Adapting to Our New Situation

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

​Earlier in the week, I mentioned that we had received some important news regarding one of my little sisters; she is going to need hearing aids for both ears.

Over the past few days, since we received this news, we have been working to adapt to this situation. My little sister is going back to the audiologist for a follow-up visit next week, and then she needs to go to the ENT the week after that. We have no idea how long it will take for her to get the hearing aids, so in the meantime, we're trying to make the best of the situation for her.

Now that we know about my sister's hearing problem, we have been trying to make sure that we're all talking more loudly to her. While we're not quite yelling for her to hear us, we're definitely talking at a much louder volume than we would normally use. I'm pretty sure that we're all giving ourselves, and each other, a headache and our throats are going to be bothering us soon, but it's definitely helping my little sister, which is fantastic!

We've also been trying to use sign language and incorporate ASL in a way that will make things easier for my little sister. Little signs like "Good Night" or "Thank You" have been helpful for my sister to learn. More importantly, "Stop Yelling" and "Sit Down" have been important for us to use in communicating with her! She may be understanding more with us all speaking at a louder volume, but she's still a goofy six-year-old who would rather run around the house screaming with her twin than sit calmly with us!

Tomorrow, I'm going to hold my first sign language class with the family, and we're going to hold these classes at least once a week to help everyone pick up the basics. I think that our goal is to eventually have everyone on the same page as far as being able to communicate through simple signs. Even when my sister has the hearing aids, there may be times when signing will be more helpful, like when she needs to take them off to go swimming or first thing in the morning before she puts them on.

The great part about this is that both of the twins seem really interesting in learning ASL. They've been having a lot of fun with it and love teaching each other when they learn a new sign. Hopefully it'll continue to be interesting for them, and for everyone else as well!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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