Guest Author - Kelli Deister

Perhaps some of the greatest frustrations for a late deafened adult are those within their own family. The parent that is deafened will have frustrations in talking with their child. The late deafened spouse will have great challenges in communicating with their spouse. The grandparent that yearns to talk with their grandchild will find it difficult to do.

A family whose primary language is English will find themselves facing some pretty tough barriers once deafness comes into the picture. The reason is because the family that had previously communicated through speech, suddenly finds themselves scrambling to use a new method of communication, such as lip reading or sign language.

Both the parent and their child will grow weary of attempting to communicate in such a way that everyone ends up frustrated. I say this because I have experienced it. The grandparent longs to have a discussion with their grandchild, but repeatedly finds themselves having to ask their grandchild to repeat what they said. This is a recipe for frustrations. Lastly, the couple in which one person is late deafened and the other is hearing, will experience tremendous frustrations.

Fortunately, there are American Sign Language classes that one can take in order to communicate with their deafened spouse. There are also classes for the late deafened adult and their hearing children. This doesn’t have to be a frustrating time for anyone in the family.