Speech/Hearing Loss Simulation

In this past Monday's class we spent some time simulating both speech and hearing loss. Many people are afflicted with this type of disability and I will admit that I have an easier time getting around in the wheelchair than I did trying to communicate with my hands. I have always thought learning sign language would be a great thing to do. I am sure I am not alone in the fact that, although I have had the intentions of learning, I still have not made the actual effort.

We did not spend time learning sign language (other than the motion for "Simon says"), but instead tried several activities to show just how difficult the task was. We all now how important communication is in our everyday lives. When you are reliant on verbal communication you learn very quickly how hard it is when you have that taken away. In our first task we played a great game of "Simon says". The class was split into two groups of five with one group being able to hear, but not speak, and the other able to speak, but not hear. Initially we did not know the sign for "Simon says" which made for some interesting hand gestures to simulate that phrase. Everyone took turns going through different motions and after a short amount of time we all had a pretty good handle on things. Then the rules changed to wear everyone was neither able to hear or speak and one person was giving the directions while the rest of the class followed along. It made it very clear to us that proper signing would be imperative to effective communication.

Next was the most competitive classroom game of baseball you will probably ever find. Of course no actual baseballs or bats were used for safety reasons. Being adaptive athletics professionals we found the next best things, a leg from a table and a fuzzy yarn ball. Again we were put in two groups of five and each team had someone (me for my group) to explain the game to the rest of the team (we pretended no one had ever played baseball before). Even though we were able to speak the directions we were to use body/hand signals to enhance the instructions. I hate to admit that my team lost on a three run home run past our defenders and over the desks, but plenty of fun was had by all.

We finished off our time with a basic but fun game of tic tac toe. Again, we pretended our partner had never played before and explained the rules and object of the game. Most of the instructions were given by writing and going through several tic tac toe scenarios to cover all aspects of the game. You would not think something so simple as a game of X's and O's would present difficulties, but it did. Half of the battle is trying to pretend you do not know how to play the game in the first place. Each partner took turns explaining and playing a couple of games before we divided into two groups again for a game of big board tic tac toe. It turned into a game of who could point and grunt the best so the team leader knew where to make the mark. Technically the grunting should not have helped, but I think by that time we forgot that we were not suppose to be able to hear either.

Even though we spend a limited amount of time on these simulations, I still leave with a greater appreciation for what people have to go through with their disabilities. I try to never take for granted what I have, but you never realize how hard some things are to do until you try them for a bit. It is only then that you can think of ways to improve the experiences for someone with disabilities. This experience might just be the thing to finally get me around to learning sign language. You never know when that ability could come in handy and make a big difference in someone's experience.

In the next couple of days I will finish summing up my time in the wheelchair. The last few days have been pretty uneventful and tomorrow is the last day with my new friend. Then again later in the week I will have another post about whatever fun we end up doing in tomorrow night's class.