AVI Review of Not Deaf Enough
Review by Cindy Wallack Scott
for AVI in The Auricle,Winter 1999.
Drawing on her considerable insight and
often personal experience, Patricia Ann Morgan Candlish tells the story
of Reid, her youngest child, who is hard of hearing. The book is packed
with information about anything and everything to do with hearing loss,
in a style that is easy to read and understand. The author tells stories
of day-to-day life with Reid, such as when he swallowed a hearing aid
battery, to losing a hearing aid that was dropped inside a wall from the
upstairs of the house and was recovered only by ripping out the wall in
the dining room downstairs. Intertwined within these tales are
interviews and valuable facts about all aspects of hearing loss, drawn
from knowledgeable and respected sources.
The author writes in the
introduction, “Not much is written about the child who is hard of
hearing, especially those with mild or moderate hearing losses. Children
with these problems can easily fall between the cracks because they are
not profoundly deaf.* However, a child who is hard of
hearing faces life-disrupting problems and meets daily challenges. The
child*s
parents may grieve for the hearing loss and worry about the child*s
future in the same way as the parents of children
with more severe hearing problems.”
Chapters cover many important and
sometimes overlooked subjects including:
“Grief: Oh God! What Do We Do Now?”;
“Day Care, Babysitters and the Outside World: Making Sure Other People
Help Your Child When You Are Not There”; “A Whole New Crowd of
Friends”; “Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking: Buying and Inserting
the Hearing Aid”; “Meeting the Costs”; and “Who am I? Parent or
Teacher?”
Not Deaf Enough leads the reader
from the point of suspecting your child has a hearing loss to
mainstreaming and beyond, exploring every possible stop along the way.
There*s
a section at the end of the book entitled, “Useful Tips and
Thoughts,” where the author repeats valuable information from the text
of the book in an accessible, concise format. Included is material on
early diagnosis; the audiogram; choices in deaf education; teaching
aids; ideas for parents; and dealing with professionals.
Not Deaf Enough is a useful
resource to gain a wide knowledge of hearing impairment and its
ramifications. Told from a mother*s
witty and humorous perspective, it does a good job of putting into
layman*s
terms the impact to a family of having a child with hearing impairment.
The book provides a wealth of ideas on how to cope with the inherent ups
and downs of daily life with success, a modicum of grace, and—most
important—a smile on your face!
Submitted by Lea Watson, Cert. AVL
Northeast Contributing Editor
Author's Note
I was flattered to be so nicely reviewed by AVI. They have a magnificent web
site which has many parent stories entered in. Thank you Lea.
Get my Book
