Hello lovely Readers,

I hope you’re well!

When I was at school, I didn’t like English very much. The standard that you were expected to write at was to me as a deaf person – virtually impossible. If you were writing at A* standard, you’d be at the top of Oxford and Cambridge University’s list.

Myself however, being born profoundly deaf but not diagnosed until 9 months old meant I missed out on the first 9 crucial months of language development.

Hearing babies are exposed to sound as soon as they are born so they pick it up straight away. Deaf babies take almost twice as long.

When I got my first hearing aids at 10 months old, it was the first time I heard these ‘sounds’ and it took another couple of years before I said my first word – at the time when my hearing peers would be babbling away.

Growing up, my family always used simple English around me as I rely on lipreading and speech to communicate. There was no point using complex words, as lipreading is 30% guesswork anyway so by using similar, normal words that I knew – it made it easier to understand.

The rest of the story… you’ll have to read the blog to find out!

‘How I became a writer with hearing loss’

Enjoy reading,

Love E x