Jemima:
Profound Deafness
[Under development
6 February 2005]
For over a year we had
little doubt that Jemima could hear well, or at least adequately. It came as a
shock, therefore, to discover that she is profoundly deaf. She had been so
alert that she had been responding to other environmental cues to gather
information: she senses changes of light in a room, and the vibration of
floorboards. Jemima can hear nothing audible other than extremely loud sounds,
except when she wears powerful hearing aids. She has been to a ceilidh, which she enjoyed immensely,
sitting on my shoulders as I carefully manoeuvred myself around the room in
time with the music. She could feel the music physically, and could see what
other people were doing in time with the pulsating beat. When our neighbours
are away, it is possible to turn up the volume on the hi-fi to a level Jemima
can hear with her hearing aids, and we dance round the floor together to the
music of Genesis, Phil Collins or Steeleye Span at 120db.
Now thirteen years old, Jemima
loves watching, and listening to, Top of the Pops on BBC television. Again, the volume has to be up loud. Her favourite pop
group was S-Club Seven, but I am unsure which groups
she now likes. (I enjoyed the Beatles when I was four and five years old, but
then lost interest in pop music until I was thirteen or fourteen.)
A particular drawback for her of her deafness is
that at night, when she cannot wear her hearing aids, she feels more completely
cut off, and consequently frightened. Like many children, including myself when
I was her age, she is afraid of the dark, fearing what might be lurking in the
shadows or in the wardrobe. I guess that not being able to hear means that she
feels less confident that everything is okay.
As a result of her deafness, Jemima attends
There is much political talk about placing
children with special educational needs in mainstream schools. Recently, the
governors of her school announced that the school would have to close in July
2005 because local education authorities were no longer placing children with
disabilities at Northern Counties, but mainstreaming them instead. Were Jemima
to be placed in a mainstream school without a
full-time carer, and without the special facilities available at Northern
Counties, she would undoubtedly lose considerably. The purpose of any such move
would be to make cost savings, not to benefit Jemima. Indeed, Princess Anne
(daughter to the British queen) officially opened (
