Not all kids are born with their disabilities. As in the case of an accident a child may be left with a physical disability, sight or hearing loss, or a head injury. I was one of the kids who was left with a disability from an illness.

To tell you my story, I spent my early childhood on a farm in the South - in fact on the most northern southern plantation as it was written about in a Baltimore newspaper.

My contact with other kids was mostly limited to my 2 siblings and the 3 children of my mother's friend. The whole gang of us went shopping on Friday mornings to the A&P, then went back to my mother's friend's house where we spent the afternoon before my mom took us home in time to fix dinner.

So, in those times kids started in the public schools in 1st grade - no kindergarten available yet. I began mixing with the school kids at age 5 and that first year came down with both the red measles and chicken pox, then secondary ear infections that left me deaf for a month. I was treated with shots of penicillin every other day for the ear infections.

When I made it back to school it was assumed I was hearing fully again. But I didn't find out till in my early 40s that I had a 30 decibel hearing loss. The doctor told me I had been reading lips all those years as my hearing had gradually returned to that level.

You might wonder how a student with a hearing loss could go undetected all the way through school. Well, what I did is compensate by sitting front row center in the classrooms and paying very close attention to what I could see.

I became what I now call a visual and kinesthetic learner. But it is hard to know if those were my natural ways of learning as I love to listen to classical music and read.

One of my early problems after the hearing loss was trying to learn phonics. I was almost retained in 1st grade for not catching on. I learned by memorizing the whole word, which actually was a good coping strategy - I won the 5th grade spelling bee. And I excelled in sciences where I memorized graphs, drawings and charts - all visual learning.

With the kinesthetic approach being much easier for me than listening to verbal directions I also excelled in dance, later becoming a Dance Specialist - one of the loves of my life. And all the while I did not know I had a hearing disability.

The point is, when a child goes through a change like an accident or sickness it would be good for them to have sight and hearing checks afterward and at regular intervals to see if they need adaptations or special help. Some learning disabilities cannot be seen or are acquired during life, and I was a case in point.

Article by Susan Kramer

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