Now I want to talk about how you stay in contact with other DHH/hearing professionals, especially in this dismal economy.

It is absolutely imperative that all DHH workers, including hearies who work with DHH clients, get into some kind of a professional online network system. The reason why I say “imperative” is in this way, you can see and know all your professional contacts in one spot. It helps to avoid misunderstandings and gives you a clear view of who does what. For DHH people it’s a godsend to know how to exactly spell their names and what exactly their work titles are, and photos to figure out who is who.

The one most people know is called LinkedIn. It is similar to Facebook, except it is to nurture your professional working life. In it, you can display your resume, your recommendations, your photos, do emails, set up badges, contacts with your colleagues, and so forth.

Probably the best thing about it is that you’re able to contact professionals that you knew in the past, and then they moved on to other jobs, and then you lost contact. All you have to do is type in their name, and if they have signed on, you will see the person you’re looking for. If you want to get in contact with this person, you’ll need to send an email, asking for permission.

I am sure there are other similar professional networking online sites, and I would not be surprised if there’s a DHH one soon. Send in your comments and info if you know of any others.

You can access LinkedIn at:  www.linkedin.com

Now, somone in Michigan has contacted me regarding giving an interview about the ages-old controversy between oralism and manualism. In other words, speaking and lipreading versus using American sign language.

This person told me I had written a blog article stating that I found oralism very limiting. I emailed this person back and told her I had never written such an article, and that I don’t own that blog, where ever it is. So now there’s an investigation going on, as I don’t want my name attached to an article that I never wrote.

For the record, I support both oralism and American sign language. There are good things and bad things about each type of communication, as it is with anything. But, there’s mostly good things about each form of communication.

Actually, to tell you the truth, I support written English the most! That is my native form of communication.

There will always be people who take potshots at oralism, and there will always be those who look down on sign language. Unfortunately, this is a form of audism, which I had discussed in an earlier posting. I will revisit this subject in the near future.

Since I’m trained as a counselor, I have to tell you I don’t take sides. I have to accept each person’s strong feelings about the best form of communication for DHH people. In my opinion, this controversy will never die down, and perhaps it’s for the best. If anything, it makes a DHH person stop and think about what’s the best communication method. For me, it’s writing. (See my other blog at: www.ruthpealer.wordpress.com)

But I can tell you that YOU, the DHH person, have the right to decide how to communicate with someone. No one can force it on you, not even your parents or spouse, or children. 

My DHH book proposal is coming along, and hopefully it will be ready to send out in the spring. If you have any comments or questions regarding the DHH book, feel free to email it to me at: ruth_6572@hotmail.com.

In case you didn’t see the show, I can give a short summary about it. It was about two deaf parents, who had several HEARING children. The children are known otherwise as CODA, children of deaf adults. There really aren’t that many CODAs. My husband is a CODA.

Anyway, the premise Jo Frost makes is that the CODAs need to know sign to communciate with their parents. Furthermore, the oldest daughter had become the surrogate mother, since she knew sign and could talk to the younger siblings and then interpret to the parents. Since the younger siblings did not know sign, they lost respect and interest, and so the parents were really unable to discipline them.

I thought Jo Frost did a great job working with this family. Good communication is so important in establishing discipline and boundaries within families. 

The only request I made of my two daughters was to answer the phone for me. I wanted them to learn how to deal with people on the phone (99% of the calls were for them anyway), and how to dial, and so forth. 

It’s interesting to see how deaf parents deal with hearing children, as opposed to hearing parents dealing with deaf children.

I won’t be covering this one in too much detail. Basically, possessing the the naturalistic intelligence ability means someone has the ability to understand the natural world. This person would be comfortable living and/or working out in natural areas.

You have a sort of innate ability to understand what is going in the natural world. You would like working in gardens, understanding what plants need to grow well, or perhaps be very comfortable working to save an endangered river.

The naturalistic ability can be good for a DHH person to have, because that person wouldn’t have to worry about verbal communication with other human beings. This type of intelligence mode would work well for those interested in gardening, or working as a park ranger, or perhaps doing plant or biological studies in a rainforest. It could also mean that person would be comfortable working with animals in a natural habitat. So that DHH person could work as a wildlife assistant or perhaps be an animal vet.

In closing out the multiple intelligences theory, let me say here there is controversy about this theory. However I feel this MI probably reflects better that anything else the importance of understanding/exploiting a DHH person’s many multiple abilities, to compensate for the loss of hearing and lower abilities to speak well.

I hope to cover the multiple intelligences theory in a future book, as it applies to DHH culture.

If you want to know more about the multiple intelligences theory that Professor Gardner of Harvard University proposed, just type in “multiple intelligences” in your browser and there will be many many sites devoted to this subject.

In the coming postings, I will discuss other subjects about the DHH world. I should tell you I am working on a book proposal for a DHH book, so I will post information about it from time to time.

For more information about me, please visit my website at http://www.ruthpealer.com. To see my other blog about being positive as a writer or being positive in general, please visit my other blog at: http://ruthpealer.wordpress.com

As always, I am available for general questions about DHH life via email at: ruth_6572@hotmail.com.

I hope to start posting regular DHH comments shortly. There’s to be a book proposal done about it soon. Will give more details later.

I have posted a picture of Twin Falls tumbling down, on the way to Twin Lakes at Mammoth. I hope to post more wonderful photos later on.

Someone asked me for an explanation of the multiple intelligences theory. I realized I hadn’t gotten to explaining all of them in this blog, so I have to go back and review them and write it all up. It will be part of my DHH book.

Several other people have asked me to attend the local Hearing Loss Association chapter meetings, and so this fall I will.

Husband and I were asked to meet long time DHH friends in Las Vegas in October. So we’re considering going. As I have said in the past, it is important to keep in touch with those who have DHH lives. That way you never feel alone.

I am also starting a DHH book proposal shortly. I will keep you posted on that.

Please see my other blog at: www.ruthpealer.wordpress.com for more info on what is happening with me.

Let’s all plan on having a great fall season!

August is a pretty busy month for me. I have plenty of things to do, maybe too much. 

Enjoy August, it’s going by fast. 

I will return after Labor Day weekend.

Check back then.

For example, my husband and I belong to an informal DHH social group that gets together from time to time in various homes.

There are also formal DHH groups that I should mention, and I will mention them in future posts.

One such group is known as the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), which was known in the past as the Self-Help For the Hard of Hearing (SHHH).

In the past, my husband and I were active members of many DHH groups, but when we became parents 22 years ago, we were forced to take a hiatus from being in such groups. 

In the future, we’ll probably re-join DHH groups once again.

I also want to wrap up the multiple intelligences discussion and a few other points. I expect to write more in this blog when the fall season starts. I also want to give out some other DHH blog sites that I consider worthy to visit.

But for now, you can visit the HLAA website at: www.hearingloss.org or www.shhh.org

We are still patiently waiting to hear about his job status as well. They keep saying “Anytime!” His boss is becoming irritated with the molasses slow delivery of information we all want to know.

In the coming months, I will start working on the DHH book that everyone wants.

I also hope to cover the grieving process of the loss of hearing and about DHH captioning for mass media. I’m hearing reports now that you can view captioned movies on the iPhone, but I have yet to confirm that.

By the way, older daughter has told me she has found an apartment in San Diego. Great. We parents hope to see it the first weekend in August. And then after that, she’ll be busy moving her stuff down there. I will give her some stuff from our garage.

Once all these things happen, things should swing back to normal, and I can write more about DHH issues, and inspiration for all writers and friends.

I just cannot wait for everything to be resolved, and things to get back to normal this fall!

So stay tuned, folks. I appreciate your patience.

Today, I’m going to talk about the newest one, called Naturalistic. I feel that for DHH people, this is an important intelligence mode that you should be looking for, in helping a DHH child.

Basically, Naturalistic means you have the ability to understand and interact in the natural world. You are able to sense what is happening out there. Perhaps you know there’s a dangerous predator coming before you see it. Or you understand the ability of certain flowers and what they can do. (Some flowers can tell you the time. They open and close only at certain times of the day.)

A person with naturalistic ability can go into a garden and understand the needs of certain plants. Perhaps a naturalistic person can go into a dense forest and never be lost. They are able to sense what is going on naturally, or that which cannot be seen, in the natural world.

For many years, I have noted that DHH people are also able to sense the supernatural, or are able to sense spirituality and nature better than regular people do.

For example, I know there’s a bird’s nest that is used year after year on the roof of my house. I doubt anyone or my family knows it’s there. I naturally track the sun everyday, and notice birds and animals easily before most people do. I note the wind and the clouds and the amount of water we have in our area. I observe how my cacti are doing.

For most DHH people, I think this is an extremely important intelligence to have in great abundance. For many, it can help protect their lives.

You see, I woke up suddenly one dark night, sensing something terribly wrong in the natural world. I did not have my glasses on, or my hearing aid. I did not feel, see or hear anything. I just sensed, because I know I cannot hear.

Ten minutes later the Northridge Earthquake struck the greater L.A. area. I was able to escape a large dresser falling on me.

So, if you sense or see, that your DHH child has such ability, you should do all you can to develop it. Such an intelligence can protect that DHH child in natural surroundings for life.

I will talk more about this tomorrow. Email me at: ruth_6572@hotmail.com if you have any questions.