From: SNELLING@TCUCVMS.BITNET (Richard Snelling)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Subject: My Bio & other stuff
Date: 5 Nov 92 23:14:00 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Original_To:  BITNET%"DEAF-L@SIUCVMB"

My apologies for the length of this.

My name is Richard Snelling. I am married and live in Burleson, Texas, a suburb
of Fort Worth. I am a Programmer/Analyst on the staff of Texas Christian
University. I have bachelor degrees in Music (Organ Performance & Church Music)
and in Accounting. I am hearing and a new user of E-mail.

I am interested in DEAF-L because my son (11 years old) is hard of hearing. He
was born with a moderate to severe hearing loss. He is aided, oral, and
main-streamed in school where he uses an auditory trainer. He's a great kid and
has a good self image!

For the benefit of other parents and others: We confirmed my son's hearing loss
when he was 18 months old and got aids on him one month later. He was
immediately put into home-bound therapy provided by the public school system
until he was 3. From that time until he was 8, he received hearing therapy at
the Miller Speech & Hearing Clinic at T.C.U. He has not needed therapy since.

Advice to parents: Always give your child with the same love, respect, and
discipiline as if he/she was a normal hearing child. Don't deny or hide your
child's hearing problem. Be open and encourage questions from all who are
curious (children and adults). Make it as positive as possible! (My son still
looks as the photos of him getting his first earmolds and aids. From pre-school
through the fourth grade he has gladly demonstrated to his classes how earmolds
are made--a rare sight for hearing people of any age.) Also, physicians are an
unreliable source for information when it comes to services and testing for the
hearing impaired.

We did not continue using the public school program because in spite of what
they said, their program was really designed only for profoundly deaf students.
Also, using only hearing test results, the evaluation board told us what we
could _NOT_ expect from our child. We were told that if we wanted him to
achieve more than their expectations, then we were not accepting his deafness.
They were proud of their program in which deaf children graduated from high
school with only a fourth grade level education! For the record, we did not
insist that he only be oral, but we wanted to give him a realistic chance. That
definately paid off. He is mainstreamed in a private school where the academic
level is about a grade level ahead of the public schools here. The private
school teachers and administrators here are much more accepting and considerate
of my son's hearing needs. In public schools here, hearing impaired children
are in the same schools, but often not in the same classes, with hearing
children. In some public schools in this area hearing impaired children are put
into the same special education classes as children who have emotional or
discipline problems!

I would like more info on:
        1) What is available for an alarm clock for the deaf, and where do you
get it?
        2) Are there any really good hearing aids? Besides quality of sound, I
would like to get some behind-the-ear aids for him that are durable,
dependable, and moisture resistant.
        3) Has anyone out there used the digital aids? Results?
        4) What does  :*) and  :)  and *-) , etc. mean?????


After being on DEAF-L for several weeks, I have these opinions on various
topics:

--RESUMES: A resume is like an ad, its function is to make an employer
interested in you. No employer advertises the negative side of a job offer.
Likewise, never include your negative attributes in your resume.

--BEETHOVEN: His deafness occurred late in his career after he had experienced
a lifetime immersed in music. In response to a comment I read on DEAF-L: while
musical compositions can be analyzed for form and harmonic progressions, no
great composer strictly followed the traditional "rules" or formulas. Beethoven
in his day was a radical because of the new ways he broke the rules. He could
not have created his harmonically and structurally complex works if he had been
deaf from birth and had never experienced music. Extremely few *hearing* people
in history have been able to achieve Beethoven's ability. Like many musicians,
Beethoven could create, design, and hear music in his head, not because of his
deafness, but because of his experiences and talent. As a hearing persion, in a
similar way I "hear" in my head the words that I read.

--ON HEARING AID SOUND LIMITATIONS: Hearing aids are designed to amplify some
frequencies more than others. Our audiologist told us, that higher frequencies
are usually amplified more than lower ones to make speech easier to understand.
(Example: the "s" sound is relatively soft and has a very high frequency, and
must be amplified more to heard.)  Additionally, many people with hearing
losses often have a loss of higher frequencies that hearing aids try to
compensate for. My son does not have a significant frequency loss, but his
hearing aids, which have frequency range adjustments, enable him to understand
speech better when the high frequencies are amplified more. I have worn his
hearing aids, and there is definately an absence of low frequencies coming
through them. A good audiologist can give you advice and information about the
proper hearing aid for your hearing loss.

Our audiologist assured us 10 years ago that hearing aids have delimiters on
them to prevent them from being excessively loud and thereby causing more
hearing loss. It was discovered that the loudness of the aids did sometimes
cause damage to hearing, and I think that there is a federal law requiring
sound delimiters on aids now.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard Snelling                                 Texas Christian University |
| Programmer/Analyst                                     Information Services |
| Bitnet: SNELLING@TCUCVMS                                    P. O. Box 32885 |
| Internet: SNELLING@GAMMA.IS.TCU.EDU                 Fort Worth, Texas 76129 |
| FAX: (817) 921-7110                         Phone: (817) 921-7682 Ext. 6845 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU