Deaf Like Me

Louise works with Lynn on her hearing every day. One day, at a grocery store, a man tries to talk to Lynn and jokes with her when she does not respond. Louise is too embarrassed to tell him that Lynn is deaf. After two months, Lynn starts to produce a few sounds, but she does not like to wear the auditory trainer for longer than 15 minutes at a time. Tom and Louise go to the Chicago Hearing Society to view a film about the causes of deafness. After the film, a special education teacher answers audience questions. She emphasizes the importance of teaching deaf children lip reading and describes speech as “the birthright of every child” (78). She urges parents to give their deaf children an oral education, confirming what Tom and Louise have already been told. As she wraps up her talk, she warns parents not to believe people who say that lip reading is too difficult. If a deaf child fails to learn to lip read, it is because the parents “did not work with determination to provide a pure oral environment for their child” (80). She reiterates the warning that parents should not use gestures with their deaf children, lest their children begin to rely on gestures alone. 

A woman asks why her eight-year-old deaf granddaughter, who can lip read fairly well, still cannot talk. The teacher reminds the audience that every child is different, and it is difficult to predict when an individual child will start talking. Another parent brings up the John Tracy correspondence course and complains that it has not helped his son, who has grown frustrated, violent, and unable to communicate. He wants a school for deaf children where he can send his son during the week. The teacher insists that it is the parents’ job to be persistent and to help their son learn to talk. Tom and Louise feel that they do not need to worry about Lynn, who is still very young and has already made some progress. Tom vows to never give up helping Lynn learn to talk. A few weeks later, the first installment of the John Tracy correspondence course arrives in the mail.

Tom and Louise start teaching Lynn from the correspondence course. They are encouraged by stories of deaf people who learned to adapt to the hearing world. Most of the exercises have Lynn matching colors and objects. The course says that everything deaf children learn must be consciously taught. Tom thinks about how different this is from Bruce, a hearing child, who appeared to learn things “spontaneously” when he was Lynn’s age. Tom and Louise try to watch the news on TV with the volume turned off, to see if they can tell what the newsreader is saying. They find it quite difficult and think that for Lynn, it must be even harder, because she does not already speak English. Tom hopes that lip reading is easier for Lynn than it is for him because it is all she has ever known. 

Tom and Louise hire Jill Corey, a tutor who has previously worked with deaf children, to help Lynn with speech and lip reading. Jill tries to get Lynn to focus on recognizing just one word: “ball.” Despite her efforts, Lynn struggles to recognize the word without situational context. Tom and Louise worry about what will happen to Lynn when she starts school. Jill assures them that Lynn is smart and will eventually learn to talk. They take a break from the correspondence course during a holiday. At a cemetery where his ancestors are buried, Tom imagines how much more difficult it must have been to educate deaf people in past centuries. He is glad that Lynn was born in the 20th century.

Lynn continues to work with Jill and eventually starts to recognize the word “ball” consistently. However, she has difficulty with recognizing the difference between “ball” and “fall,” which look similar when lip reading. Tom and Louise hope that a hearing aid will help Lynn recognize words better and eventually speak. Tom reads the Volta Review, a journal published by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf. He is excited to learn about schools for deaf children and about Gallaudet University, a college that teaches deaf students. Most of all, Tom is glad to feel that he, Louise, and Lynn are not alone. 

When Lynn’s hearing aid arrives, she finds it painful to wear and still cannot hear her parents. Tom and Louise remain optimistic, believing that Lynn will have to learn to hear with the aids. Tom uses Lynn’s ball to demonstrate a word that she knows and is mystified when Lynn mouths the word but still cannot make a sound. After hearing a demonstration of what hearing aids sound like to deaf people, Tom and Louise realize that Lynn will never hear like them, even with her hearing aids. They still hope that the hearing aids will allow her to access some of her residual hearing and help her learn to speak. They are hopeful when they hear about a woman called Linda who was profoundly deaf from birth but still learned to speak and attended college. 

The Spradleys have dinner with a friend, Mrs. Brandt. She recalls a girl from her childhood, Beth, who was profoundly deaf. Beth communicated in gestures that the other children only sometimes understood. Mrs. Brandt recalls how sad and lonely Beth was. Tom is moved by the story and hopes that Lynn will not be like Beth; someday, he hopes, she will learn to speak.

The family moves to Oklahoma. Their new neighborhood has a duck pond that Lynn loves to visit. She is starting to want more freedom and independence, which is difficult when her parents are unable to communicate rules or boundaries. One day, Lynn goes missing. Her parents search desperately for her and eventually find her at the duck pond. They try to explain to her that she is not allowed to go to the pond alone, but they know that she does not understand. They have to watch her closely whenever she is outside. 

A few days later, Lynn falls and hits her head. Tom and Louise take her to the hospital for stitches and wish that they could explain to Lynn what is happening. For nights after her injury, Lynn cannot sleep; she wakes crying every hour. It is hard for Tom and Louise to comfort her in the dark when she cannot see them. Eventually, Lynn starts wearing her hearing aids more. She still becomes frustrated when people cannot play with her, and Tom is similarly frustrated that he cannot communicate with her when she interrupts his work. One day, Tom and Louise are delighted to see that Bruce has taught Lynn to lip read four more words: car, bird, hat, and shoe. Lynn begins to recognize more words and progresses in her correspondence course. Tom and Louise are proud of her progress and optimistic that she will start talking soon.