what kind of support she was looking for. Her mother explained that she wanted tutoring support as well as language development. The goal was to get Erin signing and able to communicate. I jumped at the opportunity and agreed to work with Erin without hesitation. I knew she wasn’t the girl I saw at that camp and I couldn’t wait to find out who she actually was.

The following Thursday I started with working with her. I am not going to lie, it was a challenge at first. Erin put me through my paces to see what I was capable of. She threw every test that she had at me but quickly she learned that she couldn’t win. Very soon after that I saw the real Erin. She is the sweetest girl I have ever met and she had thirst to communicate.

I started signing with her trying to build up her vocabulary. We would sit at a desk and go over books and sign different letters and different words. We would watch T.V. and I would talk to her about the show and use Sign to do it. I could see her trying to figure this out. I knew she wanted to.

Her mother was a little protective but slowly I convinced her to let me take Eric places. We started with a trip to a farm. Erin loved every minute of it. We talked about the animals we saw, especially the chickens since those were her favourite. It was on that trip to the farm that I first saw her language skills starting to blossom. I could see her making connections between the signs she was learning and the things we were talking about it. By the end of that day she knew that when I signed “chicken” I was talking about the chicken.

Soon after that I started going to a gymnastics class with her. I wasn’t sure how she would do at the class, or if she would enjoy it. I was also quite unsure of my role in the class, but I knew I would let Erin decide that on her own.

We arrived on the first day about 10 minutes early. We went in and watched some of the class that was happening before hers so she could see what to expect. I introduced myself to the teachers as a support worker and let them meet Erin just before warm up started. When I turned around to introduce Erin she wasn’t there. I looked around the gym and found her sitting with the rest of the kids in her class in the warm-up spot. She blended right into the group and was sitting in a circle with a few other girls. They were all talking and laughing and Erin was laughing along with them.

I stood and watched as the teacher went over and started to lead the warm-up. Erin stood up and followed her peers to the best of her ability. She has some difficulty with her gross motor skills but other than that she looked like part of the group. I knew that she couldn’t hear a thing in the large concrete box of a room she was in but you would never be able to tell.

Warm-up finished and the group split off into smaller sections. I read the teachers lips and waited to see Erin’s name and led her to her group. We started off on the beam and none of us knew how Erin would do. I stood with her in line while she watched the other kids have their turn. When she was up she climbed up onto the beam the same way all of the other kids had. She stood up and gestured for the teachers hand. She grabbed her hand and walked across the beam. She watched the other students intently between her turns and simply did whatever they had.

From there we went to the vault. Erin watched what the other students were doing and noticed that ever student did something different. She ran and got up onto the vault. She stood up and looked to her teacher for instructions on what to do. The teacher gestured a star jump and Erin did a star jump. I was amazed that this was the same girl I had seen at the camp just months earlier. As the weeks progressed I started to understand Erin better and better. We could communicate without any problems and I was in awe her achievements.

However, the real lesson came from Erin. Watching her with her peers at gymnastics amazed me. With her limited language skills she had managed to achieve something I have never been able to do. She could blend in with her hearing peers and make it seem like the most natural thing in the world. Watching Erin and how she communicates has taught me more about being a Deaf person than anyone else ever has. She has shown me how to overcome social barriers with an ease that I have never seen before.

Erin has taught me that regardless of hearing status, language skills, and another difference you can still overcome every barrier. More than that, she has motivated me to try. Now, in situations when I would normally give up, I stick around to see what might happen. Erin has inspired me more than I ever thought anyone could. I owe a lot to her right now, especially my drive to find Deaf access at my University.

Jenny