Kat Reading

Kat Reading

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

"Why do you have that?"

Today at (Mc)"Donald's" we had a great experience. Miss Kat was playing and she would ask the other girls "Want to play with me?". It was adorable. (And they all did want to play with her, how could you not?). But, anyway, she had been playing with a little girl for about a half an hour when she ran over to me and said "She wants to know why I have this" and pointed to her implants. So, I asked her, "Why do you have implants? What do they do?" She responded "When it's off, I can't hear, but when it's on, I can hear you." So, I told her, "Go tell her that!", and she did! I saw the little girl's mom smile as Miss Kat clearly explained exactly what she was wondering too.

I was so proud to hear Miss Kat explain her implants and (a tiny bit) her deafness. She was proud and matter of fact, and everything I could have hoped for.

This reminded me of something I saw the other day at school when I was picking her up. She was in gym and it was noisy. They were playing basketball, but then the teacher wanted to switch games. She started giving new instructions and Miss Kat was on the other side of the gym. I watched as Miss Kat walked over to the teacher and naturally positioned herself so she could hear and understand! WOW! She knew what she needed and (without prompting, instruction or anything else) made sure her needs were met! Self advocacy all the way!

I have noticed that Miss Kat REFUSES to not understand. She is unwilling to miss out. If she doesn't hear you, she asks for a repeat. If she doesn't understand, she tells you. If she isn't following a story (usually a movie), she will ask for clarification. I couldn't be more pleased about it! I never want her to accept missing out. She deserves to understand, and she knows it!

4 comments:

Dianrez said...

That's confidence, something every Deaf person needs in life as they meet all sorts of people with all sorts of understanding. Miss Kat will be fine! Companion attributes are compassion and advocacy, and that makes people around her fine, too.

Anonymous said...

congrats on raising such an independent, assertive girl!

Karen Putz said...

Way to go, Miss Kat! You're growing up into an assertive, confident girl! :)

camille said...

I love it!
I remember when we were at JTC and went to Disneyland, a girl next to us on the monorail asked Ellie what her hearing aids were. She said. "They're my hearing aids, silly. They help me hear." She was so matter-of-fact, I loved it.
So happy to read such a great story about Kat! She has come so far in the last 18 months.