Whether you're lying out on the beach or suspended in a hammock under your favorite shade tree, lazy summer days just beg for a good book. In between the romance novels, how about a good read that will better inform you on life with hearing loss? This selection of recently released titles offers something for readers of any age.
Plugged In, The Everyday Adventures of Thomas and his BFF Vinton from Oticon Pediatrics, illustrated by Pete McEachen, 61 pp., $5.99 paperback, or complimentary with an Oticon Pediatrics hearing instrument ©2010 Oticon Pediatrics (www.oticonusa.com/children, pediatrics@oticonusa.com)
Thomas, the hero of the new Plugged In comic strip, is a typical fun-loving boy who navigates the ups and downs of middle school with a sense of adventure and a hearing loss. Oticon Pediatrics is bringing Thomas and his humorous antics to children with hearing loss through an exclusive arrangement with Plugged In's creator, cartoonist and toy designer, Pete McEachen.
Diagnosed with a bilateral, moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss at age four, McEachen underwent intensive aural rehabilitation and speech-language therapy and was able to mainstream into the public school system. "Like Thomas, I sometimes mis-heard things with very humorous or embarrassing results," explains McEachen. "And other times, just like Thomas, I turned off my hearing aids for a little 'quietness' in a busy day an advantage that my normal hearing friends could only dream about."
As the parent of a child with hearing loss, McEachen also hopes that his comic strips will inspire kids with hearing loss to "be fun, be bold, and be themselves!" McEachen and his wife, Kimberly, are parents to four-year-old Connor and eight-year-old McKenna, who was born with a bilateral, mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. "I think it is really important that kids understand that wearing hearing aids does not make them any less of a person," he notes. "I want kids that have hearing loss or health and physical challenges to know that they can still be part of the crazy, exciting time of childhood just like Thomas."
Thomas, his BFF (best friend forever) Vinton, and their spunky, upbeat friend Juliette are named after prominent historical figures with hearing loss or deafness: Thomas Edison, Vinton Cerf and Juliette Gordon Low.
Kicking Up Dirt: A True Story of Determination, Deafness and Daring by Ashley Fiolek with Caroline Ryder, ISBN 9780061946479, 208pp., $21.99 hardback, ©2010 HarperCollins
With her contagious grin and indomitable spirit, 19-year-old Ashley Fiolek is already the top female competitor in a macho man's sport: motocross, a form of off-road motorcycle racing that is one of the most competitive and dangerous extreme sports in America. In the two years since she went pro, Fiolek has taken gold at the X-Games and won the American Woman's Motocross Championship twice. In the thrilling 2009 fi nale, Fiolek crashed and snapped her collarbone, but got back on her bike and crossed the fi nish line to take home the championship trophy. Quitting has never been part of Fiolek's vocabulary.
But Fiolek's rise has not come without obstacles. She was born profoundly deaf, which makes competition on the track downright dangerous. Misdiagnosed as mildly retarded by doctors, Fiolek was shy and introverted as a young child, until her grandfather "Grandpa Motorcycle" encouraged her to join the amateur motocross circuit. She began racing at age seven and as her successes grew through hard work and no small number of broken bones, so too did her confi dence. Fiolek and her family never believed her disability should stand in the way of her dreams. Kicking Up Dirt is a remarkable tale of a young woman's courage and determination to rule the road.
Deafness and Hearing Loss - The Essential Guide by Juliet England, ISBN 9781861440785, 128 pp., $15.08 (on Amazon.com), ©2010 Need2Know Books
Losing the ability to hear properly can be a frightening prospect. How will it affect relationships, work or education? What if you are a teenager with hearing problems?
This book helps people of all ages to come to terms with their hearing loss or deafness and to overcome new daily life challenges. The different kinds of hearing loss are explained, along with tips
for coping.
Young people, parents, teachers and professionals can learn what deafness is, why it occurs and what changes can be made to support those who have lost their hearing.
If your child or partner is deaf or hard of hearing, you will find all the information you need in this handy guide, as well as advice if you are the one looking for some help and support.
The Consumer Handbook on Hearing Loss and Noise, Edited by Marshall Chasin, Au.D., ISBN 9780982578506, 224pp., $27.95, ©2010 Auricle Ink Publishers
The two most common causes of hearing loss are noise exposure and presbycusis (hearing loss associated with aging). While being over the age of 75 is not preventable, hearing loss from noise is. In his introduction, Chasin poses the question: "What can be done today to prevent hearing loss tomorrow?"
Written for the consumer who has suffered hearing loss caused by noise, many of the chapters have clear strategies that can be implemented to reduce further negative effects when noise cannot be avoided completely. The handbook also covers information useful to noisy industries, and would be a beneficial educational tool for university courses. Chapter topics include: the basics of hearing loss, noise and measurement; anatomy/physiology; harmful physical/mental effects; recreational
noise; hearing in noise; combination of noise with chemicals in the workplace; tinnitus/hyperacusis; medical consequences; hearing healthcare and the law; standards and protection; and architectural strategies. Excerpts can be viewed at www.hearingproblems.com.
Rhyming Signing: Proper Handshapes with Precise Movements for American Sign Language by Brad Wyant, ISBN 9780981721002, 227pp., $49.95 paperback (8.5 x 11), ©2010 Brad Wyant
Students of American Sign Language (ASL) have a new resource to learn more vocabulary, which may make more sense than any approach they've tried before. This volume, which would make a good supplement to a course on ASL, is organized around handshapes. In the fi rst pages, the reader realizes that, just by knowing how to sign the alphabet and numbers to 25, she also knows how to sign some 200 words that are expressed using these same handshapes. Wyant builds vocabulary by starting with a handshape and then teaching other words that use the same shape with a slight variation or a particular movement. For instance, the letter "b" is made with a fl at, open hand, thumb tucked in the palm. Make that shape with both hands, place the hands on the side of the eyes, palms facing, move hands out and back a few times and you've signed the word "attention." Untuck the thumbs, place palms one on top of the other, raise the top hand and make a semicircular motion above the second hand and you've signed "college." The "rhyme"is made by the similarity in the signs' forms, not by the words in English. A logical way to learn, Rhyming Signing can give your ASL vocabulary a boost in short order. However, as the book does not address the complexities of ASL grammar, used alone it would be about as useful as introductory Spanish when carrying on a conversation with a native of the language.
Teach Me to Love Myself: Memoir of a Pioneering Deaf Therapist by Holly Elliot, ISBN 9781935052081, 128 pp., $12.00 paperback, ©2008 White River Press
This narrative, found after the death of its author, Holly Elliot, perhaps the nation's first professionally trained deaf counselor-therapist, recounts a courageous mid-life career shift as a result of late onset deafness. In her work at the University of California Center on Deafness, Elliot became an advocate of total communication a new concept at the time for rehabilitation therapy for people with hearing loss. The plainspoken account of one woman's journey makes Elliott an unusual role model for women of her time.
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